No. of Recommendations: 6
While I currently hold bank accounts in thee other countries (essentially zero-balance to minimize paperwork)
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(I have a local bank with minimal balance to act as a "gateway" to deposit cash and use the broker's ATM/debit card to get cash world-wide as they convert at the bank rate and credit back any local ATM charges)
I don't know if it's applicable to you, but one thing I found handy: the Wise card. It's available for "US persons".
It lets you hold a large number of different currencies, and it's a Visa card you can use anywhere, including on line. Things you charge in different currencies aren't converted at a horrible 3% fee, they just debit that currency in your account. They do forex at very good rates. (better than banks, not as good as Interactive Brokers). International payments are generally instantaneous and either free or nearly so. Unlike most brokerages, you can pay bills and transfer money to companies from it. Most conveniently, they give you a local bank account number in any country you want, which is part of the same account. So, for example, if you have a cottage in France or wherever, you can give the French "account number" to the local utilities for direct debit from your euro balance and never need a true bank account in France. The utility never knows you don't have a "true" bank account.
There is a way to tightly link an Interactive Brokers account to a Wise account, but it seemed to entail a degree of privacy/trust issues that I wasn't immediately comfortable with--giving one access to the payment history at the other, IIRC--so I haven't done that, at least not before reading more.
Jim
