Issue a card in a foreign bank. Getting a credit card abroad. Of the advantages of OKPAY bank plastic, they stand out
Many knowledgeable people know that in Europe and Asian countries, lending rates are almost two times lower than in Russia. However, out of all the CIS countries, Russia is not the most serious leader in this regard, because in Ukraine it is very difficult to get a mortgage loan even at 22%. However, you should always look up to more developed countries, but there the mortgage, which costs the borrower 7% per annum, is already considered very expensive.
If you are planning to live abroad for some time, then you should take an interest not only in mortgage loans, but also in ordinary ones. Therefore, obtaining a credit card can be a very serious help and solve many pressing issues, including building a good credit history.
But, again, there are some specifics abroad. For example, a mortgage loan cannot be unsecured, and the acquired real estate will act as collateral, which cannot be sold or donated without the knowledge of the bank. The only thing a borrower can afford is to live in a mortgaged house or rent it out to pay off the loan.
If the borrower has problems with the payment of the loan, the bank will take the real estate and sell it without remaining in the loser. But with credit cards, the situation is fundamentally different, because they are issued without requiring any obligations. Therefore, by providing a credit card to a foreign citizen, the bank runs the risk of never seeing their money. However, there are always loopholes for foreigners.
Another distinctive feature of lending in Europe is that they are quite willing to issue loans to young people aged 18-21, although this is not practiced in our country. In the same States, a credit card for students is generally a separate product. However, foreign banks are just as loyal to the maximum age of the borrower. Even if a person is retired, but he has income that allows him to service a credit card, he will be able to use it.
Again, in our country it is much easier to issue a credit card, because for this you just need to provide a passport. To obtain a credit card in a foreign bank, you will need to provide documents confirming that you permanently reside in this country. Sometimes a utility bill or a long-term lease will suffice.
Also, most likely, the bank will be interested in the level of your income and place of work. And here the approach of foreign banks differs in many respects from Russian ones. A Russian bank will be glad to see employees of large companies among its borrowers, while we are more wary of all other categories of clients.
But foreign banks are more willing to make contact with the owners of their own businesses and individual entrepreneurs. In any case, keep in mind that you will have to provide proof of your income for at least the last six months.
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Today I suggest you talk about why I needed a foreign bank card and how to get it, as well as about which card I chose for myself. Why did not a single card of a Ukrainian bank fit me and why is the card we are going to talk about called an offshore card.
So, for the impatient, I will write the conclusions right away. After that we will discuss everything step by step.
Based on what was written below (during the study of the material), choosing from two payment systems, I still chose a foreign bank card from the Payeer MasterCard electronic payment system, although the Payoneer MasterCard card has its advantages, I still gave preference to the first.
I have given a small comparative table, and you can choose for yourself which card of a foreign bank suits you best or you like more:
As you can see, the Payeer card has more pluses, for me the bank and the country of issue of the Payeer card were the most significant, for you any other property can play a key role, for example, the convenience of a smartphone application.
* Payoneer service costs $29.95 per year - if the card was active in the year + you will receive a $25 discount in the first year of use, if you do not use the card, there is no maintenance fee.
Now let's start all over and we will try to consider all aspects of this issue. Working with foreign affiliate programs or performing certain tasks on freelance exchanges, for example: freelancer.com or upwork.com - where the customer pays for completed tasks in Euros or US dollars - I needed a currency card.
The NBU prohibits making deposits by card number - these are 16 digits that we can see on any bank card.
The first six digits out of sixteen are a bin code, actually just “BIN”, and I called it a code for convenience, so that you understand what is encoded in these 6 digits: payment system (VISA or MasterCard), country and bank who issued (made the issue of this bank card).
So, all cards of Ukrainian banks - "BIN" of Ukrainian cards - are blocked by international payment systems for crediting currency by card number, at the request of our regulator.
Interesting fact- from currency cards of Ukrainian banks, to cards of foreign banks - are allowed (although they have certain restrictions, but that's another story)
In fairness, it should be noted that the NBU allows making transfers to currency cards of Ukrainian banks using the SWIFT international transfer system.
To do this, your foreign partner who pays you will need to send your payment details in the following form - account 2625 (card account of an individual in your Ukrainian bank) - Intermediary Bank (specify the correspondent bank - since our banks do not work directly in the SWIFT system) and Beneficiary Bank - (something like an account - our Ukrainian bank - in a correspondent bank) ... and most importantly, the purpose of the payment. If it is commercial, then you will have to pay 15% income tax, because you are unlikely to be able to convince your foreign partner to send you money as “Help for relative” - like “helping a relative”.
The minimum cost of such a payment is 25 Euro! Most likely you will pay this commission. Thus, if you completed “$50 work, then after paying commission and taxes, you will have only $20 left.
