Our valued sponsor

Bank account and money transfering for US LLC

TW, Payoneer and Mercury seem to be the ONLY banking options available for foreign owned LLCs.

However I would worry about that later, if you start your LLC right now it would take you MONTHS to get the EIN because of IRS backlog.

If you are lucky you will get it by summer.

With no EIN you can't start doing business or open bank accounts.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Fred
I will not open a bank account in another country, I am ready to wait until I get EIN. But my question is, should I open Mercury account to receive money and then create Transferwise account so I can add money to Transferwise (from Mercury account) and then after that to finally send it to my home country account (with Transferwise). Is it possible? Is there less fees in total than receiving on Mercury acc and then transfering money from Mercury to my home country? I heard there is some big fees when you are sending internationally from Mercury. And having an acc only on Tranferwise for receiving and transfering is risky as i heard because they can just block your acc suddenly.

So is the way of combining Mercury and Transferwise (and then transfering with TW to my home country) possible and best option?
 
US bank charge high premiums for transfers to foreign banks so you would have to use an intermediary like TW.

As far as I know Mercury and Relay Financial are the only US "banks" (both are not really banks but more like EMIs) to accept foreign owned LLC.
They are also known to reject applications so it's best to apply to both and hope for the best.

Relay or Mercury USD--> TW or Payoneer exchange USD to EUR or your currency --> bank account in your country

Even if you don't exchange currency, for example your home bank account is in USD, it's still advisable to use TW/Payoneer
so you won't get ripped off on bank transfer fees.
 
US bank charge high premiums for transfers to foreign banks so you would have to use an intermediary like TW.

As far as I know Mercury and Relay Financial are the only US "banks" (both are not really banks but more like EMIs) to accept foreign owned LLC.
They are also known to reject applications so it's best to apply to both and hope for the best.

Relay or Mercury USD--> TW or Payoneer exchange USD to EUR or your currency --> bank account in your country

Even if you don't exchange currency, for example your home bank account is in USD, it's still advisable to use TW/Payoneer
so you won't get ripped off on bank transfer fees.
Got it, thank you.
 
Your best bets are Mercury and TransferWise when it comes to remote opening.

Both have there pro's and con's.

Mercury
Pro's: they are same way EMI like TW but act in practice more like a traditional bank so you can transfer higher amounts with less questions but they take longer then TW to open your account and they get more picky from time to time for exapmle nowadays they reject your application instant if you mention that you don't have any business activity related to the US.
Con's: They relay on Evolve Bank & Trust that provide the banking facilities. I have seen horror stories from clients that Mercury lost 6 figure transactions and it took them 2-3 months to locate the money and at the end of the day the refund of the money was issued in name of Currencycloud (some other EMI as well) so it seems they act as intermediary between Evolve Bank & Trust and Currencycloud and can only send you good looking support messages when it comes to failure of the banking partners they use.

TransferWise
Pro's: Account opening is faster and they are more flexible maybe even a little higher risk tolerance and I never heard that TW lost a transfer.
Con's: They starting making problems if you deal with 6 or even 7 figure transfers and can randomly shut you down asking for documents again and again.

Summary
If you deal with high volume transfers go with Mercury instead of TransferWise. If you deal with small volume transfers go with TransferWise.

In your case keep in mind that TransferWise consider Mercury like some kind of EMI and they don't like it if they receive only money from other EMI. You will trigger there AML pretty fast.
TransferWise can be used with 7 figures very good if the incoming transfers coming from real banks.

So take care that you open sooner or later a real bank account for your US LLC to avoid trouble with TransferWise in the long run.
 
  • Like
Reactions: olalavui
Relay Financial are the only US "banks" (both are not really banks but more like EMIs) to accept foreign owned LLC.
bank account in your country

"Relay is unable to support businesses that deal in providing or exchanging cryptocurrency, privately owned ATMs, money services, unlawful internet gambling, or cannabis sales."
do you know if they accept affiliate payments adult related ?
 
"Relay is unable to support businesses that deal in providing or exchanging cryptocurrency, privately owned ATMs, money services, unlawful internet gambling, or cannabis sales."
do you know if they accept affiliate payments adult related ?

Sorry, can't help you. It's best you send them an email and ask. Adult nowdays is pretty much mainstream, they might accept it.
 
Fred, are you sure? They write on their web that you need to open free personal account first then you can add corporate. So this way they know responsible person for the company.
Yes, I'm sure.

You can always give it a try but Paysera compliance is a little bit weird and not really streamlined when it comes to business bank accounts outside the EU.
 

Latest Threads