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Jocubes2
  1/21/2015 14:19 EST

I am American and my wife carries dual citizenship. Today we attempted to open a bank account at BAC with a modest balance in San Juan del Sur and the bank rep recommended we review the U.S. law FATCA before opening the account. I reviewed FATCA on the U.S. Treasuery websiite which I understand was enacted 2010 for the IRS to be informed of American citizen money in foreign countries for purposes of taxation. I did not see NIcaragua on the list of jurisdictions with reciprocal agreements which I interpret as the NIcaraguan bank needs not report our bank account to the U.S. IRS. We plan to stay in Nicaraguan for some time. Is it ususal for expats to open bank accounts in NIcaraua and does anyone know if FATCA is a concern? Any suggestions or comments are welcome. Thank you.

timwood202000
  1/21/2015 15:19 EST

I am a resident and I opened up a checking account at Banpro. They did require that I fill out and sign the IRS reporting form. From my experience, the most important thing is to get a reference from your US bank and this will greatly speed up the process. Banking here is a totally different experience that what you are used to.

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atz111
  1/21/2015 15:22 EST

Open the account. The reporting is now almost universal...i believe N. Korea and Iran still balking.

If you stay here a while it has some advantages.

The reporting precedes are not difficult for you and unless you have $10,000 or over in the account at any one time, you do not need to do.

Obey the US tax law..or give up US passport if that is too onerous.

JGitaldezB
  1/21/2015 16:00 EST

tell her to just use her other citizenship not the us one

elduendegrande
  1/21/2015 16:32 EST

Bank employees here may be as circuitous as anybody else.

Open an account, I like Lafise best for their online services. Don`t expect all the fringes nor the ``consumer rights``. Monitor frequently online and keep receipts.

if you have a lot of money in a foreign bank you need to file a US form separate from your income tax, but it is no big deal, just one page. If you use your Nica acocount as a pass-thru for your monly expences, your average balance will be small.

majicjack
  1/22/2015 05:29 EST

We have been here five years and the first bank account we opened was with Bancentro and we were not residents. The next was with BAC and we are residents. I believe what the bank may be referring to is the dollar amount limits set by the USA on money transfers from USA to overseas banks. We run quite a bit of money thru every year and have never had any problems. We go to the counter at BAC and transfer $2500 at a time with debit card. It only cost one dollar to transfer money to you account here from the USA..

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timwood202000
  1/22/2015 08:23 EST

That is really good to know. I have been paying $40 per wire transfer. Does BAC charge you to use other bank's ATM machines?

Also, I got a BankAmericard/Travel Rewards credit card and they don't charge a foreign transaction fee.

Jocubes2
  1/22/2015 13:05 EST

Thank you magicjack. Great advice!

majicjack
  1/22/2015 16:18 EST

yes. with a Bac card you will pay a fee at other banks. If you have an account with BAC transfer your money with a debit card from your US bank and it cost you a dollar.

keywestgirl
  1/23/2015 07:21 EST

Magicjack,

What are advantages to having bank acct here? Can I pay bills....electric, cable, etc online?

Moved into the new casa this week ...have a lot to figure out!

Pam

elduendegrande
  1/23/2015 12:13 EST

Lafise (bancentro) has online utility payments plus saldo purchases for both ms and claro.

they just sent me a notice about a secondary security thingy for various other transfers.

they charge 1 buck to suck the daily limit from a US debit card, which is in my case 500 bucks. they charge nothing to suck bucks or cords out of your account on their machine. they have a charge to suck money from other national banks. I think they have a popup disclaimer on the fees.

Bac has a bilingual website that I have found generally less usefull. It seems they used to accept payments for some utilities and then stopped. to get cash from a US debit they charge a percent fee so I stopped using them when Lafise opened up in maxipali. Bac`s website is good for monitoring funds availability if you deposit a check. they would usually display it at about 2 pm on the day the funds were due to be good.
At the time bdf was the bank that was ``most likely`` to open an account without a cedula. I found bdf to be semi-dysfunctional in person, on line, and at the ATM, but that might just be an Esteli thing.

