I will be leaving Taiwan soon and be travelling for a few months, and I am wondering if my best bet moneywise would be to open some sort of international bank account. When I moved to Taiwan I had emptied out my account and since then my ATM card has expired, so the account is not of much use to me abroad at the moment.
I am wary of travelling with too much cash on me and so ideally I would be able to open some account from here that I can access wherever I go. I checked out HSBS but it looks that they require a minimum of 20,000 pounds to start an account, which I don’t have.
ETrade will let you open a broker account as a foreign resident. I’m not sure you would call it a bank account per se but they give you a checkbook and ATM card, I find it pretty useful. It’s getting harder and harder to find banks willing to set up accounts for foreign residents, especially if you’re not physically present.
The concept of an international bank account is an illusion, as far as I understand bank accounts.
Your bank account is located in whatever country you opened it. You can generally access it from other countries using an ATM card, with prevailing exchange rates and applicable fees. You can not go into a bank in a different country that happens to have the same name as the bank where you opened an account and make deposits or withdrawals in the same way as if you were in your home country. HSBC just happens to waive the international transfer fees for account holders who have a pile of money in their bank.
So, from what you’ve posted, your best bet is to open an account at a bank that will give you an ATM card that can access one of the global ATM networks.
Most banks that have a minimum balance do not actually require it - the minimum balance means you don’t get charged. I ran a Premier account with HSBC for years with a small balance but paid the fees because of the multi currency, multi terrotory benefits and their excellent web service. Mostly their staff don’t seem to realise this until you point it out to them.
A vantage account requires a much lower balance anyway, I think about US$2000. If you are struggling then open one in HK or Singapore - there are no taxes on any interest you earn so its as good as say Jersey, or the Isle of Man who specialise in “offshore” accounts