Is it possible for a US citizen to open up a bank account in a foreign country and transfer money to it from within the US? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by WoodScientist@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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With all the chaos in Washington right now, I'm low key worried about Musk and his goons managing to fuck up the FDIC. If that happens, we're looking at simultaneous bank runs on every bank in the country.

Is it possible for a US citizen, without actually traveling to a foreign country, to open up a bank account in Canada or Europe somewhere and transfer some funds there? I'm not quite at the point of "liquidate everything and get it out of the country." But having a hedge in the form of an emergency fund in a Canadian or European bank account is very tempting right now.

Is this sort of thing possible? Can you open up a foreign bank account remotely? Or is this the kind of thing you can only do by physically traveling to a foreign country, walking into a bank branch, and opening an account there? And can you open up a bank account in a country without having any citizenship or residency there?

Basically, is it possible for a US citizen, whose only nationality or immigration status is American, to open up an account in Canada or Europe without physically leaving the borders of the US?

Sorry if this is a silly or stupid question. I don't have a lot of experience with international banking.

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[-] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 30 points 1 week ago

Yup. Most Canadian banks even offer US money accounts so you can park your USD in a foreign bank and convert it to CAD if and when you want to.

[-] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

park your USD

Might wanna convert it to Euro, just in case... 👀

(I mean, if you are gonna move funds in anticipation of disaster like that, you might as well convert the currency)

[-] trolololol@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

That's what they say about government debt collapsing and the country going into default: everyone assumes that won't happen, because if it does it will be chaos x 10. I'd expect the economy to collapse, the us dollar to plunmet and many people to lose jobs.

Same case here. So better save your money outside and in any other currency

[-] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

Sure - but RBC and CIBC can create an account with both a USD and CAD accounts within it - so you can move the money in as USD and convert it when you'd like (usually you'd wait for a day when the exchange rate bumps up a bit as it varies a little everyday).

this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2025

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