In any case, when you go to open an account bring your passport, proof of income, banking history and the pedigree for your favorite dog and plan to spend hours there, sign a pile of papers, and not get copies of what you signed. spanish only. It`s a one-time hassle, after you get your account open and your pin things go smoothly.
checking accounts and CDs are available , as are credit cards. I would think twice about a nica credit card because you don`t have the consumer protections you may be used to (or unaware of) in the US.

the number of ATMs have mushroomed in the last few years and in the cities and main cowtowns they are now easy to find--at the banks, gas stations, shopping malls, and major super markets. All give bucks or cords, unless the machine is out of money and offer printed receipts. I have had no problems with these machines, other than being out on money on holidays or Sundays. quick calculating in my head thats about 500 transactions with never a problem, but cya and keep receipts and pay attention.

If you carry one nica debit card and one US debit, you can go to just about any place you are likely to go and have ATM funds available, with Las Peñitas being the main exception I have found.

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KeyWestPirate
  1/23/2015 12:48 EST

I would add that, yes, you really don't want ATM or CC's tied to Nicaraguan bank accounts. There have been anecdotal accounts of a card being stolen, and the account cleaned out. In one instance, there was a suggestion that bank personnel were complicit in the theft.

YOU WILL NOT get this money back if it's lost.

I had a BANPRO atm (MaxiPali in Estelí) reboot during a transaction, before it dispensed my money. It was a US bank, a quick phone call back to the US, I had my money back in my account in two hours. Ths US bank requested a log of the ATM's transactions from BanPro, whether it was provided or not I don't know, but I got an email a month later saying the dispute was settled in my favor and the money was mine.

Another thing: When the ATM runs out of money (frequently), it will not give you a message that there is no cash. It will tell you that your debit or credit card is no good, creating a bit of panic the first time it happens.

When this happens you can try Cords instead of Dollars or vice versa. They will generally have one when they run out of the other.

majicjack
  1/23/2015 15:42 EST

One of the advantages is the money you save on card fees or transfer fees from the USA. The charges at the banks here are from $3.75 to $4.50 on debit card withdraws. Yes you can pay bills online here with a Nica Bank account. Our US debit cards have limits. Nica debit cards do not. if making purchases online. Some Credit cards also charge you an overseas charge if you use them to make draws from a bank here.
We have never had any problem with our banking here and have been at it for 5 years. We keep enough in the account here to cover any emergency and for other purposes and have no fear of loosing money.

elduendegrande
  1/23/2015 16:50 EST

Note your us bank may have a daily cash limit but calll them up and you can change it. Mine was $200 when I came down here but I changed it to 500. also, if you plan on using a cc here, call your bank or go online and give them a secodary address here so they don`t flag your transactions as suspicious.

Also, us banks typically have alert settings. I set mine to get an email for every cc transaction of any amount anywhere.

elduendegrande
  1/23/2015 17:01 EST

another response to your original question: If you are not up to anything fishy and you keep normal receipts and records, don`t sweat the IRS.
If you bring down more than 10k or whatever to build a house and they question it you should have ample records of where the money came from and that you are building a house. Actually, I read somewhere that 10k is a false number--the banks flag everything about 4k.

Don`t worry, be happy, go about your normal business.

Once you hear what happens to people here who keep a lot of cash on their person or in their house you will love your Nica bank, warts and all.

timwood202000
  1/23/2015 18:25 EST

I went to Banpro, LaFeiss and BAC. The only way you can make a transfer like MajicJack described with your US bank debit card is at BAC and only if you have a US account with BAC. I have a problem with my Banpro account in that I cannot log in to my online account. I took a guy with me that speaks better Spanish than me to translate. The customer service professional asked for my user name and password so she could try to log on to my account. I wrote it down and gave it to her. She asked for a clarification on the spelling and showed my password and user name to my translator. I told her then that I needed to change my password and I was informed that it had to be done in Managua and would take 8 days to complete.

KeyWestPirate
  1/23/2015 18:37 EST

"8 days to complete " Nicaragua time, and they say it with a perfectly straight face.

They know no different, so this is the normal.

Maybe the canal will change things. The Chinese will say WTF!! -- We can't build a canal in a 3rd world country.

The real reason I don't bank there is, the banks are a &^%$ing nightmare. They don't have an inkling of customer service. And you really don't need to bank there if you set things up right.

