Personal bank account like BUNQ, N26 but for wires from the US?

[drysky]

Hi,
I have bankera, bunq and a few others but all of them are a pain to receive wires from the US. What is a good and easy online banking solution with debit card that makes it easy to receive wires from the US?
Usually I have around 2-3 USD transactions per month to my account but there is always a problem since the wire instructions are not clear on bunq and bankera doesn't even support wires from the US in USD to my account.
What is your recommendation to use? Ideally little to no setup fee, just a regular online banking portal that makes it easy to receive and send wires and provides a physical debit card.
I am based in the EU in case that matters.
Thanks for you help!

 

[Sols]

Wise and Revolut.

 

[drysky]

Wise and Revolut.

Thanks, I actually had an old Revolut account with a few hundred bucks in it that I forgot about. Just ordered a new debit card and hope the transfers from the US work well

 

[Forester]

Hi,
I have bankera, bunq and a few others but all of them are a pain to receive wires from the US. What is a good and easy online banking solution with debit card that makes it easy to receive wires from the US?
Usually I have around 2-3 USD transactions per month to my account but there is always a problem since the wire instructions are not clear on bunq and bankera doesn't even support wires from the US in USD to my account.
What is your recommendation to use? Ideally little to no setup fee, just a regular online banking portal that makes it easy to receive and send wires and provides a physical debit card.
I am based in the EU in case that matters.
Thanks for you help!

The fundamental question: Do you need a business account or a personal one?
An additional question: Do I understand well that you are fine with SWIFT wires? (I.e., you do not need to accept intra-US payments like ACH or Fedwire.)

 

[drysky]

Personal account and standard swift transactions are ok. No ACH or anything else needed
So far pretty happy with Revolut but their UI is totally counterintuitive. Wish they'd work on that, but beats bankera but a mile.

 

[Forester]

Unfortunately, it is IMO remarkably more difficult to find a personal account suitable for your use-case than a business one...

Wise and Revolut.

I think my opinion about Wise and Revolut is quite known here (e.g. If Wise is going to close accounts and is not the best, how diversify the money? )
Nevertheless, it is working for many, you can give it a try; it might work for you, too

I would personally check / consider Zen and/or Paysera before. Perhaps also some UK EMI but at this moment I am not able to recall any giving hassleless USD transfers (it does not mean much as there are almost 300 EMIs in the UK and I am not so well oriented there)...

 

[Oakgrove]

My solution is a bridge solution. Wise USD balance gives you a US-based bank detail (i.e. ABA number and Checking account number with Community Federal Savings Bank). Use that as your receiving account into USD. And once the $ is in Wise, do what you want with it, transfer to Bunq, Bankera etc - assuming your Bunq is in EUR, you do your conversion (USD->EUR) in Wise first before transferring. Low cost, NO Swift or wire fee whatsoever.

I know not a lot of Wise fans here but this is what worked for me.

Payoneer also provides US-based bank detail (and you do your conversion there to EUR and then transfer it to whatever bank) although I am not a huge fan of their highly-restrictive transaction police (who are always suspicious of you!)

 

[Forester]

My solution is a bridge solution. Wise USD balance gives you a US-based bank detail (i.e. ABA number and Checking account number with Community Federal Savings Bank). Use that as your receiving account into USD. And once the $ is in Wise, do what you want with it, transfer to Bunq, Bankera etc - assuming your Bunq is in EUR, you do your conversion (USD->EUR) in Wise first before transferring. Low cost, NO Swift or wire fee whatsoever.

I know not a lot of Wise fans here but this is what worked for me.

Yes, this is a good example of a situation where Wise can help – and a quite smart scenario, IMO. (Yes, the only problem is how long the Wise account remains flawlessly working – but it can happen, of course )

Payoneer also provides US-based bank detail (and you do your conversion there to EUR and then transfer it to whatever bank) although I am not a huge fan of their highly-restrictive transaction police (who are always suspicious of you!)

Not only their transaction police can be of a concern. Their fees are also far from being friendly, I am afraid.

 

[ilke]

Yes, this is a good example of a situation where Wise can help – and a quite smart scenario, IMO. (Yes, the only problem is how long the Wise account remains flawlessly working – but it can happen, of course )

Not only their transaction police can be of a concern. Their fees are also far from being friendly, I am afraid.

Payoneer does have some benefits though, like a very simple KYC system, support even for some offshores (companies, and in this situation citizens as well) and the dedicated accounts at pretty prominent banks (Citibank N.A., Citibank SG, Banking Circle), which I believe can be better for some people (if the company that pays them wants non-EMIs or is weary of banks like CFSB). It also has good support for under developed countries (you can see a lot of people in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc. using Payoneer cards for USD payments). Might work well for some. Wise can work for some as well. Depends on the scenario.

 

[Oakgrove]

Payoneer does have some benefits though, like a very simple KYC system, support even for some offshores (companies, and in this situation citizens as well) and the dedicated accounts at pretty prominent banks (Citibank N.A., Citibank SG, Banking Circle), which I believe can be better for some people (if the company that pays them wants non-EMIs or is weary of banks like CFSB). It also has good support for under developed countries (you can see a lot of people in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc. using Payoneer cards for USD payments). Might work well for some. Wise can work for some as well. Depends on the scenario.

Not to take this too astray from the OT, my issue with Payoneer seems to be it doesn't often like me linking it with my PayPal acct. My PayPal would quickly get flagged, and then I have to end up getting a new receiving account number from Payoneer.

I noticed (Payoneer) has since introduced a new button to get a new receiving acct number for each of the currencies they carry. Also some receiving accounts in Payoneer are under your own name, but some are under Payoneer's names (like Japanese Yen and Mexican Pesos) - neither are usable in PayPal.