Norway Bank Account for EU residents?

[wutiswrongxd]

Hi everyone,

Does anybody know if there is any way to get a Norwegian bank account/IBAN?

I will be soon moving to Norway, after this entire corona virus situation is over, and opening a bank account is not possible at any of the banks in Norway for non-residents as I would like to open it beforehand. I have checked the last time I was in Norway. It is only DNB that opens deposit accounts for those who have €100.000, if I remember correctly.

Are there any EMIs that offer this? So far, I am aware of Revolut but you need to change your address to Norway and that is not ideal and Ferratum Bank, which currently does not accept any new registrations.

I am interested in a personal account and I am a resident and citizen of EU.


I apologize if this is not the right place to ask this.

Thank you all in advance!

 

[fshore]

Transferwise lets you accept NOK and keep NOK but you don’t get your own personal account number. Do you need a dedicated account number?

 

[JohnLocke]

If you move to Norway simply walk into SEB bank in Norway and get them open an account for you. It's not very difficult if you have an address in Norway and actually live there.

 

[Sols]

It is next to impossible to open a bank account in Norway as a non-resident, as you will need a Norwegian tax ID to open an account. Banks can help you obtain this but normally just for wealth management.

The EMI route is going to be the easiest.

 

[JohnLocke]

So you need to add that it may be impossible if you are not from any Scandinavian country, because if so, you simply walk in there once you have an address and open your account.

I do not know how it is with other European countries but as I said, for people of Scandinavian it is no problem at least. I would call SEB's head office in Sweden and talk to them about my options.

 

[Sols]

It's a good point about Scandinavians/Nordics. They have extremely close ties, which has made anything crossborder almost domestic way before EU/EEA were invented and got involved.

 

[clemens]

which has made anything crossborder almost domestic way before EU/EEA were invented and got involved.

did this change anything, I can't feel it

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

You can try smaller banks like Danske Bank. But you must be able to prove ties to the country (employment contract, rent agreement etc.). Otherwise they won't help you obtain the required tax ID (D number). I'm not sure if you can apply for a D number yourself at the tax office.

 

[countryfree]

Cancel your trip!
All Scandinavian countries are high-tax, no-privacy, fascist countries, I can only recommend to avoid doing any kind of activity there.

 

[JohnLocke]

Norway has still some great tax options depending on your situation and business activity, I would advise to consult a tax advisors / consultant to help you.

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

The advice will probably cost more than the tax savings. ;-)

 

[JohnLocke]

If it's because you have a serious business then the couple hundred euros doesn't matter. If you rather want to listen to some forum users here and from this miss a potential opportunity then do it. This is an open forum and it's not about getting right but helping.

 

[Sols]

If it's purely for business and without employees, the Scandinavian countries aren't terrible. They're not tax havens but the corporate tax rates aren't awful even without tax acrobatics to lower the burden.

• Denmark: 22%
• Finland: 20%
• Iceland: 20%
• Norway: 22%
• Sweden: 21.40%

People seem to like UK and the tax rate there is 19%. It's for personal taxation and having employees that the total tax burden starts getting very high. Look at the whole picture.

The advice will probably cost more than the tax savings. ;-)

Depends what you compare it to but tax advisory in Scandinavia doesn't have to cost any significantly more than for example Cyprus or Malta. Once you're paying for quality advice, the price difference between jurisdiction isn't really that much.

Company formation and maintenance costs for a non-resident can be a bit high, though.

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

Let’s just say my personal experience wasn’t great.

 

[countryfree]

I don't think tax is relevant here. I wouldn't like Scandinavian countries, even if they had no income tax. Go there first, and get your own opinion. Get ready for a very high cost of living first, and discover a bit of the way the people think up there. They just like big government.