KeyWestPirate
  1/23/2015 18:52 EST

What they flag is a complicated equation for a bank. Any repetitive activity of even small transfers is supposed to flagged. The problem for the banks, is if they don't, they get fined.

So who knows? Even WU keeps track of transfers, and will balk at multiple transfers of small amounts in a short space of time.

It's a brave new world, and even if you aren't a narcotraficante or human trafficker (ever worse these days than running durgs), you can be fined for not adhering to the minutinae of the law.

I know of a Mexican guy who gave a ride to four CA girls in his official Mexican government truck south of Oaxaca, got stopped, and is doing 11 years in a Mexico jail for human trafficking.

He was probably just trying to get laid, figured the odds were pretty good.

He lost his truck too .. heh heh heh.

majicjack
  1/24/2015 05:55 EST

I have three accounts with BAC and do not have a what ever you called a US BAC account.. I have a Bank accounts in the USA that I use debit cards to transfer money to BAC accounts here. I also have a direct deposit from the USA to a BAC account here. If people are afraid of ATM, Credit or Debit cards on Nicaragua banks I think it is unfounded. There have been no Home Depot or Target incidents in Nicaragua. I have a $1500 limit on a bank debit card in the USA and my wife has a $1000. We transfer money all the time and have never had a problem. There are isolated incidents regardless where you go but we have and do a lot of business with the bank here and have never lost money. If I want to purchase something and the amount exceeds $1500 on my USA debit card I can't use it. If I want to purchase something that cost $10,000 and use my BAC debit card, no problem. If you go to the ATM with a BAC card you can only get $400 per day but go to the counter and get all you want if you have the funds to cover it. If you use a US debit card at any of the bank ATM's, you are going to pay high fees and still be restricted to the $400 a day limit.

majicjack
  1/24/2015 06:17 EST

Pirate, if you don't bank here and have no banking experience here how can you give anyone truthful and honest information on banking in Nicaragua? The truth of the matter is you are in a third world country and things are different here but it does not mean it is not good or dependable. There are many many Americans, Canadians and Europeans that do banking here and are very satisfied with it. Maybe your financial status is such that the high ATM fees do not bother you but someone living on a fixed income it makes a difference. If your income is $1200 a month then $3.75 and $4.50 means something every time you need to take money out of a bank. If you are expecting the service to be like the USA, forget it. Too many Americans come down here expecting these people to kiss their ass because the are here. If you are retired and living in Nicaragua what the hell is 8 days to wait on something. If you can't live with this you picked the wrong place to park. Why do people come to live in a country and then all they want to do is criticize it for its shortcomings? If you don't like it and can't take it, go back to where you came from. US banks don't give all that great of service either and they find a way everyday to take a little more from you.
"He said, someone told me and I know a guy that " are the biggest liars in the world.
Any USA retires that regardless if you have residency or not, if you want to open a Nicaragua bank account, Visit Mrs. Leon at the US Embassy and she can get you a direct deposit account for your social security. It will be deposited by a bank from New York into your Nica account and the funds will be available the 5th day of the month. The charge by the US bank is $6.00 and no charge by the NIca bank. You will be issued a debit card by the Nica bank to access your funds.

timwood202000
  1/24/2015 07:57 EST

I operate a feeding center and a farm that supports the feeding center and I have to buy food for 130 meals per day and pay salaries .....8 days to replace a debit card that you can't read the security code on the back and no other issues involved to me is ridiculous.

I personally went to BAC here in Chinandega and to La Feise and Banpro and none of them could take my debit card from my US bank and transfer money to my account at any of the above mentioned banks. I would definitely like to be able to do this and not have to pay $40 to make a wire transfer. Majicjack, could you please explain this process to me again because I am obviously too dense to understand what you said.

elduendegrande
  1/24/2015 10:13 EST

No fees--deposit a check from your US bank in your nica bank and wait the 21 to 28 days for your cash. I did it for years. get ahead one month and it works fine. The ``float`` is annoying, but US banks used to do this too.

