for me brou is the best option so far.

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Where I live, the only bank is BROU.

We had to have a letter of recommendation from our northern bank, passports, utility bill showing an address here and someone who was already a client at that Branch had to sign a form saying they knew us.
We were not allowed a credit card for a couple of years - just a debit card that we could use to get money out of an ATM.

Depending where you are from, some Banks may not be willing to open an account at all.

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I would recommend no bank account at all. Banks are evil. They charge fees for something that costs them nothing. They limit access to your money. And they work with the government to track and tax you. And they have a history of losing and/or stealing depositors' money. Don't play along.

But where will I put all my money then?

Don't have money! It's just paper anyway. And soon it will be worthless.

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Thanks for asking this Sibylleito - am also keen to know. What is the interest rate like on average there please, if anyone would like to throw that info in as well?

Would of course just google these details but my Spanish is at the foundation stage still.

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Crazyfarmer, in some ways I agree with you. What one needs is an alternative currency system like the talent exchange we have here in Cape Town. Maybe that's something to think about establishing there if you don't have one already?

Only problem is, Talents don't buy petrol/gas. Almost everything else is pretty much covered.

Check out www.ces.org.za

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No matter which bank you use, ALWAYS keep track of your deposits and withdrawals. Don't trust the banks. There have been documented cases of bank embezzlement here.

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One quick look at what happened in Cyprus recently is all you need to know. That was a trial run.

Also, The G20 recently voted to stop considering deposits "money". This gives derivatives superpriority over deposits. So that nice FDIC insurance you have in the US? It's a joke now. You only get that after every one of the derivatives have been paid. Which means you get nothing. I'm sure the banks here are the same.

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I have an account with Discount Bank. I don't recall ever kissing my bank manager when I had appointments with them in Canada, but that's one of the little thrills I get here.

Interestingly, real estate transactions will have to be funded through the banks in the not-too-distant future - no more cash deals.

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Interest rates vary depending on whether you invest in US dollars, Uruguayan pesos, euros or Indexed Units and the amount you invest.

We bought Government Bonds in pesos that are giving approx. 14% interest. You can also get ones in Indexed Units that pay 5% over the rate of inflation which is currently about 9%. For both of these you have to be a permanent resident or citizen we were told. They are also tax free.

Investments in US dollars only pay about 3%. Did not ask about euros but you do not need to be a resident.

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Sorry, that should read that you do not need to be a resident for the USD investments Did not ask about the euros..

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My neighbor is about to finance a house in "units". I give it five years before he loses his property.

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Thanks so much for your reply Morell - that's amazing! V welcome news.

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I guess there is not much to add to all that has been said. Morell has given you all the info if you INSIST in using a bank except I will add that in my personal experience (I spoke personally to the bank manager) if you are a US citizen you will have to go through all Morell says and at the end I was told they were not accepting US accounts because of all the docs they had to submit to the IRS due to FATCA.

But I do want to mention that Crazy farmer's comment not to use a bank, even though it may seem funny, its todays REALITY and I would specially pay attention to his last sentence. DON'T HAVE MONEY!

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See my earlier posting. Now you got it! Want to buy petrol use Gold, Silver , Platinum etc. Maybe even good whisky would buy you some petrol. I'm sure everyone can use a shot of it as it has been for centuries. And the older the better so no problem storing it. Just keep an eye on Greece and the plans the banks at other countries have generated from there.

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Thank you all for the feedback. Actually I am Swiss, so I guess some of the points that were mentioned will not apply to me. I hope this is an open group and non US passport holders are welcome as well ;)
Chances are that we will go for Santander because we might be able to get the credit card with a minimum bank transfer in the beginning as well. I know how hard it is to get a credit card abroad, especially an international one, so we will see what kind of requirements we will be exposed to.
Again thank you everyone for your kind input.
I hope to see you all some day or then on the upcoming carnival event from Internations!

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What are indexed Units?

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Crazy,
one additional piece of knowledge to add to your wise input about bank deposits.
Peoples bank deposits become the property of the bank since its considered a loan you give the bank and the statement is your IOU.

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Indexed Units are used for longterm debts such as mortgages and investments. They tend to be popular in high inflation countries.
Here is a little about them.

The Indexed Unit, or Unidad Indexada (UI) in Uruguay, was created after Uruguay underwent a financial crisis in 2002. This unit is like Chile’s Unidad de Formento, which is adjusted with the CPI ( consumer price index), and replaced the previous Unidad Reajustable (UR) which was adjusted according to a wage index. The index is calculated by Instituto Nacional de Estadistica’s (INE), and is subject to daily changes to reflect changes in the CPI. The indexing to the price level does not incur inflation risk since the real value of payments remains constant. As of January 22, 2014, 1 UI is equivalent to 2.7322 Uruguayan Pesos ($).