Even if you agree to this, then such a hassle will not suit your foreign partner, with a 99% probability he will choose an alternative contractor, from the same Poland, to whom you can pay using the same card number - paying only 1-2% - 50 cents - or 1$.
After all, in my case (which I encountered) it’s not about buying my copyrights or about developing software by me, it’s about a small “job” - $ 50 (finish a component, or a small art) - for us, of course, $ 50 maybe 5 days of work of a qualified worker, but for them it is small things ...
A foreign bank card is, by definition, offshore. Do you know why?
Because for all receipts on this card, you will not pay taxes.
And not because you are a "sort of" malicious tax evader - but because you simply cannot explain the source of the money - and indicate this card in your tax return.
The reasons why you can't show it are banal:
- According to the laws of Ukraine, you cannot open an account abroad without a special license. In addition, to open an account abroad, you must have certain grounds (for example, study or work under a contract ... etc.), I will not go into details of the institutions of residency and citizenship, I will only say one thing - that it is not very easy and expensive.
- You will have to pay from the turnover on the account, in other words, you will pay tax not from $25 - after the commission is removed, but from $50
- In addition, you cannot receive foreign exchange earnings (foreign exchange income) if you do not have a contract, and in general, for this you need to open a sole proprietorship and so on ... etc.
Cards of foreign banks, which we will talk about later, are not accounts
The thing is that the card of a foreign bank that I opened for myself does not have an account - it is a prepaid level card (prepaid - a card with a certain value), it can be compared with a stretch card for replenishing a mobile phone, or with prepaid gift cards in supermarkets household appliances. To open it, it is unnecessary to go through identification - as when opening a bank account.
The only difference is that it, the so-called offshore card, is reusable.
If such a card is not verified, then it has a limited limit - about $ 1000 (and in fact, after working out its limit, it will become unusable).
Verification will make it unlimited, verification takes place in accordance with the Rules for the circulation of electronic money from 2011 (Electronic Money Regulations 2011). Our national (Ukrainian) legislation recognizes these rules, according to a memorandum signed with international payment systems VISA and MasterCard (a priori).
By the way, identification and verification are slightly different things, in the first case, full affiliation is determined by: citizenship, residence, occupation, origin of income in the second case, you just need to prove that you are you.
In any case, Ukrainian legislation, with its imperfection, excludes the possibility of working - being self-employed, being conscious - being responsible for oneself, at least being a taxpayer (here I'm talking about the fact that a citizen of Ukraine, if he is not an entrepreneur, then he does not pay taxes on his own . To pay taxes, we have agents of Ukraine! Income tax and social contributions - the employer does for us, tax on passive income (from bank deposits) - banks are tax agents, transport is included in the fuel - live, rejoice, everyone will pay for you.
For prepaid - no tax agent was appointed ...
Most importantly, these cards can withdraw cash from our ATMs and chain stores. The NBU would probably be happy to block the BIN of such cards, but you can’t block them - otherwise foreigners will not be able to withdraw money from an ATM in Ukraine and pay in the store too 🙂
In general, based on the above (written), we note:
- Issuing such a card is possible for us (as we will consider below);
- This card will allow us to work with foreign partners and employers;
- You can withdraw money from this card at an ATM, and pay for goods and services at the terminal;
- We will not violate the laws of Ukraine by issuing such a card;
- If you want to pay taxes - pay (but without agents in this particular case)
Where and how to open a foreign bank card?
Prepaid cards are issued by various services, and the same Freelancer and forex brokers, such as Instaforex, and even the taxfree4u service issue co-branded prepaid cards, but I was primarily interested in additional functionality. And additional functionality is: currency exchange, transfers without commission, mobile payment, purchase of electronic currencies (webmoney).
This and much more can only be provided by an electronic payment system - and so, I decided that the best card of a foreign bank could be a co-branded card of an electronic payment system. I have a lot of experience working with the latter, these are the well-known WebMoney and QIWI, "single wallet", SKRILL. However, this time I dug a little in the search engine, and found practical posts on two systems that offer prepaid cards (of the level) from the MasterCard international payment system, these are Payeer and Payoneer - in order to make a choice, I compiled a comparative table:
*Payoneer service costs $29.95 per year - if the card was active in the year + you will receive a $25 discount in the first year of use, if you do not use the card, there is no maintenance fee.
For registration, you only need to fill in some data: e-mail, password, country, phone number, address of residence ... in general, the little things - then order the card itself in the administrative panel, everything is very simple and clear.
For verification, you will need to add a photo of the first page of the passport and registration (registration) - but verification is not required.
Payeer convinced me more. First of all, more functionality, secondly, the bank and country of issue of the Wave Crest Ltd card under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom (862), but the Payoneer card is issued by the Choice Bank Ltd bank under the jurisdiction of Belize (084). Based on the comparison table, you can see that the benefits of a card from the Payeer system are much greater than those of Payoneer.
