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Ask HN: Which US bank for multi-currency accounts?

5 points by euph0ria ↗ HN
Hi HN,

Just wanted to ask some feedback from you since we are an (ex)-SVB customer who used their multi-currency accounts.

Which bank do you use for multi-currency accounts? What are the fees and fx-rates typically?

We are looking for an option but it seems many of the major banks do not offer currency accounts that are registered in the US.

14 comments

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mardiyah
correct

Imho simply buy gold, next opt to it is yuan

euph0ria
We are looking for a multi-currency account to receive wires from customers. Buying gold does not solve this unfortunately.
tomcam
My compliments on your diplomatic handling of the “answers” you’re receiving
cjbenedikt
Wise offers US ac
euph0ria
Doesn't offer currency accounts with wire instructions unfortunately.
atmosx
What is a currency account and how it differs from a regular account?

Wise will allow you to open multiple accounts in popular currencies with one click and has pretty good exchange rates compared to market average for low to medium volumes.

euph0ria
It would allow an external party, that is not you, to make an international wire of funds to that account.

Wise has SEK accounts, but only you can fund them, your clients cannot.

atmosx
> Wise has SEK accounts, but only you can fund them, your clients cannot.

Why not? Each account has IBAN (EU) or routing number (US)? What's stopping from getting paid in wise accounts? I have friends who use wise to accept money from contracting clients. These look pretty regular bank accounts to me.

euph0ria
Yes, but for example Swedish currency SEK does not have an IBAN account. Wise is unable to offer that (IBAN for SEK) for all but the major 8 currencies.
atmosx
I see, thanks for explaining.
eevmanu
Could Interactive Brokers (IB - https://www.interactivebrokers.com/) be a good alternative? despite is not strictly a bank since it supports multi-currency accounts with good fx-rates.
euph0ria
Unfortunately it wouldn't support our customers to send us fx-wires.
euph0ria
Support multi-currency:

TIAA Bank: Supports it. However charges $65 per outbound wire, crazy expensive.

SVB: Supports it. $100 / month maintenance fee. Future of SVB highly uncertain.

Unknown:

Wells Fargo: Unknown, spent lots of time being redirected between departments until I had to hang up because it took too long time. Will check again in the future.

No support:

First Republic: Only for larger customers that do not hold currency permanently, only if they continously convert to USD. Their customer support was really nice.

Citi: No support, only through sister company Citi International but not US based

Bank of America: No support multi-currency support for SME customers

Chase: No multi-currency support for SME customers

Bank of America: No multi-currency support for SME customers

PNC: No branch in several US states, therefore can only open accounts in certain states

US Bankcorp Business: Can't hold foreign currency

Wise.com: Not US based. Only for major 8 currencies. Not for smaller currencies such as Swedish SEK as they cannot provide an inbound IBAN.

XE.com: Not US based. No support