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Post by twoj on Jul 14, 2016 9:42:57 GMT -5
I would like to open up a bank account in Luxembourg for some small time transactions, i'm wondering if anyone has experience in this matter?
Ideally I would like a zero fee account that has easy online access and hopefully small fee for international transfer, ie North America, not the SEPA (EU) region.
From the research I did yesterday it looks like most banks have the compte courant or current account, the equivalent of a chequing account, most have a basic package of services and transactions for €2,50 there are some banks like ING that have €0 fee accounts but require a minimum balance of €2000 in the account.
From what I see the POST.lu, Post current account advertises itself as the 'cheapest', as they say "There is no fixed tariff. You only pay for the services you actually use."
Just wondering if anyone has experience with this and in particular the POST bank?
thanks
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Post by moike92 on Jul 18, 2016 2:04:02 GMT -5
I transfer money between my German bank and American bank using PayPal. Don't remember what the fee is. But I'm fairly certain it's not too bad. I use a bank called Sparkasse. Luxembourg also has a bank called spuerkees (not sure if I spelled it right) but both words are just the languages version of " savings bank ". They are probably both very similar as well. I didn't have to have any certain amount of money in the bank when opening the account. Maybe you could try looking that one up. Thank whole bank question is actually a very good one, my grandfather and grandmother both had banking accounts in lux, as I am interested as well I will be asking my grandfather about it soon and post back with any good info. 😇
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Post by twoj on Jul 18, 2016 8:58:38 GMT -5
I'm getting curious - I originally was looking to open a bank account in France but pretty much all the information I found said that the banks will require a proof of residence in France. When I was looking up Luxembourg I didn't see that as a requirement to open an account; however last week I sent an email to POST.lu who advertise that they have the cheapest compte courant, and this was their reply;
"pour ouvrir un compte courant CCP chez nous remplir le critère suivant :
1. soit il faut habiter au Luxembourg ou
2. il faut travailler au Luxembourg.
Nous vous prions de bien vouloir vous présenter à un Guichet Post Luxembourg pour ouvrir un compte CCP, veuillez vous munir de votre carte d'identité, un certificat de résidence et votre contrat de travail."
So point 1. being that you need to live in Luxembourg or 2. You need to work in Luxembourg
I don't know if this conditions for other banks or if this is particular to Post.lu but it seems to go against the general information I have come across. I certainly would like to get some authentic real-life information from someone on first hand hand experience on this.
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Post by moike92 on Jul 18, 2016 12:58:48 GMT -5
I have yet to talk to my grandfather but to my knowledge I would say that you do not actually have to live in Luxembourg. As I said both grandparents had accounts there but my grandfather had only lived there for a few years and then both grandparents moved to the states.
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Post by moike92 on Jul 19, 2016 4:22:43 GMT -5
I texted him last night and he responded saying you do not have to live there to open an account. He was not a citizen but he was married to one. So that could have helped the process a bit but I am not completely sure. Since you are a citizen though I am sure it should be the same for you as well. I believe you would have to go there in person and sign the paperwork of course but not living there should pose no problems.
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Post by twoj on Jul 19, 2016 9:29:51 GMT -5
Thanks for the info moike!
I'll be sure to drop into a bank there and find out - I was surprised by post.lu's response since I haven't seen any indication that residence or working in lux was a requirement.
real info is hard to come across sometimes.
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Post by twoj on Oct 29, 2016 11:51:07 GMT -5
I thought I would just update this thread for those curious; I stopped in a bank, I think it was Tangerine, near the train station, has a "nice" short conversation - I explained that I just wanted to open up an account, and as soon as I mentioned I neither worked nor lived in Luxembourg, she just started the head shaking and explaining in typical French that it would be impossible (the French just seem to have this explanation burned into them at birth). I also got some information from a friend who spoke with his brother who works in a bank (like so many people there) that since a few years because of tighter banking laws, mostly coming out of the US, that basically most banks don't want to have any non-European, and especially non-US, non-Canadian residence people having accounts in Luxembourg. I also read recently that it has gotten so bad that many banks don't want to deal with Americans and are actively trying to encourage them to close their accounts, and that the US ambassador to Switzerland has asked the banks to allow Americans to open accounts so that 'normal' people can do banking in Switzerland; money.cnn.com/2016/10/20/investing/swiss-banks-americans-fatca-switzerland/So it seems that in order to catch the people hiding money, their drag-net has caught all the normal people as well, and I suspect that is the case for Luxembourg as well. For the time it seems Americans/Canadians are persona non grata in the Lux banking system. I guess I'll keep that $125 in my mattress for the time being. |
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Post by Lux2 on Oct 30, 2016 0:49:50 GMT -5
Thank the U.S. for that. The US government has been putting pressure on Luxembourg to be more transparent. Governments like the US, Canada, Japan, UK, etc. want their money. And so they tell banks operating in Luxembourg that if they do not open their books for them to see who has what saved and invested in their banks, they cannot allow their citizens to bank with them. Many banks refuse to do this, so they simply turn down applicants from certain countries. For instance, my bank refuses all applications from residents of Japan. The Japanese government has put pressure on banks to provide clients' banking details. The bank refused to do this. Kim Jong-il's family apparently has upwards of about US $4 billion socked away in Luxembourg banks and has been the country of choice for banking by many German, French and Belgium elites due to its secretive banking industry. In short, the banking industry in Luxembourg has become a lot less secretive in recent years due to pressure from the US government, etc.
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AdA
New Member
Posts: 28 
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Post by AdA on Oct 30, 2016 9:51:46 GMT -5
I also got some information from a friend who spoke with his brother who works in a bank (like so many people there) that since a few years because of tighter banking laws, mostly coming out of the US, that basically most banks don't want to have any non-European, and especially non-US, non-Canadian residence people having accounts in Luxembourg. I also read recently that it has gotten so bad that many banks don't want to deal with Americans and are actively trying to encourage them to close their accounts, and that the US ambassador to Switzerland has asked the banks to allow Americans to open accounts so that 'normal' people can do banking in Switzerland; money.cnn.com/2016/10/20/investing/swiss-banks-americans-fatca-switzerland/So it seems that in order to catch the people hiding money, their drag-net has caught all the normal people as well, and I suspect that is the case for Luxembourg as well. Have a look at Swiss forums, you'll see a lot of Americans renounced their citizenship or are actively planning it once they get a second citizenship (usually Swiss but for normal people -not married to Swiss-, it's at least 10 years). Plus, American embassies all over the world try to prevent their citizens from renouncing the US citizenship so they allow very rare appointments for this (but don't say the real reason). US expats find it a nightmare to live abroad, esp. Switzerland. So far, personally, I have not had any letter asking me to close my Lux. account but unfortunately I need to get prepared .... |
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