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Thanks! Great explanation.

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And of course, the CPI is always a true and accurate number.

Official inflation in the US is around 5%. Actual inflation is closer to 20%. So if you're getting a 10% return on your unit based investment, you're not making 5%, you're losing 10%. I bet it's the same here in Uruguay, just less pronounced. But the balance increases while no one understands. It's a win for govco.

Also, I'm willing to bet that the units used to price government loans and the units used for mortgages are totally different. They have to be. Otherwise, how could the government minimize the return on your investment while also maximizing your mortgage payment?

I bet if you read the fine print in the unit based mortgage, they can really set that calculation for the units to whatever they want, whenever they want.

No thanks.

You're right kimbo, yes your deposits are the property of the bank, and you're an unsecured creditor. Guess who gets screwed first in all bankruptcy proceedings... that's right, unsecured creditors.

Money and banking reminds me of a famous line from the movie War Games. "It's an interesting game. The only winning move is not to play."

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can you backup this figure of inflation in the US you just mentioned?

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As I mentioned before all these items are complex to understand and more important as not so crazy says, is the method of CALCULATION can be changed to what's convenient to hide reality. Look how the method to calculate the cost of living for SS increases were changed and of course the cost of living came to a lower value resulting a no increase in SS for 2 years.
I don't know if anybody can back up these numbers or even care to but all you have to do is look at the cost of gasoline, insurance premiums, licenses etc and then decide for yourself. I can tell you that I have personally experienced a 50% increase on insurance and licenses not to bore you with all other items which are more than 20 %.

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I subscribe to a website that inform me of bank failure and monthly there are many small bank failures that the FDIC takes over and other banks absorb. At present there are many large banks that are shaky including Chase and Bank of America. Of course you don't see that in the press. You would have to go to a rating co. like Weiss but of course the rating its not free.

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Inflation is calculated all sorts of ways, some reasonable, some insane. The US wants a low CPI figure both for political reasons, and because government benefits are all indexed to the CPI.

This shows the US CPI figure if it were calculated the way they calculated it back in 1980. It shows how the US government has been adjusting the inflation calculation downward over the last 25 years to hide inflation. It currently shows around 10%, not the much lower figure the US likes to claim now.

http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts

But it's important to remember that the CPI calculation in the US doesn't not include food or fuel, on purpose. They claim this is because these things are too volatile, but I believe this is disingenuous. For most actual humans, food and fuel are the most important things.

Finding reliable information for food price increases in the US is problematic. 1000s of news sources in the US, from newspaper to TV news are owned by just six giant multi-national corporations (down from 100s in the 70s) who also participate in the control of the US government. So the media in the US tend to report what the government wants them to report.

Here's a free alternative media source that has some information about food costs:

http://www.infowars.com/there-is-no-inflation-unless-you-eat-food-use-water-live-in-a-house-get-sick-go-to-school-or-do-taxes/

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-19/beef-prices-surge-most-decade-food-inflation-soars

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/the-inflation-rate-is-a-lie-too

Also not included in the CPI calculation are utility bills and health insurance costs. The US government blatantly lies about health care costs now because of the political fallout of obamacare. Monthly insurance payments up there have doubled or tripled since obamacare started. So imagine paying US$200 per month for health insurance (that doesn't really cover anything, and refuses to pay if you get cancer), and having it go up to $500.

Obama is also busy shutting down coal fired power plants in the US without trying to replace any of them with something else. This is driving electricity prices up and up.

The US is currently printing more than $80 billion dollars per month. This is not going to end well.

brian

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WOW Brian right on!
Besides the items you mentioned not included is also college cost. These are mostly the items the consumer cares about and they are NOT included.

By the way my insurance has gone up to $600 a month and it has an out of pocket of $7500 with a deductible of $3000. Not to mention many doctors are not taking it now.

My friend has fallen into the insurance hole where he does not qualify for Obamacare or Medicaid and cannot afford any insurance so he will have to pay the penalty or claim the insurance hole to register to the new exclusion claim if it is implemented.

You touch a sore point with the printing. It only leads to the collapse of the fiat dollar currency & super inflation wiping the wealth of many not prepared, as it happened in the Weimar republic in the 1930's.

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With regard to money printing, the US is really a special case. With Zimbabwe or Wiemar Germany, they didn't have the world's reserve currency. So money printing led directly to hyperinflation as would be expected.