In any case, you choose, I made my choice and I hope my post was useful for you.
Evgeny Savostin, specially for the Earnings and Money section
The scandal surrounding the Panama Archives does not subside in the world - during the leak of information it turned out that politicians and businessmen withdrew money to offshore companies in this country. Among them were acquaintances of Vladimir Putin. that these people withdrew from the country about 2 billion dollars.
Not only influential people can place money abroad: many banks work with non-residents, however, the conditions for them are somewhat different from the rules for citizens of the country. European bank deposit rates are much lower than in Russia, and it is not very convenient to transfer money from country to country. However, Russians still carry money to Western banks, not trusting Russian credit institutions and fearing the introduction of new barriers to converting rubles into foreign currency. The Village learned about the peculiarities of opening foreign accounts and spoke with one of the depositors.
Where and how can I open an account
Not all banks are ready to open regular settlement accounts for foreigners. Many of them require that such a person had a residence permit in the country or other justification for the need for an account, such as the presence of real estate. For example, most Scandinavian banks - Swedbank, DNB - also do not open accounts for Russian citizens without reason. The same is true for Singapore. “And, for example, in the UK, even if you have a student visa, it is almost impossible to open an account,” says Alexey Pospekhov from Futur Capital. “To do this, several start-ups in the field of finance are now being launched, aimed at “migrants”, which include Russian citizens.”
According to Pospekhov, almost the only bank in Latvia that is actively working with Russians in both business and personal finance is Rietumu Banka. “They have their own processing and many other goodies,” he notes. Opening an account remotely there will cost 250 euros - then the card will be delivered to Russia by courier. From it you can transfer money to the card of other European banks, as well as to Russia using the SWIFT system. In addition, the bank helps foreigners to obtain a residence permit in Latvia.
The Baltic States is perhaps the only place in Europe where a Russian can open an account for a small amount. In other countries, there is a high entry threshold for opening a deposit by foreigners - from 50 thousand euros. The list of credit institutions ready to work with you expands significantly if you are ready to deposit more than 100 thousand dollars into your account. Well-known banks like Credit Suisse, UBS, Barclays will be ready to place more than a million on the account from a foreigner without a residence permit, says Konstantin Ziyatdinov, head of the international projects department of the Prime Advice consulting group. More democratic conditions are offered by Chinese banks - for example, Bank of China or ICBC. To open an account, you need only 20 yuan (about 200 rubles), and the entry threshold does not exceed a thousand yuan, says Oleg Tkach, financial director of MTVC Greenwood.
Permission to open an account is issued by a bank manager abroad. And he may have many different reasons why he may not give it. Almost always it is necessary to prove the fact that the funds were obtained legally. There are situations when one manager refuses to open an account, and when considering an application later, it is approved by another manager, says Vladimir Knyazhitsky, CEO of Fast Lane Group in Russia and the CIS. Therefore, when opening an account, Russians need to understand that this is a rather long process that requires a personal visit (most likely, more than one). In some cases, you can open an account by proxy, for example, for a lawyer. But it is imperative to clarify the conditions for closing: in many banks, you can close a deposit only at the office where the account was opened, or at least in the same country. When choosing a bank, it is also worth clarifying what deposit guarantees the country gives and what minimum deposit balance the bank wants to see (for non-residents, it is usually high).
How do the Russian authorities see it?
“Russian residents can freely open accounts and deposits in any foreign banks. The only thing to do is to notify your tax office of this fact within 30 days after opening an account, otherwise you may be fined up to 5 thousand rubles, ”says Konstantin Ziyatdinov. After opening an account, you must annually provide a tax simple cash flow statement (essentially four digits - the balance at the beginning and end of the year and the amount of debits and credits for the year).
Unfortunately, Russian currency legislation severely limits the list of transactions for which funds can be credited to such a foreign account of an individual, Ziyatdinov complains. Failure to comply with these requirements entails draconian penalties ranging from 75% to 100% of the amount of the illegal transaction.
How beneficial is it
“Withdrawing cash in general is a big headache, despite the so-called SEPA,” Pospekhov says. Single European Payment Area - a single European payment area, which includes the euro area, as well as Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Sweden and Denmark. If you opened an account in Italy and withdraw money in Sweden, you may be charged a fee in accordance with the rules of the bank.
For interest-free withdrawals, Pospehov advises using Russian cards and accounts. The same Sberbank has ATMs in many countries of Eastern Europe - no commission is charged for withdrawing money from them. You can also use the services of Citibank. “This is the largest international bank, it is represented in more than a hundred countries of the world and also does not charge commissions at ATMs from its cards,” says Oleg Tkach, financial director of MTVC Greenwood. In his opinion, the benefit from deposits abroad is doubtful. Depositors here pay not only for opening an account, but also a significant income tax. In Switzerland, for example, it is 35%.
