Hi nomads! Iโm trying to figure out all props and cons of using Charles Schwab vs N26 banks. Is anyone using those banks? If yea - what you like/dont like about it. And if income is mostly in US which one is better to open?
Thanks
Frontpage
๐ Dark mode
โค๏ธ Your favorites
๐ Nomad insurance
You won't be notified by email when a reply is posted, to change your notification settings. Posts must follow the TOS: No ads, self promotion, commercial posts, surveys etc. For customer support questions, don't post here but use the feedback box in the bottom right of this page instead.
Hi nomads! Iโm trying to figure out all props and cons of using Charles Schwab vs N26 banks. Is anyone using those banks? If yea - what you like/dont like about it. And if income is mostly in US which one is better to open?
Thanks
Yep, Schwab is excellent for traveling. Works everywhere, doesnโt tend to lock your card, customer service is easy to reach and helpful, etc. ATM fee rebates help a ton as well.
As mentioned above, it does seem like there can be additional hold time with some deposits thoughโฆhowever, this hasnโt proven to be an issue for me yet.
Been using Schwab for years and itโs still the only bank Iโll actually rave about if given half a chance. I get all my deposits pretty much immediately, even the mobile check deposits I manually make, they return ATM fees wherever I happen to be withdrawing money from, their customer service people all speak English and go out of their way to be helpful and theyโll even do sweet little things, like reimbursing the cost to call them from a hotel line if my Skype connection is crap.
The only problem is that you do need an SSN to open the checking account, but I think there are exceptions if you open a brokerage/investment account, i.e. they allow citizens/residents of certain countries but not others.
Schwab customer service is great, Iโm not sure Iโd ever be able to go back to another bank. I rarely have to wait for an operator, and the people you get are always competent and friendly.
And yeah, the ATM fee refunds are ridiculously useful.
Iโve had a Schwab High Yield Checking account for several years. Itโs been awesome with the exception of how long it takes me to get money transferred into it. There is a 4-5 day hold once received by Schwab, which means more like 5-7 days from when I initiate the transfer from my regular personal checking. Iโve tried hacking around that to no avail (Square Cash / Dwolla).
See this thread for more on the topic: How can you avoid foreign banking, ATM, and transaction fees?
I make sure to use the card periodically when I go through the US, but literally only a couple times a year. Otherwise all my withdrawals are international and Iโve had them refund over $100 in fees in a single month.
I am using N26. I am non European, I was able to register in Berlin with my address ( I did not a visa at that time).
I only use it for spending money in Europe and transfer money through an account in Dubai, so zero fees for transfer.
It depends again on how large are your transactions. 
My experience with Schwab has been flawless. Their card is honored at plenty of ATMs. ALL ATM fees are rebated, there are no currency fees and conversions are always posted at the current dayโs rate. I couldnโt be happier.
Schwab is great, but only if you have a SSN. You might be able to get N26 by having it shipped to a friend living in Germany or another country where they operate, but they donโt support all passports/nationalities (but it doesnโt hurt to try).
Revolut is also nice, but itโs not a fully featured bank account, just a prepaid card. You can hold USD, GBP and EUR on it, and thereโs no FX fee when exchanging currencies. I think they have temporarily paused access for people outside Europe, but I think they will open up again once they get their own Mastercard license. I havenโt tried, but in theory you should be able to top up from your Payoneer card to your Revolut card, but youโll probably be charged a FX fee.
If you can travel to the US, you can open a bank account at e.g. Chase, Wells Fargo, etc, but those cards are expensive to use abroad (usually 3-5% FX fee) and youโre charged quite significant fees ($10-15/mo) if you donโt maintain around $1500 minimum balance. Alternatively you can open only a savings account, then the minimum balance is often just $300 or so (if not thereโs a ~$5 fee), and just use Transferwise or something similar to move the money to your day-to-day spending account. Or you can try opening an account in a local credit union. They normally have less fees. For example Patelco in the San Francisco Bay Area offers a checking and savings account free of charge (no monthly fees), with a debit card with only 1% FX fee.
