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.
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.
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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
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).
I believe most banks will have residency requirements to allow you to open an account. Not permanent residency per se, but proof that you’re at least legally residing in the country at the time of opening an account. But as the other commenter said, Canada might have options since it shares lots of stuff with the US. Of course the rich are always exempt from the rules, and I’m just guessing here, but maybe they do it via corporations/businesses; so maybe you can set up an LLC or something.
Yep, just search for country + banks for expats. Typically a lot of the countries well known for financial services have banks which make it very easy to open a bank account online. They will require you to upload some ID for verification, and provide tax details. Expats (rich white immigrants) do this all the time.
You are not limited to just Canada / Europe either. E.g. Australia: Macquarie Bank Singapore: OCBC Hong Kong: HSBC
This is an interesting idea. I’ve worried they will abolish the FDIC.
You will have to submit an FBAR for taxes. It’s pretty simple but the US wants to know aboit them… They take your bank, account number, max amount held, and month for the max.
I would say yes just because it’s asked every year I do my taxes. I’m pretty sure you have to report it when you do this, but I am not sure if it’s just as information or to tax you some more. I never had to say yes to find out.
Yes so if it increases too fast the us irs will be asking you questions. And if you answer no but it’s true the IRS will get a report from the bank and THEN will ask you even more questions.
I don’t think a worker savings will raise any flags, that’s for money laundering. Because if you have the kind of money like Bezos you also get no questions.
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I think the plan is to move to the outside country before things reach “close the borders” level. And having a nest egg there ahead of time
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We have the world’s largest impossible to protect border. As long as you can survive camping for a week, you’re in Canada.
