Opening US bank account from the UK? (to avoid PayPal fees)

BatchedMetting

Hi all,

I'm from the UK and living in England. I work freelance online and receive payments from my clients in USD via PayPal. I have a UK Ltd company and Natwest business bank account.

PayPal takes a fee when I receive money from clients, then they take another fee when I covert the money from USD into GBP as part of the withdrawal process.

These fees come to a couple of thousand a year so would be great to eliminate them.

One option might be to open a US bank account then use the PayPal 50 cents flat fee rate for receiving money they offer their customers that have a US bank account.
http://www.melyssagriffin.com/get-rid-paypal-fees-invoicing-clients-freelancers-need/

So does anyone know if there is a way I can open a bank account in the US or some other way of activating this feature in PayPal?

Thanks!

tiz

Have you checked with Natwest what the fees would be to receive the payments directly into your account? Looks like they also offer a foreign currency account.

omega27

What about https://transferwise.com/gb/borderless

MoneySavingNovice

Have you got a USA Social Security Number?

If not it's difficult, if not impossible, to open a US bank account.

Transferwise might be your best bet on this occasion.

mmoalem

Reviving this old thread as I am after a solution for the same problem - I got as far as opening a transferwise account and US paypal account but got stuck with linking the transferwise account o paypal as Paypal need to verify the account by depositing tiny amounts and withdrawing them but Transferwise block micro deposits and auto debits from their border-less account... so anyone with a working solution out there???