Looking for a Bank in South America
 

Hi Team!

I cant remember haw many hours Ive spent rifling through The Hubb getting advise and Ideas for my planned Trip round South America. This forum is truly the Bible when it comes to Motorcycle Travel.

One question I cant find an answer though...... Is there one bank that operates in all/most countries in South America so I can start placing some reserves for when I need them?

Cheers

Mark

:cowboy:

I rode through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina in '06. I had 2 ATM cards, one on the Cirrus network, the other on Plus. I was always able to get money from my USA checking account with one or the other at ATM's. Some ATM's will only accept 4 digit PIN's, in stead of the 6 that is now common here.

Dude

I opened up a US dollar Citibank deposit account (careful, that´s a C ;) in the UK before I left & deposited my funds in there.

When I use a Citibank bank or affiliated bank ATM in central or south america there´s no fee for withdrawal, although there is a currency exchange deal going on which is swings & roundabouts - you get that with any withdrawal.

Where dollars can be withdrawn & you use one of ´their´ATMs then there´s no fee at all :)

And you get a pittance of interest on your dosh, which might buy you a pint when you´re skint :)

As long as you keep a minimum in the account it´s free to operate (that´s the UK version), think it´s around sterling 500.

Citibank aren´t great, as our lass opened up an account in the US & they wanted to charge me a sterling 30 to transfer funds across, so there are limitations depending on where you open the account.

It´s working for me, check it out
Scouse

Awesome! Thanks for the pointers team. :thumbup1:

Nationwide anyone??
 

Thanks Scouse,

Will look into it 4 sure. I have trawlled through old post & set up a nationwide account in the UK & have been using it for the past 3 months all over the world so far with no charges. Been in Hong Kong, Australia & the US so far. I get a resonable interbank rate ,sometimes better than what I would get in a B de Change. It is a visa card so hopefully should work most places??? Not too sure what the plus or cirrus networks are?

Thanks for any advice.

Cheers Mojo