Been having some trouble with opening an account with the US online brokerages. As a US citizen residing abroad, they won’t touch me. Their reason: “Because of the way we are structured and because of industry licensing requirements, we would not be able to open an account for a US citizen living abroad.”
How have some of you handled this? Just use a US relative/friend’s home for the street address, and quietly use your Taiwan residence for the mailing address? Just go through a local bank?
You could consider going offshore.
Just a thought,
CK
Would consider, but so many of the offshore websites I’ve run into look kind of fly-by-night. Any recommendations?
[quote=“Filthywaffle”]Been having some trouble with opening an account with the US online brokerages. As a US citizen residing abroad, they won’t touch me. Their reason: “Because of the way we are structured and because of industry licensing requirements, we would not be able to open an account for a US citizen living abroad.”
How have some of you handled this? Just use a US relative/friend’s home for the street address, and quietly use your Taiwan residence for the mailing address? Just go through a local bank?[/quote]
I haven’t encountered that problem. I have accounts with TD Waterhouse, a firm that I am perfectly happy with, although I originally opened those accounts when I was in the states (and all my statements and communications are now handled online).
If you can’t find a firm that’ll give you an account living here, then use your folks address but immediately indicate that you want all communications by e-mail rather than paper mail. Voila.
Slightly OT, but not completely, I’ve been pissed off to discover how many goods I have tried to purchase online from the states only to find that they don’t ship outside the US. :raspberry: I would gladly pay for the additional shipping and insurance but I suspect that’s not the issue – I suspect its some kind of protectionism or other nefarious BS. So much for globalization.
I think it’s just that when these people set up their systems it never occurs to them that there are people in the world who don’t live in the USA.
The online form requires state and ZIP, because that’s what the designer assumed they would need to know. You can’t select from the options because they haven’t given you an appropriate option, et voila. (Interestingly, when you do get the option, Taiwan is always listed as a country!)
A similar example - I opened a bank account in the USA as a non-resident. They required me to call and input my social security number to activate my ATM card. No social security number (non-resident)=no activation. I eventually managed to speak to a live operator who offered to confirm my identity and activate my card manually. First question to confirm my identity was “what’s your social security number?”
You either fit the system or you don’t. It’s not protectionism, it’s stupidity. Just like trying to get a credit card here.
I think it’s just that when these people set up their systems it never occurs to them that there are people in the world who don’t live in the USA.[/quote]
That thought occured to me, but I’m not sure it’s that simple. Most recently it happened to me when I tried to buy a Yamaha electronic keyboard through Amazon.com (43% off suggested retail price), but they wouldn’t ship outside the US. Amazon ships books and CDs to Taiwan, so it’s not a matter of forgetting to allow for the possibility of international sales when writing their software. So why not a musical instrument (that may well be made in Taiwan)? Maybe Yamaha has distributor agreements in Asia that prohibit Amazon from shipping here.
Right, MT. That’s certainly true with software. There are international agreements about selling rights that restrict sales of software to certain geographical areas, i.e in Amazon.com’s it’s the US and Canada, I think.
I usually purchase stuff over the counter when I go there rather than order online for that reason.
However, there ARE retailers who are willing to ship items abroad on the Internet! You have to find them and be sure that you can trust them.
IE plenty of internet retailers seem willing to ship DVD players and other electronics abroad, though shipping can be prohibitively expensive, eg. I wanted a region one player only to discover that shipping cost more than the entire system! 
Anyway, some of the smaller shops on Amazon Shops and Ebay will certainly deliver if you are willing to fork out the $$$.
As for brokerages, Ameritrade seems to have no problem with me as a non-US citizen, you might want to try them.
Best Wishes
Kenneth
I have many online accounts using my Taiwan address (all confirmations and statements are online though) and there is no problem… US citizen also… If you want you can IM me, I used to work at E*trade as a trading supervisor so I still have many contacts there… I know you cannot open these accounts online, have to speak to a live person so I can give you a couple of numbers if you want of brokers that worked for me that would have no problem opening an account for you… BTW they are not commission based so you dont need to worry about getting hassled… If you need help just let me know.
This is complete BS, unless something has changed within the past year… Of course if you residing in Cuba, Iran, Iraq, etc…, you cant, but I know for sure with Taiwan. we had many Expats accounts from Taiwan.
I still keep an address in the US, and have never had any problems. They never have to know you don’t physically spend most of your time in the US. If you don’t have friends/relatives with an address, you can rent a box at one of those private mail box places.
Mostly why online retailer won’t ship overseas is because the credit card transaction would be a liability to the merchant. There is no banking protection for merchants that ship overseas.
As for the brokerage account. You could open an account with a Taiwan firm that trades in oversea markets. Or even a full service brokerage in the States have no problem with oversea billing address issues.
Filthy, I pm’ed you with the info about offshore banking.
Mother Theresa, I’m interested to know: do they withold any taxes on profits and dividends with your TD account? Seems I recall hearing that some firms take a straight 30% witholding, which would seriously minimize a person’s net if they don’t file US taxes. Just wondering…
CK
[quote=“citizen k”]Filthy, I pm’ed you with the info about offshore banking.
Mother Theresa, I’m interested to know: do they withold any taxes on profits and dividends with your TD account? Seems I recall hearing that some firms take a straight 30% witholding, which would seriously minimize a person’s net if they don’t file US taxes. Just wondering…
CK[/quote]
Yes, I was asking about that in a separate thread in this forum. I got whopped with a 30% withholding tax recently that I didn’t recall paying a few years ago whenI started investing in the US. I filled out the WB8EN forms but still no dice. I’m with Ameritrade (aka Datek ONLINE).
Can someone clarify this point?
Kenneth
I forgot the date, but if the firm you with doesnt receive the WB8EN form by then you will automatically get charged the 30%… Chances are if you did send in the form before the deadline, it was either delayed because of a backlog of tax docs coming in, lost, or they didnt receive it since if they did you would not have been charged the 30%… I remember every year while I was at E*trade this was a huge focus for the Customer service reps since I believe stories like yours happened all the time… As a warning to everyone after you send in the forms, waste some of your time, call and make sure they got it and everything is OK…
If you ever marry a local here, open the account with your wife’s name if she doesn’t have a US passport then you can trade stocks in the USA under her name free of capital gains tax. Of course it would be her money and you would only be consulting her, and of course you are poor and your wife has all of the money, so you would not be taxed.
The US is only country in the world that taxes its citizens even with they don’t live there any more, but they are a tax haven for non-citizens as the USA wants OPM (other people’s money).
Good advice, Hobart. The one obstacle I faced was finding a brokerage firm with competitive fees (ie:$7-8/trade) that were open to non-US residents or non-US citizens. Any advice?
Appreciatively,
CK
I “advised my wife” 
to use Cybertrader Pro http://www.cybertrader.com/cybertrader/ since she liked to day trade (night trade in Taiwan). Cybertrader Pro gave her access to all of the real time data necessary for doing this. I had to set her up with a home trading center too with four TFT monitors. She did alright night trading, but has since decided to switch to swing trading so the next account will be with different company when she decides to trade again.
Thanks for that, Hobart. I’ll give it a look.
CK
Yeah, Cybertrader is a great platform, I actually was working with the guy who developed it… Got it going and then made a fortune by selling it to CS…
If you are looking for something more advanced I would go with Tradestation.com… Their platform is the best out there to trade from home, as well as the quickest in routing, but I would only recommend it for professional traders… Also, if you are doing large amount of trades they are much cheaper and you can call and speak to them and negotiate fees such as commissions and ECN charges depending on the amount of trades… Account size really doesnt matter as long as it is $25k US and you are making the trades.
I was trying to remember why I didn’t use Tradestation and I think they don’t take overseas or foreign customers, which is what this thread is about. I think you have to be residing in the USA, but not sure. With Cybertrader overseas foreign clients were allowed.
[quote=“Filthywaffle”]Been having some trouble with opening an account with the US online brokerages. As a US citizen residing abroad, they won’t touch me. Their reason: “Because of the way we are structured and because of industry licensing requirements, we would not be able to open an account for a US citizen living abroad.”
How have some of you handled this? Just use a US relative/friend’s home for the street address, and quietly use your Taiwan residence for the mailing address? Just go through a local bank?[/quote]
Hmm. I opened one recently while living in the US. I’ll be moving to Taiwan shortly. The address I’m using is my parent’s US address (which is permanent and reliable), and I’ll be drawing from my US bank account for buying shares. They don’t HAVE to know I’m living abroad, do they? 