Experiment with ATMs. Set your US limits as high as possible (call your bank and see if anybody knows!) and then go do withdrawals at different ATMs. My experience is that Lafise is 1 buck, some of the others are a whopping $1.50, and Bac is a percentage. Your mileage may differ, but a buck is a small thing to pay for the convenience of not having to go downtown and stand in line.

KeyWestPirate
  1/24/2015 11:49 EST

All true what you say, MagicJack.

I don't bank here, use a combination of debit card and WU to get my money down.

I have stood in line with Nica friends, and it's not pleasant. Lines are long anytime, on Saturday it's impossible. When you finally get there, don't expect a smile, and "how's it going today?"

If I banked regularly at one office it might be different . . .they would come to know me as they probably know you. And THIS is a very Nica thing: when I walk into the WU in Condega the owner takes my info, says 'wait here" and goes back and gets my money, effectively jumping the line for me.

It all comes down to "different strokes for different folks" and what works best in any given set of circumstances.

At the moment I'm getting by well, and I do have a fear -real or imagined- about the security and confidentiality of Nica banks.

majicjack
  1/25/2015 08:53 EST

We are moving to Quilali in April and there is no BAC bank there. However there is a Banpro ATM at the WU office. Tomorrow we will open an account at Banpro in Leon and be able to make withdraws from the ATM and not have to drive to Ocotal or Estili to do banking. We will go to Estili once a month for shopping anyway so we can exchange dollars for cords in Estili and get the better rate. We want the Banpro account in Quilali for emergencies and will still keep two BAC accounts open that we never touch anyway.

majicjack
  1/25/2015 09:01 EST

What I can't understand is why you can't transfer money from your US account with a US dedit card when you have an account with these banks. You are the first person I have ever heard of that has this problem.
Our procedure is walk up to the counter, present your debit card on the bank you wish to withdraw funds from, tell them how much you want up to your limit and they take your card, put it in the little machine, make out a withdraw slip, ask for your address and phone number and put the money in your hand and/or your bank account. Which ever you choose. Have never had any trouble and the waiting period is how ever long it takes to sign the receipt. The problem sounds as though it may be your card and not the bank?

timwood202000
  1/25/2015 12:39 EST

I can do just as you described. For $5000.00, it would cost me $80+. I thought this could be done for $1.00?

majicjack
  1/25/2015 19:56 EST

If you have a Nicaragua bank account and try to transfer the money with an online account on a bank in the USA, you will pay a wire transfer fee at the US bank and depending on the amount a fee here. If you walk up to the counter and transfer your money from the US account to your Nica account using a debit card it should cost you no more than $1.00 at a BAC bank. If you account is with BAC. I don't think it should be much different with other banks here? Our card limits are $2500 daily on US banks but we have never had any problem transferring this amount at any time.

JohnSS
  1/26/2015 02:48 EST

FWIW in the past if you have a BAC account both in the US and here then you can even transfer US account to account here online for little or no fee.. May work in the BAC bank for a US BAC debit card here too.

But If they have changed something & there is some secret way to transfer money on any debit card to any other bank here without a big fee the banks don't know about. This has been tried over & over & has not worked. If this worked nobody would use wire transfers or checks and wait the typical 30+ days for it to be available here.

majicjack
  1/26/2015 07:54 EST

John SS and other doubters, take a little trip to Leon and on the first day of the month, go to the bank with me and you can see with your own eyes how really easy it is to transfer money out of a US bank account with a US bank debit card to your account with a Nica bank. Be sure to bring pen and paper so you can take notes. The procedure last every bit of three or four minutes. Definitely wouldn't want you to miss something. We have friends that have money transferred to our account here because they do not have a bank account. this money transfer fees are paid at both ends. Our personal withdraws are not money transfers. They are with a debit card on our US bank, If you go to the ATM you are restricted $400 daily. You go to the counter and withdraw what ever your limit is on your US debit card. With my card and my wife's we can get up to $2500 a day and have never paid a transfer fee unless you want to call $1.00 a transfer fee. We have done this for 5 years now. I will show you the receipt given to me by the teller and you will see there is no charge for the transaction.
Pam, www.nicaragua-guide.com/banking.htlm. This will give you a list of services provided by BAC bank in Nicaragua. We have had a wonderful experience with this bank and are completely satisfied. Use this guide to ask questions when and if you are talking to the bank people. There is always someone in the bank that speaks English. JohnSS not a big banking secret, just have to know how and what you are doing. This is an honest invitation come on up and maybe you can learn something and save a little money?

timwood202000
  1/26/2015 08:13 EST

I live near Chinandega and the BAC bank rep. here told me to avoid fees in the neighborhood of 1.5%, I had to have a BAC account in the USA. I appreciate you help......hopefully we will get it figured out.

JohnSS
  1/26/2015 08:41 EST

Good input timwood202000 - Looks like more good information. Maybe majicjack can add something.

I don't have a BAC account but my local bank La Fise would not take my debit card even for the 1.5% which would be fine with me. Maybe someone new did not know what he was doing. That would be better than some of the ATM fees I have paid since I am not set up with a "no fee" US account that refunds the bank fees here too.
Before the $10K reporting rule an occasional check made it easy but I try to keep a low balance now.

elduendegrande
  1/26/2015 10:24 EST

First, what somebody in a position of authority told you does not have anything to do with reality in this country. Its a culture thing. good to get input from others here and try again! My old river running buddy`s favorite saying ``reality is a Fig Newton`` of your imagination`` has a lot of value here.

sunday afternoon I was in maxipali and tried to get cash. Lafise`s machine was empty so I went to banpros. The popup said the fee was a flat $1.50 for up to $700. i know my us banks limit is $500, so I took my $500 and ran. Banpro`s machine also gave me a choice of which account , checking or savings, to suck the money from and they took it from the right account, which was a pleasant surprize.

When in doubt, stick your card in an atm and read the popups. If you don`t like it you can always cancel.

KeyWestPirate
  1/26/2015 12:06 EST

I've always only paid $1.50 and use BanPro almost exclusively (it's the only cajero in Condega, so THAT's a non-brainer).

One other thing, I don' t know if I mentioned this, but if the ATM is out of money, it will tell you that your card is no good. Your heart skips a couple of beats, but RELAX!

Run it through again, and choose the other currency choice.

glockdiver69
  1/26/2015 13:11 EST

Tim,

Could you please explain what a "BAC account in the USA" is? I have a BAC account in Nicaragua, but I was not aware that BAC operated a bank or had branches in the USA.

As an aside, I have always had excellent customer service at the BAC is Rivas. I got to know the manager and some of the other bank employees and like all things in Nica, personal relationships AND A SMILE go a long way.

Thank you in advance for answering my question.

timwood202000
  1/26/2015 13:29 EST

BAC has branches in Florida go to http://www.bacflorida.com/es/internacional/

JohnSS
  1/27/2015 02:57 EST

Thanks for the education everybody. Looks like the La Fasi bank people here in SJDS need some training unless they have learned recently. I usually made 3 X $400 pulls a day at the close BAC ATM before they cut me off and then had to go to another ATM if I needed more. BofA stiffed me for fees higher than I wanted. By comparison 1.5% is cheap. Not buying anything anymore but still nice to know.

KeyWestPirate
  1/27/2015 09:54 EST

And remember, Nicaragua is a moving target.

Customer service is improving in all the competitive sectors. Claro, the banks, don't have to provide customer service, but probably will eventually.

So, what is true today, might be different tomorrow.

croyd
  1/27/2015 11:10 EST

I think I can explain why some people can transfer large sums of money to their account or cash using their ATM/debit card, but others can't. A couple years ago when I was looking for ways to transfer money, I talked with the manager at the Esteli BAC. I was told that I could take $400 at a time from the ATM for however many dollars the fee was or at the counter I could take (I think it was) $2500 for the same fee. I tried getting $2000 at the counter. The teller smiled and took my ATM card to a back room. When she came back, she said it would not work. The card worked fine in the ATM.

I talked with the manager again and she seemed puzzled. She had a meeting with the teller and a couple other people and came back with a believable story.

There are several networks for transferring money. Their machine to transfer large sums of money only works with the VISA network. The ATM machine works with all the networks. My ATM card does NOT use the VISA network, it uses the Cirrus/Star/Accel/ the exchange network.

glockdiver69
  1/28/2015 12:39 EST

Thanks Tim!

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