Schwab took my address change for my brokerage accounts and instantly shut down my checking account when they found out I was overseas. A big waste of time.
Love to know a little more info to give you the best advice.
Is this a personal or business account?
Do you have a social?
Are you open to other banks apart from those above?
Personal account as iโm freelancing. Now i use payoneer, but they take like around 10% for withdrawals and support is like the worst one ever. The problem is that iโm not EU citizen and i donโt have social. Iโm looking for a bank which allow to open an account without residency, with lowest fees for transactions around the world. Would be great to have this account in usd
The best bank Iโve seen is Simple.com - NO FEES ever but requires a social.
The next idea I have would be to get out https://stripe.com/atlas as they do all the work for you and even set up a US account and you donโt have to be stateside. Does have a cost up-front though but could be worth it.
Can you visit the US? I know I was able to set up an account by just walking into a branch. I went with Chase as they integrate perfectly with Square Cash.
Winter is coming and Iโm feeling the ache of travelling after being stuck in the same place since the Pandemic started. Wondering if anyone is travelling right now? If so, where are you currently located and how is the situation where you are?
Hello World!
I'm an experienced Digital Nomad and after being in Lockdown in Bangkok and Germany for one year I would like to team up with someone to visit a new place. Or just doing some exchange about what destinations would be interesting currently.
I take the virus seriously and still I think we can still be able to take our life in our own hands. So I'm aiming for cities/countries which are not in full lockdown, are not too complicated about immigration (I'm looking at you Thailand, your state quarantine costs like 1k USD and is basically a prison) and is also rather safe regarding the virus. I tend to stick for rather big cities and like culture. I'm not a beach or nature person. I'm pretty flexible about the money topic.
I will be traveling/working through Mexico with my dog February to April. My plan is to stay in Sayulita for about 2-4 weeks, then travel south along the cost.
Is there anyone who wants to share an airbnb apartment? I was thinking of renting a private villa, but because these are large and have multiple rooms, I was wondering if there are fellow nomads wanting to share? Iโm open to other locations as well (Puerto Vallerta, Oaxaca, and everything in between these two locations.
I'm thinking about taking a sailing (yachting) course in the Mediterranean Sea this coming September or October. Thus far from my research, it seems that most courses are held in locations with not many digital nomads. My thinking is that it would be more fun to go to a place with like-minded people. Therefore, I'm wondering if anyone else is interested in taking a sailing course in the Mediterranean this fall? If not, do you know a location that offers good sailing courses, where there is also many digital nomads / nomad infrastructure?
Iโm a big believer in co-living but Iโm finding hard to find all the options available in different cities.
I have found the major players like Roam, The Collective, and WeLive but havenโt found many others.
Has anyone seen a list or should I start making one?
Hey guys, this was my first year as a Canadian nomad.
As far as I know of, Canadians donโt pay taxes if they do not live in the country for 6 months.
But Iโd like to talk to an accountant or someone who does Canadian taxes specifically for expats and nomads to get clear on the rules and for help on my return coming up.
Does anyone know someone who specializes in Canada who can help? Iโve seen plenty of US recommendations but none for us canucks.
Thanks guys!
Any long terms Project Fi users cancelled?
Planning on being outside of the US for a year or more and disappointed to just discover their โtermination for excessive international roamingโ fine print (similar to T-Mobileโs) as follows:
โThe Services must be primarily used in the United States and are not intended for extended international use. Further, the Services are designed for use predominantly within our network. If your usage outside our network is excessive, abnormally high, or cause us to incur too much cost, we may, at our option and sole discretion, suspend your Project Fi account, terminate your service, or limit your use of roaming.โ
Thereโs been a lot of discussion on this recently.
Nomads usually stay in hostels, hotels and short-term apartments. But itโs all not very optimal.
Iโve heard people suggest getting funding and building a network of houses you can stay at for a subscription price (e.g. Bruno Haid is working on that).
I donโt want do physical stuff, so Iโm thinking of building a platform around making housing better for nomads.
