US Dollar Accounts

muletide

Looking for a bit of advice and hopefully some guidance on the issue of opening a US$ account here in Ireland.

Work is taking me abroad for the next while and I will be paid in US$ while abroad. I was advised to open a US$ account with one of the banks back here and have portion of my monthly wage paid into it.

However on investigation of the options available it seems that the charges incurred are quite high. For example between 1 and 3% on every deposit depending on the amount.

This means that each time I get paid I will be hit with a between €50 and €100 charge. Now this could be offset by a strengthing dollar over the next year allowing me to choose the optimum point to convert my earnings back. (But of course I am aware a weakening dollar will only add my losses)

There are also charges for when I want to make withdrawals, as well as various other charges for cheques etc.

I always have the option to have the dollars paid into my regular account and just accept the exchange rate of the day.

I guess what I was hoping for here comes down to two areas:

1. Does anyone use any cheaper foreign currency accounts or can they recommend a bank that they have operated a FX account with before?

2. Can anyone point me towards a good source of info on projections for the dollar vs euro throughout 2011?

Many thanks

unclebill98

Irish based USD Current a/c's are very expensive to run for personal use. They are aimed at business more so. Best to have a US based account to minimise charges if you want to maintain the $ wage. If not just keep doing what you are doing. The functionality of a IRE USD account are muck also, lack of ATM support, online support and general access is always tricky.

As for your 2nd question, I hear Mystic Meg is still knocking about!

coylemj

muletide wrote: »

2. Can anyone point me towards a good source of info on projections for the dollar vs euro throughout 2011?

Back in the 1930s Lord Beaverbrook was interviewing a guy for the job of racing tipster for the Daily Express. Beaverbrook told the interviewee that he need to come up with at least two winners per day of racing whereupon the potential tipster told him that if he could then Beaverbrook would be working for him!

As the previous poster said, Mystic Meg might give you as good as reply as the 'experts' but the ECB have signalled that interest rates will probably need to be increased to control inflation in the German economy which is showing signs of rapid growth. If that happens then the dollar will weaken against the Euro.

However if there is another panic over Italy/Spain/Portugal/Belgium's ability to borrow without help from the ECB then the Euro will start to weaken again.

Take your pick.

Rebel1977

They are more for business than personal, you can't get a laser/ATM card on a Dollar hold account

rina120

Not sure why anyone would tell you to open an Irish account and put the USD in.
I'm american and was sent to Ireland to work. I was paid in USD and therefore my USD went into an american bank account.
However I have since moved to Ireland.
So here is my idea:
since you are living and working the the US, why not just open a free US bank account?
Then..keep your eye on the exchange rate and when it's high, make a wire transfer. It costs about $50, but if you transfer large amounts at a time, this is neglible. Then you get the best rate possible.
I have used this to move funds back and forth and always get the exchange rate of the day i decide to make the transfer.
The trick is: following the exchange rate and choosing a good one.

muletide

rina120 wrote: »

Not sure why anyone would tell you to open an Irish account and put the USD in.
I'm american and was sent to Ireland to work. I was paid in USD and therefore my USD went into an american bank account.
However I have since moved to Ireland.
So here is my idea:
since you are living and working the the US, why not just open a free US bank account?
Then..keep your eye on the exchange rate and when it's high, make a wire transfer. It costs about $50, but if you transfer large amounts at a time, this is neglible. Then you get the best rate possible.
I have used this to move funds back and forth and always get the exchange rate of the day i decide to make the transfer.
The trick is: following the exchange rate and choosing a good one.

Thanks for the reply but I am neither working nor living in the US and never said I was. I am resident in Ireland but am travelling abroad for the next few months to work for an organisation that pays in US$ - but I will be about as far fom the states as you can get.

But thanks anyway

muletide

An update - I opened an account with PTSB, whom I have never had any past dealings with.

- zero fees on deposits or withdrawals (apart from the commission on FX- but all banks have this)
-had the account set up 5 minutes after I entered the branch.
- access to the account through their online banking systems.

Compare this with BOI who I have banked with for 15 years

- Between 1 and 3 % on deposits (thats right they charge me for putting money into their bank)
- Charges on withdrawals
- Five working days to set up the account
- No online access - all transactions must be completed in branch desppite the fact that I will be 2000 miles away.

In short - PTSB will be getting all my business on my return.

hartem

Hey Muletide,
I'm in a very similar situation to you. I contacted PTSB about the Dollar account and everything sounds great, except they said I couldn't use Internet Banking to transfer funds. I can only view the account from the internet apparently.
They said I could get around this by sending them faxes, but this isn't very convenient for me.

How do you deal with this problem? Have I got the wrong info?
Thanks,
Martin.

dublin daz

National Irish Bank open currency accounts and they can be managed online. There is a fee of £12 per quarter for Sterling accounts. I dont know the exact amount for USD but I would imagine its around the same for that. You can't have an ATM card, but you can request a USD cheque book.

AIB Bank also offer currency accounts for a similar fee. I am not sure if they allow internet banking because the accounts are held in UK when non-Euro.

hartem

It sounds like the NIB USD account requires a minimum of $10,000 at all times. Not ideal.

I'll take a look at what AIB offer, thanks