But the US has the petrodollar (for now). And there's massive debt owned by other countries. So for countries like China, they have had an incentive to help maintain a stable dollar. Recently though, they've begun to undermine the dollar by negotiating trade deals with Russia and India, oil for gold. This is bad news for the dollar. And if enough of these deals go through, the value of the dollar will crash, which leads to hyperinflation.

Libya threatened to sell oil for something other than dollars, was actively trying to setup a gold backed currency to use for oil trade, and didn't have a central bank controlled by the Rothchilds and the Bank for International Settlements. This is the real reason Qaddafi was killed. The day after he was killed, and they setup a new government, do you know what their first two acts as a government were? One was to ship all gold bullion out of the country to London. The other was to shut down the old central bank and create a new one tied into the BIS.

Guess who else wants to sell oil for something other than dollars and controls their own central bank... that's right, Iran. This is why we're trying to depose Assad in Syria. He's an ally of Iran and Russia, a country who also wants to get away from the petrodollar.

Once Syria falls, the US will move short and medium range missile batteries into Syria, while also denying Russia access to the port in Tarsus. This will prevent or severely hinder a military response from Russia. Then the US will immediately turn their attention to Iran.

The US will definitely to war to preserve the petrodollar, even if it means risking ww3 with the Russians and Chinese, another reason to get your late teen kids out of the US.

So the monetary situation is somewhat more complicated for the Dollar. The bankers are actively trying to destroy the economy in the US (and doing a bang up job), so if things drag out for a while, we may end up with deflation in the US instead of inflation. The crystal ball is a little murky.

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For those of you who are interested, here's a good site for real information about what's going on:

http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/

He makes a lot typos and grammatical errors, but his analysis and info from contacts are spot on.

I read infowars.com frequently also.

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you are so appreciated, I am just in talks with a former banker who is now a Boeing engineer and he is telling me exactly the same thing. It's going down the drain sooner rather than later. By the way, a wise man suggested Canadian maple leafs because the stated value is $1 but as it's gold it is worth more, but you can bring in 10K of them and declare it as $10,000 which is "face value" as they are currency.

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Edy, I don't think the face value trick works anymore.

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Right, so you think customs are idiots and they don't know the difference. I don't think so. go to cambio gales you will them listed there.

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Carlitos, what she's talking about was how they did things, at least in the US. For years and years, when you had to declare gold coins on the way out of the US, because they were marked as $20, you could use that as the value of the coin on customs forms. This even worked when the coins were worth hundreds of dollars. I believe it was because of some loophole in the law. Obviously the customs agents knew what they were really worth, but had to follow the law. Other countries of course could value them however they wanted.

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OK, thanks for the info.

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Not so crazy,
excellent posting and right in all counts. You sound like a college professor with a Doctorate in international politics.
By the way I believe Brazil has also started trading in their currency and not in Dollars. As far as WWIII if we keep messing with Putin and take him to his limit we may be unpleasantly surprised .He's no pansy and remember wars start by a decision of one man right or wrong and usually for unworthy reasons. He's been accumulating gold for a few years now foreseeing the sanctions by the west when he took over Crimea and his future plans for Ukraine. As results of these sanctions he has worked out a deal with China to sell them Gas and oil and will not be in Dollars. Russia was the top oil producer of oil in the world in 2012 above Saudi Arabia and number 2 in natural gas . He says let the west freeze.

We also reneged in our deal with the Saudis in protecting them militarily if they would denominate all oil sales in Dollars. So now the Saudis have no reason to continue this agreement. And some of the other OPEC countries may follow.

The other item is that most of our debt is own by China and they are unloading it quickly before the Dollars devaluates.

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True. Not only that try leaving with $10K of gold today and passing it through the TSA. Good luck!

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You still are allowed up to $10K in Gold real value based on the $/troy oz of gold ( Spot price today is at $1204.90/oz) That would be 8 Canadian gold Maple leaf coins if you could buy it them at that price but they are being sold at $56 over spot which would only get you 7 coins. But good luck going through TSA. I personally would not try leaving with any gold.

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Carlitos.
you are right but remember Customs is one division and TSA is another and their education of the laws are world apart. Besides TSA is security and anything outside of their jurisdiction they do not understand can create problems for the traveler.
Gold daily value changes and money are difficult concepts to grab even for financial people.
Read all the horror stories associated with TSA.

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I am talking about tsa, I am talking about the old lady behind the x-ray in carrasco.

