Managing money in the US while living and working in Taiwan

I live and work in Tainan and I want to put some of the money I earn here in my American bank accts. I need to pay bills and I want to keep my minimum balances. Bank of America advised I ask my job to directly deposit my paycheck into my American acct to avoid international transfer fees each month. If this works, then I could just withdraw NTD with my American debit card at the ATM for a lesser fee, right? Does anyone have any advice on this or any other ideas on the best way to manage money in two countries?

The amount you will end up paying in fees to withdraw the money (in addition to money lost due to the exchange rate in both directions) wouldn’t make that a very wise decision. Unless you have monthly expenses back in the US and are literally living financially month to month, I would do a large transfer every few months / twice a year back to the US to cut back on transfer costs.

Which bank do you use in the States? I have HSBC accounts at home and abroad and transfers between accounts are really cheap. I can link all of my accounts online and do real time transfers as well.

Indiana, thanks for your response. I have one local acct in the states that requires a minimum balance of $1000 and my other acct is with Bank of America. The only monthly expense I have is a credit card. However, I will soon have to start paying student loan bills and I’m thinking it will be easier to pay loans via my American online banking. China Trust online banking is all in Chinese and I don’t know the language enough to use it.

You’ll have to send money from the bank branch in that case or withdraw and take it to a money transfer place like Western Union to send back (which may possibly be cheaper and have better exchange rates). But definitely do it in chunks and with as little frequency as possible to save $$$. :sunglasses: