Hello,
There are some great bank accounts i can get in australia to have USD deposited into and use with a linked card, such as from citibank and HSBC.
The only problem is, i want to open one under my business. and they all say they are for personal use only. I want one to deposit USD money from our payment gateway into it, and then use the linked card to make purchases from our USD suppliers.
Does anyone know of any banks that has a USD account linked to a debit card that can be opened by a business and doesn't have any crazy fees.
USD Bank Account in Australia under a Business
PixelPaul on 26/04/2019 - 12:43
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our current bank only has AUD accounts, CommBank like a few others don't have linked cards and only allow bank transfer payments.
Getting a USD business bank account is generally possible with any major bank + Citi,HSBC, etc.
I think your stumbling block is the need for a debit card.
What would you need the debit card for? Overseas travel?
I operate a USD business account with ANZ. Only funds to go in and out are Telegraphic Transfers in and out.
I would not recommend ANZ for USD account though, as they require you to go in branch to make payments whereas others (eg HSBC, Citi) do not.we need to pay a lot of supplier/services via visa or mastercard in USD. bank transfer will not work for us.
citi and HSBC say we need to have an account with a lot of money in it already with them, so they are a no go.
everyone else like commbank, anz, westpack only allow Telegraphic Transfers, no card.citi and HSBC say we need to have an account with a lot of money in it already with them, so they are a no go
They're basically not interested in small business accounts. I think there's too much compliance overhead with small business customers.
Try Transferwise's borderless bank account. https://transferwise.com/help/topic/1078409/borderless-accou…
Transferwise looks good. but they are brining in new fees soon which would be way to much.
What sort of fees are you concerned about? Most things are free with Transferwise unless you are converting currencies.
actually, i just spoke to them and it should be free if we only deal in USD and nothing else.
i just have to check now that our payment processor will accept them. yay.
thanks.@PixelPaul: Yes, if you are receiving USD and paying out your suppliers in USD as well, the cost would be minimal. I mean that is the whole point of keeping a USD based account right?
Even if you are converting some of your USD payments to AUD to pay your suppliers here, your costs would still be less than if you have gone with any other method. I started with Ozforex, then Hifx, and now I use Transferwise because their currency conversion is cheaper than everyone else.
@geek001: Transferwise linked MasterCard is not available in Australia, so they are no longer an option :-(
@PixelPaul: Oh, I didn't know you needed a Mastercard. Why do you need a Mastercard tied to the account?
@geek001: because we can only pay our suppliers and for certain services in USD via card. ( not credit card, debit card is fine )
@PixelPaul: You may want to consider getting a prepaid credit card for that and load it via your Transferwise account.
Transferwise linked MasterCard is not available in Australia, so they are no longer an option :-(
Says it is on their website https://transferwise.com/au/business/card
Read about these guys in the news - AirWallex. They basically serve business customers like yourself. Check it out and let us know if it works
Sounds like the same system as TransferWise? No debit card option though.
my thoughts on it too
There's a lot of companies popping up in this corner of the market. Taking TransferWise and one of the others initial lead.
No debit card option though.
Virtual cards are available at the moment with physical cards in testing.
https://www.airwallex.com/au/features/cards
@PixelPaul How much money are we talking about - outgoing payments to suppliers (ballpark) ? 10k, 100k, 500k?
If it's just 10k, take the hit on the FX spread and pay your suppliers with an AUD card. You can probably optimize this down to 1% or less.
If it's 100k, look at opening a personal USD account in the US. Use the debit card from that to make your payments.
If it's 500k, I'm surprised that your suppliers are still accepting credit cards. Ask them for wire details.it about 10K, our margins are very tight. and when 25% of the profit goes to fees and exchange spread, it not a good idea. At the moment we use paypal, but i really don't like using them, but it looks like i will have to continue too until another company has an option.
it about 10K, our margins are very tight. and when 25% of the profit goes to fees and exchange spread, it not a good idea.
Whoa - 25% of the profit goes on fees and spreads that's crazy. You can probably optimize the spread down to 1%
Here's what I would do:
- Start receiving your USD payments into a transferwise account (costs nothing)
- Open a personal Citibank Plus or 28 Degrees card to make your payments (no international fees)
- Try to make all your payables due on the same day (deliberately delay payment or prepay if you have to).
- The day you make the payments, convert your USD balance in transferwise to AUD (transferwise charges around 0.5%)
This leaves another 0.5% for exchange rate fluctuations between your card rate and transferwise rate. Most days of the week you should achieve a round trip of under 1%
It's pretty unlikely someone will have product on the market that meets your needs any time soon. There's just no money to be made in it.
I know you're going to say, the personal card isn't ideal - but it's your best option. When you think about it, there's nothing wrong with it either. Lots of companies rereimburse employees for expenses incurred on personal cards.
3.9% is payment gateway fees. the rest of that could be exchange rate fluctuations, credit card fees. adding upto 5% Our profits are about 20% of money coming in. so thats 25% to fees.
3.9% is payment gateway fees
Who charges that? The merchant that your paying or PayPal when you receive that money from your clients?
Are you sure your clients will just transfer money to your USD account, once you have one?
@salmon123: paypal, stripe most payment gateways have fees to that amount when accepting international (USD) charges.
@PixelPaul: Yeah - so getting a US bank account + debit card doesn't save you much, if you want to accept card payments.
So I'm missing the point of your original thread. It seems like your problem is that your business margins aren't high enough to cover the merchant fees that payment gateways charge, rather than the FX fees you might be paying on USD payments.
@salmon123: Adding in to this conversation agreeing with PixelPaul - bank transfers are insanely expensive percentage wise. You suffer from the shoddy interest rates plus a bank fee if they have one. PayPal is marginally cheaper
You suffer from the shoddy interest rates plus a bank fee if they have one
Once you're in the business account world, interest rates on transaction accounts are always 0.
At the moment we use paypal, but i really don't like using them
Do you have a PayPal US account? TransferWise + PayPal US probably solves all your problems!
If it's 10K, I'd recommend you fly over to any US city, open a Bank of America personal checking account (all you need is your passport), get the Travel Rewards VISA card while you're at it, then get Stripe and/or Paypal paying into that personal account (tested, works fine) and pay your suppliers with the credit card collecting a nice cashback for your trouble.
Larger amounts I'd be more concerned at doing with a personal account, but you'll be fine with those numbers.
I have also been in the same scenario. The only option is to open a bank account in the USA. Stripe has a service to set up a business & bank account in the USA. This way you can get paid into your USA Bank account and pay your suppliers from that account. This may bring in another issue of tax filing in the USA, getting an EIN etc. But on a long run may be very profitable since PayPal exchange rates suck big time. Check out this link https://stripe.com/atlas.
Another option is to visit the USA and open a bank account yourself. I heard businesses in Australia can open bank accounts in the USA. But their requirement is for us to be physically present there to open an account. But I am not sure how this works.
yeah i looked into that atlas thing, it is cool. but i don't want to create a business entity in USA.
maybe i will look into having a holiday to the USA and opening an account.
I beleive if you already have the dollars in your paypal account it is less than if they take it from you bank account at the time of transaction
what did you end up doing OP??
I need an incoming USD and EUR account for my business.
My customer has (so far) rejected accepting transferwise as transferwise uses partner banks.the customer wants a letter from the bank that I own the account. Transferwise can give me this, however the SWIFT code is not transferwise's. its their partner's.
transferwise is the best.
otherwise you need to speak to HSBC or citibank.
I know that CommBank offers business foreign currency accounts, but don't know about a linked debit card, nor fees.
I assume your business already has an Australian domiciled account at a bank here; why not ask them what they can offer.