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You can still (for now) leave the US with as much gold, silver, and cash as you want. There's a series of complicated forms you have to fill out. And you have to nail it. Because if you give them any excuse at all, they could easily confiscate it.

When you get to your point of exit in the US, and not the domestic flights leading to Miami or wherever, customs pulls you aside, makes you miss your connecting flight, and counts all the gold or whatever you have. They interrogate you, trying to convince you that you really are a drug lord, and look for a reason to take it from you. If all your ducks are in a row, they let you leave with it.

Oh, and don't get pulled over for a minor traffic violation on the way to the airport. Because you better believe the local police will call it drug money and use civil forfeiture to take it from you.

The kleptocracy is alive and well up there.

brian

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This is about one form of investment here .Las Letras de Regulacion Monetaria. Short term rates are over 14% at present but demand for the longer term ones exceeds supply.

http://www.elpais.com.uy/economia-y-mercado/sigue-fuerte-demanda-lrm-plazos.html

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I have seen many points discussed here, but few related to my question of which bank in Uruguay locals recommend. As there might be others interested in this question let me add an update that we are now working towards an account with Discount Bank (future Scotiabank), but we need further documents for this from abroad.
For the air and sea shipment of our household goods we will have no choice but to go through BROU.
Any further advice on opening a bank account in Montevideo is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

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at the very beginning I said brou, why not brou?

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Hello Sibylleito - no advice from me, sadly, just a fellow quester hoping to be there next year at the very latest.

I had more or less mentally settled on BROU. What is is that made you decide not to go with them for anything but where one doesn't have any other choice?

What does Discount Bank have in its favour that is inclining you towards them?

I hope you don't find my question irritating; I'd really like to know what formed your decision.

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Why are you forced to go through BROU for your container?

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Quyn tremendo chupa medias.

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we have BROU and so far have been quite satisfied, but not in a position to compare with others.

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Perdon, Carlitos - No hablo español muy bien. I'm still learning.

Google translates that as: 'Tremendous stocking sucks'.

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Dear Crazyfarmer,

the reason is very simple: There are three options for the bank guarantee letter for the incoming houshold shipment: private bank (not yet, or I would not have asked in the forum), Banco de Seguros del Estado (less preferred by moving agent) or then through BROU (only choice for us). I do not know of any other versions for the bank guarantee for the import of household goods.

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Dear Crazyfarmer,

the reason is very simple: There are three options for the bank guarantee letter for the incoming houshold shipment: private bank (not yet, or I would not have asked in the forum), Banco de Seguros del Estado (less preferred by moving agent) or then through BROU (only choice for us). I do not know of any other versions for the bank guarantee for the import of household goods.

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Dear Quyn,

an easy answer why we are going for another bank than BROU: customer service, monthly charges, credit card, minimum amount per month....
Check otherwise with your accountant or lawyer as they have more detailed info.

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Thanks Sibylleito - good to hear from many directions. Will also of course find out more from chosen expert. But am grateful for your input.

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Buy in Singapore and store it there too. Thats what I intend to do.

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What do you mean??? They are talking about opening a bank account in UY.

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Here is a link to a website that has the history of the Uruguayan peso that may be of interest to some of you.

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/forex/u/uyu-uruguayan-peso.asp

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Hy Sibylleito,

You ended up at the Discount Bank in Montevideo, no? Was there someone there who spoke English?

Thanks.

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Dear Focus,

no I do not have any connections at the Discount bank that speaks English. Sorry for no better news.

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you don't speak spanish, no problemo, hire sameone that speaks both languages and has references and you will be ready to go everywhere in this country.

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Thanks for the response Sibylleito. I suggested you try the bank early on as I use it here in Punta and am quite happy.

No, I'm OK thanks Carlitos. It was a question I was asked so I guess I have to tell the person they will need a translator. Do you work as one? If so, I will forward your name.

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I do work as a translator, I also work make phone calls when people need to buy certain things or they need to fight for something, warranties for instance. I can get deeply involved into technical problems or legal problems too. I have several references to provide.

thanks,

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The easiest way I know to bank in Uruguay is to open a corporation. You do not need special documents to open a corporation in Uruguay. With the corporation, you can open a bank account with the tax id of the corporation.

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Wow - that's so useful! Many thanks.

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MHargraves ,

Are you talking about an SA?

What are the tax requirements for this? In the US, corporations aren't taxed if you don't make a profit. But here, that's not the case. How much does the tax end up being for "easy banking"?

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A lot has changed in 5 years, and rather than me saying what I did, I think it would be better to contact an attorney.

There is a free trade zone in MVD. I would try to establish the corporation there.

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