Banking What is the usual bank fees in BA

[CarliNeces]

Guys,

what is the usual bank fees for a bank a/c in BA

 

[Chesse]

We have an account at Santander Rio. The fees for a Caja de Ahorro last year were 30 pesos a month (probably have gone up by now! but I don't know.) and I don't remember there needed to be a minimum balance kept in the account as long as you kept paying the fees. For us as residents, it was all we could open - I'm pretty sure it's the same for citizens as well.

We got a debit card (Visa) that you could use for store purchases, but it didn't work online at all.

After a time of good standing with the bank (can't remember if it was 6 months or a year) we were issued an Amex credit card that worked as expected. Pay the balance every month or roll the balance over into a high-interest loan (24% if I remember correctly - never used that option).

After 18 months, we were offered an actual checking account (Infinity is the product name - checks and everything) that came with a real Visa debit card, a line of credit up to 18000 pesos and personal loans up to 50000 pesos (I think that's the limit - it may be higher, or I may be thinking of another product - we have the lowest product available). The cost is 130 pesos a month.

If you open a Caja de Ahorro, you immediately get the ability to take advantage of special discounts that most stores give to bank members. You have to look around to see, but there are discounts as much as 25% on purchases. You also get the ability to buy on interest-free payments from most stores. I think all the major banks have their own set of discounts.

If you are going to live here a while, I'd definitely say it's worth getting - but you need residency. I don't remember if you've said you have or not. I've heard anecdotal cases of people getting accounts without residency, but I've never known anyone personally who managed it, unless it was tied in with their application for residency.

Don't plan on bringing money from outside directly into your account - it's possible, but you have to have everything in order and go through a lot of rigamarole to do it.

I get my money in through other means and deposit a portion in our bank account to take advantage of sales and other things. Be careful of the amount of money you deposit and run through the account - supposedly AFIP is notified of movement over a certain amount (I believe it's 3000 pesos, but not sure).

If you are going to be running a (relatively) lot of money through your account - think also about getting a monotributista situation set up to pay taxes. They are fixed, you can invoice an entity outside of the country and account for your money in that fashion. You cannot run more than 200K pesos through the system as a monotributista, but that allows you to be legal and not have AFIP hassles to that point.

Of course, at 200K monotributista, you pay $1857 in taxes a month - but that ain't a bad rate at 11% and covers your obra social and such.

144K a year in reported income, btw, is only $957 a month, or 8%.

There are some complications on Monotributista related to monthly reporting of income, the amount of income declared each month can determine your year-end status if it's not consistent and could end up putting you in a new higher level and owe back taxes, etc.

 

[earlyretirement]

Yep...these fees sound correct. But there are ways around being charged.

You can open up an HSBC Premier account and they avoid any monthly fees, plus you get perks like getting a special shorter line, etc. In some branches they even have a totally different floor. Like the HSBC on Callao in Recoleta, the Premier department is upstairs so you don't even have to wait in line with non-Premier clients. The line downstairs is usually VERY long.

I haven't paid a monthly fee since 2003 with the Premier account. I can't remember how much you have to open the Premier account with these days. Back in the day it was at least 100,000 pesos I think when the exchange rate was much lower. I honestly don't know what they require now but I know my account has a lot less than that in it but they still don't charge me.

Also, if you get a salary and it's automatically deposited into your account, I think there is some special account where by law that you can open up where there isn't any fee.

But I don't know too much about that. I just know for my employees that's the way we set it up and I'm not sure they pay any monthly fee so you may want to inquire at the bank about that.

 

[CarliNeces]

Yep...these fees sound correct. But there are ways around being charged.

You can open up an HSBC Premier account and they avoid any monthly fees, plus you get perks like getting a special shorter line, etc. In some branches they even have a totally different floor. Like the HSBC on Callao in Recoleta, the Premier department is upstairs so you don't even have to wait in line with non-Premier clients. The line downstairs is usually VERY long.

I haven't paid a monthly fee since 2003 with the Premier account. I can't remember how much you have to open the Premier account with these days. Back in the day it was at least 100,000 pesos I think when the exchange rate was much lower. I honestly don't know what they require now but I know my account has a lot less than that in it but they still don't charge me.

Also, if you get a salary and it's automatically deposited into your account, I think there is some special account where by law that you can open up where there isn't any fee.

But I don't know too much about that. I just know for my employees that's the way we set it up and I'm not sure they pay any monthly fee so you may want to inquire at the bank about that.

I have used HSBC premier in some countries and have actually closed my account with HSBC premier in a few countries. i found out that even if you maintain a minimum balance in your home country, some other HSBC premiers outside your home country start levying fees on you if your balance is low. And I hate it. I hate paying bank monthly fees, even 10 us$. It kills me.

 

[earlyretirement]

I have used HSBC premier in some countries and have actually closed my account with HSBC premier in a few countries. i found out that even if you maintain a minimum balance in your home country, some other HSBC premiers outside your home country start levying fees on you if your balance is low. And I hate it. I hate paying bank monthly fees, even 10 us$. It kills me.

I agree! I haven't paid a monthly maintenance fee at any of my banks anywhere in the world I have accounts in over 15 years.

Absolutely refuse to do that. The good thing about the USA is almost all the major banks you have to have just a minimal balance and they will waive the monthly fee.

I've had good experiences with HSBC Premium. I have several accounts in several countries, including Argentina and they've never charged me a monthly fee. If they did, I'd close the accounts as well.

In Argentina, I definitely haven't had the minimum for many many years yet they never charge me a fee.

To be honest, you will not even use your local Argentina bank account for anything besides paying bills electronically. That's all I use my account for to pay my condo fees and expenses for my apartment there. NOTHING else.

 

[CarliNeces]

HSBC Uruguay are charging 20 us$ a month is the balance is below 25K

 

[earlyretirement]

HSBC Uruguay are charging 20 us$ a month is the balance is below 25K

Yeah, I think they started that a few years ago. I closed my HSBC Premier account in Uruguay 2 years ago. I did have over $25,000 in it but I started closing many offshore accounts outside of the USA.

By law, Americans have to declare all of their offshore accounts. Fortunately I did list that on the Form TD F 90-22.1 all my offshore accounts but what happens is the more offshore accounts you have, the higher chances that you will get audited by the IRS). It's a major pain to get audited.

Americans have to declare offshore accounts if they have over $10,000 in them.

 

[CarliNeces]

Yeah, I think they started that a few years ago. I closed my HSBC Premier account in Uruguay 2 years ago. I did have over $25,000 in it but I started closing many offshore accounts outside of the USA.

By law, Americans have to declare all of their offshore accounts. Fortunately I did list that on the Form TD F 90-22.1 all my offshore accounts but what happens is the more offshore accounts you have, the higher chances that you will get audited by the IRS). It's a major pain to get audited.

Americans have to declare offshore accounts if they have over $10,000 in them.

Some Americans I know got 5 year jail term for not reporting the offshore a/c . Scary.

 

[earlyretirement]

Really???

Wow...they must have had some serious cash in them. The more common thing is huge penalties. I've never known anyone to go to jail over it.

Now we don't keep bank accounts open where we don't own properties, with the exception of the UK.