What are the housing problems nomads face? And how can we solve them with products/services?
Hi, Iโve seen that Nomad List offers different options that could work for connecting with other nomads that are in the same place as me (forum, Slack, user maps, matches and maybe even more options I havenโt seen), but Iโm not sure what is the best/recommended way to use all these options.
Should I use all of them? Start with a message in the forum and/or Slack?
Sending private messages to a lot of people feels a little bit โaggressiveโ. And matches are not based on current location if I understood it correctly.
By the way, I just arrived at Budapest 
Iโm looking to spend 1-3 months in Alicante or Valencia this fall and would like to take a Spanish class there.
Hi,
My name is Nick,currently living in Australia and looking at moving to Shikoku next year to live for a couple of years.My wife is Japanese,but I dont speak much though I have lived in Tokyo for some years previously.
Any advice on best areas to look at would be greatly appreciated ,
Thanks in advance
Nick
We just finished our first stint around South East Asia and somehow survived 3 days of way too many flights, leaving me to feel like death.
Too much shitty airplane food, not enough sleep, big time difference from Mexico to SEA.
Anyone have tips to prevent that more in the future (aside from better flight plans)? More importantly, how do I recover faster from this horror?
I am trying to figure out three things. An average of how much data everyone uses per month, a low end of how little data is used, and a high end of how much data can be used? I am not interested in your methods of acquiring data. I am just interested in how much you use as a whole. This includes both work data usage and your personal data usage.
The ideal bank will have an easy on-boarding as a European student studying and living in Sweden for a year and is merciful when it comes to sending GBP into the account.
Can anybody recommend a good Swedish bank? 
Iโm going to travel to Mexico by the end of february and i would like to know which place do you recommend to stay at for a month or so. Which one would fit better for a digital nomad? Pros and Cons for each place are welcomed 
thanks!
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/vermont-pay-10-000-move-110056645.html
Hello All,
Saw Vermont rolled out an incentive to get more remote workers to live there, Does anyone plan on applying and If so why? Reason Iโm asking is I work for an organization in Tulsa, Ok that wants to also bring in Nomads, and would love to hear your thoughts on what such a plan should look like
Any help would be Awesome!
Ben
Anyone know a good hairdresser in Amsterdam? Looking for something reasonably to the center!
Hey everyone,
I got into situation when nothing really helped me, and now searching for alternatives.
Two web site where I was trying to buy tickets for Tribeca film festival and just cinema do not let me to buy tickets and the websites are quite big -
My question is , does anyone know alternative where I could buy tickets for example Madisson Square show and AMC Cinema screening. Eventbite worked fine for example with European card.
Best,
Georgius.
Hi everyone!
Currently looking at ridding myself of the 9-5 and becoming a freelance consultant. Iโm not planning to go full erm, โtax optimisationโ, as I believe in taxes as a concept, but I would like to pay less of them so I can get my business off the ground with more peace of mind.
Iโve decided I want to apply for the Portugal NHR (Iโm a EU citizen), but I donโt want to incorporate there. Anyone here has experience with being a Portugal tax resident and running a company elsewhere? If yes, where and why did you choose that country/place? Is it a a lot of hassle?
Thanks!
Hey everyone,
Has anyone visited Sihanoukville recently? I would like to visit and give it a try for working but I am a little unsure about the following:
In anyone can offer any info, suggestions on specific areas or recommended accommodation that would be great. I visited around 8 years ago so I am assuming the place has changed quite a bit since then.
Thanks!
Can't login? See the FAQ
Nomad List
By signing up, you agree to our terms of service and community guidelines.
One-time-payment: $39.98 $19.99 ๐ซ2024 NEW YEAR 0% off
Billed once. Then never again
Nomad List members
work remotely at
Nomad List
๐ Thanks for signing up! I hope you like my site. I put a lot of effort into making it.
๐ฌ First, please go to your email and click the confirm link first to verify your email address, check your spam folder if you can't find it
๐ After you confirm your email we'll send you an email with more info
๐ฉโ๐ป You can start using Nomad List's member-only features now!
