Banking in US as international student

[ltam]

Not sure if a thread exists on this. I'm a Canadian moving to NJ. I'm wondering what is required to open a US chequings/savings account for non-immigrant (student) visa holders?

I currently use TD Canada Trust and wondered if there would be any benefits to opening either a TD Canada US dollar account or TD Bank (the US run subsidiary) account? Ie. would transfering money between TD Can and American TD Bank be more economical?

I've also heard good reviews of Chase and I'll be in NJ/NY. Any experiences with opening accounts with Chase also welcome.

My guess is I can't open an account once I move until I have a bill or tuition invoice stating my new address?

[fuzzylogician]

I opened an account with our university's credit union before I even arrived in the US. No local address was required; I can't remember what was but I'm pretty sure that if you have your visa documents and (maybe) lease with you, you'll be fine. Re: TD bank - if your credit history will transfer then it's worth opening an account there. If not, you could go anywhere and I don't have any relevant advice for that.

[Galahad]

From my understanding each school has agreements with certain banks as far as their international students are concerned. Normally banks ask for social security numbers which foreigners don't have at the start (you can get one later on down the road which makes life MUCH easier) but until then, the banks which your university works with normally are lenient towards foreigners provided you have a student ID. This was the story w/me and PNC bank for my undergrad at UPenn.

I think the TD option sounds good too but I'd check w/your bank in Canada. I'm guessing it would be more economical on the simple basis that I know somebody who has both a Canadian and a US TD account and they just transfer between them when necessary. And DEFINITELY ask about your credit history continuing, that would be a huge bonus worth taking!

[Safferz]

I currently use TD Canada Trust and wondered if there would be any benefits to opening either a TD Canada US dollar account or TD Bank (the US run subsidiary) account? Ie. would transfering money between TD Can and American TD Bank be more economical?

I'm also with TD Bank, and this option makes the most sense to me since there's a TD branch right next to my new campus. I'll probably go in to my local branch later this summer and look into opening a US account based at the branch in Cambridge.

[aberrant]

I believe you'll need your local/home/mailing address (e.g. a lease / letter with your name on it), some forms of identification (e.g. passport), and you'll need a certain amount of money that you can deposit immediately for your checking and/or saving account.

I am an international student and I opened my Wells Fargo account back in 2007 -- about 3-5 months after I moved to the U.S. since I was using HSBC and I could withdraw money (from a school that I went to) without getting charge for service/transaction fees.

Things that you only need to concern is if they will charge you any fees, imo.

[TakeruK]

You don't need to have a US address to open a US bank account: http://dan.matan.ca/US-Bank-Account-For-Canadians-Save-on-Currency-Exchange-Paypal -- I don't know how trustworthy this is, though!

For the person thinking of opening a US dollar bank account, it might not be super useful. I recently opened a US Dollar Bank Account with Bank of Montreal, and it was handy to deposit the US cheques from school visit reimbursements without losing on the exchange rate (I'll withdraw the money in US funds when I make my move). However, although you can write cheques out of this account, they are Canadian Cheques for US Bank Accounts, and new US regulations will NOT allow you to cash these cheques at a US bank. So, you can only write them to transfer from one Canadian US-Dollar Bank Account to another -- not very useful. However, you mention that TD is in the US, and it sounds like an "internal transfer" is the best idea!

I was just going to say thanks for this tip but then I checked and saw that TD Bank in America only has locations on the east coast =(

[ltam]

Thanks for the replies so far. I will do further research on the TD option (maybe call the branch in the college town I'm moving to). Essentially I need to find a way to avoid fees as much as possible while switching back and forth in currency (planning to visit home in Canada every other month and in the summer) as well as avoid having checks take forever to deposit.

I created another thread asking about this latter concern. I.e. SSHRC sends checks in the foreign currency of the school you attend, but my question is if the checks are issued from a Canadian bank won't they get held at a US bank for a long time before getting deposited?

[raybigs92]

Just confirming that in my experience you do not need a social security number to open a bank account. I have had experience with Bank of America and Citibank. Both simply required my passport.