Any Swiss or Singapore personal bank accounts that I can open remotely because of covid-19?

[DaveFischer]

I'm emigrating in december this year and I like the idea of mostly using a new more international personal bank account.

I'm not sure if it's realistic to obtain a personal Swiss bank account. An alternative would be to use N26 and TransferWise, but they seem more likely to lock/freeze your account.

The maximum costs should be:
- € 100 monthly + transaction costs
- € 20.000 deposit if needed.

I'm a digital nomad, mostly residing in South America and SEA. Most money comes from my IT business. My business clients are mostly from Western Europe and the USA.

 

[galadrel]

An alternative would be to use N26 and TransferWise, but they seem more likely to lock/freeze your account.

TransferWise is not bad at all, I wouldn't keep a lot money in it (say over 5k though), a lot of money is relative though. Unlikely to freeze your account unless you do suspicious things -- though this is warranted with any EMI.

 

[dragodrago]

You can try CIM Banque in Switzerland, fees are 90 CHF per quarter with 5000 CHF minimum deposit. Completely online account opening.

 

[Sols]

You can open accounts with Swissquote, Strateo, and Dukascopy in Switzerland as a non-resident, although they are primarily for trading/investments and you are expected to keep third-party wires to an absolute minimum, preferably none at all.

In Singapore, I don't think you have any realistic options. You can try speaking with DBS, OCBC, and Citibank but they usually want at least 100–250,000 SGD for non-residents.

 

[CryptoTrader87]

Swissquote. They also have some debit card offers. Can open online, no minimum deposit required, did a lot of crypto transfers there.

 

[CryptoTrader87]

Also, no minimum deposit required, no monthly fees as far as I know.

 

[AMD]

Dukascopy may be relevant in your case.

how much will you put through the account?

 

[Piano]

Swissquote. They also have some debit card offers. Can open online, no minimum deposit required, did a lot of crypto transfers there.

What crypto exchanges do you use to put money in your swissquote account ?

 

[MountainMan3436]

I would echo the Swiss options. CIM is a traditional bank you can go to visit, do cash transactions, open a safe deposit etc... but all opened online.

If you use Transferwise and move country frequently they will freeze your account at some point. It’s not if, but when.

 

[Piano]

I would echo the Swiss options. CIM is a traditional bank you can go to visit, do cash transactions, open a safe deposit etc... but all opened online.

If you use Transferwise and move country frequently they will freeze your account at some point. It’s not if, but when.

What you mean exactly with “moving country” ?

 

[Sols]

I would echo the Swiss options. CIM is a traditional bank you can go to visit, do cash transactions, open a safe deposit etc... but all opened online.

It's worth keeping in mind that CIM has close to zero customers in Switzerland. They have all the signs of being a normal bank, except practically no one living in Switzerland actually banks with them — personal or corporate. They are expensive and difficult to work with, compared to just walking into UBS or Credit Suisse and walking out with a bank account with relatively low fees.

For day to day personal and business banking, people mainly use UBS, Credit Suisse, cantonal banks, and banks owned by the two main supermarkets.

For wealth management (including by residents), it's UBS, Credit Suisse, and the various wealth management banks.

This isn't meant as a criticism of CIM. I know people use them and are happy.

 

[MountainMan3436]

What you mean exactly with “moving country” ?

Regularly accessing from different IP addresses

 

[nomad999]

Regularly accessing from different IP addresses

Hmm pretty sure its way more complicated than just the ip addresse you use to access their website, the activity on the account is what matters.
I move around in SEA all the time and use a vpn sometime connected in europe and never had any issues.
If they close your account its because of suspicious activity with significant amount of money nothing else, and only to protect themselves.

 

[nomad999]

did a lot of crypto transfers there.

Could you expand a bit on that, are we talking about 5 or 6 digit usd worth of crypto transfers ? What was the experience with proof of fund requests ? Was it from personal wallets or kyc exchange ?

I have yet to make significant crypto transfer with Swissquote and would love to get a bit of a heads up.

 

[boomy]

Does that mean we should not look at Singapore banks at all?

 

[CryptoTrader87]

Could you expand a bit on that, are we talking about 5 or 6 digit usd worth of crypto transfers ? What was the experience with proof of fund requests ? Was it from personal wallets or kyc exchange ?

I have yet to make significant crypto transfer with Swissquote and would love to get a bit of a heads up.

Sorry for late reply. I wired even 60k+ eur at once in swissquote with no problems. I did many 50k eur sepa transfers at once. Maybe wired a few million EUR there so far.

 

[CryptoTrader87]

Sorry for late reply. I wired even 60k+ eur at once in swissquote with no problems. I did many 50k eur sepa transfers at once. Maybe wired a few million EUR there so far.

Oh, the transfers were from Kraken and other exchanges. No request for information at all. I have a personal account at swissquote.

 

[JackAlabama]

Does that mean we should not look at Singapore banks at all?

Singapore is not was it once was. HK is still better and they leave you alone more.

 

[Silvio]

Singapore is not was it once was. HK is still better and they leave you alone more.

What do you mean Singapore is not what it once was?

Of course HK leave you alone but Singapore is much safer banking wise compared to HK (=China).. and for security you pay a price unfortunately.

 

[Rymond]

You can try CIM Banque in Switzerland, fees are 90 CHF per quarter with 5000 CHF minimum deposit. Completely online account opening.

CIM has new internal rules, they accept only companies with at least one employed and company needs to have real office and not only business address. They want to see rental agreetment.