Job Discussion Forums

[Gawain]

Going to backpack for few years, teach English throughout South America, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Bolivia, Venezuela, probably without work visa or legal right to open bank account. How can I send my US$ from my California bank account if I cannot open a local bank account to receive funds?

Have you lived in South America for long time without local bank account? What do you do? Just use cash and American Express Travel Cheques? Use your USA ATM card in local banco ATMs?

I don't want to carry my life savings in travel cheques. I want to avoid credit cards. I know victims of identity theft. Ideally a wire transfer would be best but that requires wiring US$ to a local bank account which a tourist backpacker cowboy teacher cannot have. Any advice?

[Guy Courchesne]

ATMs are easy enough, for drawing on your US account. Sending money back into it isn't so easy though.

[Sgt Killjoy]

I use Netbank and I suggest the same thing for teachers from the USA. There are no checking account fees with them, as long as there is activity at least once every 3 months on the account, no ATM fees at all. When I withdraw from Thailand, I get the very best exchange rate, better than if I had taken dollars into the bank.

Netbank gives you both a VISA Check Card which works as a credit card and as an atm and a seperate ATM-only card. I use the ATM-only card and if it gets eaten by a machine(not happened yet!) I still have a back-up until a new atm card can arrive.

You can do transfers from any US Bank account for free, ie ACH transfers are free and you can easily set them up to draw money out on a regular or one time basis from any other bank account you have. The good thing about this is that your life savings are not accessible from the Netbank account, just as much money as you want to allow.

About sending money back: Sending back $200, wire transfer is not the way to go. Netbank doesnt charge fees, but the local bank that does the sending does and if you are unlucky, then an intermeidate bank will as well. I found that early on the best solution was to send money to a family member by Western Union. They then can go to any UPS Store and send my deposit by overnight mail for free. I send it by western union and 36 hours later it is in my account.

[rlloydevans]

I would advise against travelers cheques. My experiences in LA show that few places accept them, and those that do have lots of restrictions and fees. Generally, you have to go to a bank or a Cambio to turn them into cash.

We've done most of our banking online, as far as bills, etc. We also have an ATM card that works well (make sure it is a VISA or Mastercard ATM and tied into an international money system like Cyrus-sp?). Money transfers are expensive.

One way to do it is to have someone you trust become a signator on your account back home. That way they can see money is deposited in your account so you can access it with the Debit card. You just call or send an email. We've used this several times when going overseas (my wife's brother does the honors back home) and it has proven to be a dependable system.

[hlamb]