“Interest on deposits is absolutely negligible by Russian standards,” says Vladimir Knyazhitsky, General Director of Fast Lane Group in Russia and the CIS. This can be 0.25% per year, and if the account currency is not native to the country, then interest is often not charged. Thus, it is almost impossible to make money on a bank deposit in developed countries - rather, it will be small losses in the form of commissions for transfers and account maintenance, sums up Knyazhitsky.
But opening accounts in foreign banks is rarely dictated by the goal of obtaining increased profitability or getting a better level of banking service than in Russia. Rather, we are talking about confidentiality and independence from the Russian banking system and the “country” risks associated with it, says Alexander Lukin, partner at RB Partners. For example, many opened accounts out of fear that the authorities would impose restrictions on cross-border transfers and currency conversions. In addition, foreign accounts provide access to international investment products, and when buying and maintaining real estate, you can avoid conversion losses.
Inna Alekseeva
CEO of PR Partner
Personal experience
Last year, I opened an account as an individual in two Spanish banks, I chose those that allow you to do this without an identification card, that is, roughly speaking, I opened an account as a non-resident.
I was considering giving birth to my second child in Barcelona, so I needed about 10,000 euros in the account. The bank requested data on my salary in Russia - I translated and certified a 2-NDFL certificate from a notary, as well as a certificate of dividends. Then I transferred a thousand euros to the bank every month for a whole year to show my reliability. If I want to transfer a larger amount, for example, 90 thousand euros for studying at a business school, then I will also need a certificate explaining where the money comes from.
Bank employees immediately warned me that if I suddenly wanted to withdraw the accumulated amount, I would not be able to do this without justifying where and why. In my case, the justification could be an invoice and a certificate from the local hospital-maternity hospital. In the same way, you can pay for a business school, language courses, travel around the country, and more. So far I have not needed an account, but if anything, it works.
Today, many freelancers prefer to live and work in another country. Remote work does not tie the worker to any particular place and this is one of the main advantages of freelancing. The most important thing is that the freelancer has access to the Internet, and it doesn’t matter where exactly the work on orders takes place. However, being abroad, any freelancer may face financial difficulties - for example, he may lose his bank card and thus be left without funds. Can I get a bank card while in another country?
WebMoney card
If you lose your bank card, you can order a new debit card using the WebMoney.Cards service. Replenishment of the card is made from WMZ and WME-wallets. The service issues cards of the following issuers: PaySpark EUR Mastercard, PaySpark USD Mastercard, PaySpark China UnionPay and Payoneer USD MasterCard. The minimum deposit when applying for a PaySpark EUR Mastercard is 10 euros. This money is credited to the card and is a minimum balance that can be withdrawn when the account is closed. The maximum card balance is 20,000 euros. At the same time, there is a limit on the number of withdrawals per day - no more than five times. The issuer bears the cost of shipping the card. Conditions for other cards differ slightly, except that in Payoneer USD MasterCard delivery is paid - the amount of $ 23 is charged to the client. Since the delivery of the card is carried out by regular mail, you should be patient - as a rule, the waiting time is on average 3 weeks.
Yandex-Money card
The issuer of this card is the bank "Tinkov - Credit Systems. There is no card maintenance fee for the first three years. If the client is located outside of Russia, then the amount of payment for release and delivery will be 199 rubles. When making delivery to another country, you need to be very careful when filling out the form: if you do not specifically indicate that the card should be delivered to another country, it will be sent to the registration address indicated in the passport. Unlike WebMoney cards, where you have to overcome the resistance of an extremely confusing interface, issuing a POISON card will not take much time. But the card also has a drawback - a ruble account. Due to the constantly changing exchange rate of the ruble, it is currently not profitable to use the card abroad. But if you need a card as soon as possible, this is the most convenient and affordable option.
Payoneer card
The Payoneer payment system was created specifically for the freelance community and today offers many branded cards. The card is a debit card and is not tied to a separate bank account. This is a dollar MasterCard, for which no documents are required. The card is activated on the website of the Payoneer system. Delivery of the card is carried out to all countries of the world and takes an average of 30 days. The card is not chipped, so it is not recommended to keep a large amount of money on it for security reasons. The service has Russian-speaking technical support, which is very convenient. Payoneer staff can be contacted via online chat, phone and email. Payoneer cards are accepted wherever the MasterCard system works - and this is more than 200 countries.
ePay Service Card
The ePayService system also focuses on freelancers. Ordering a card is free of charge, delivery is carried out to any country in the world. The card can be linked to an account and replenished with checks from Google or foreign freelance exchanges, you can also transfer funds from Amazon and WebMoney. The ePayService MasterCard is issued without being tied to a bank account. The maximum withdrawal limit is $10,000 per day. Unlike Payoneer, there is a subscription fee to use the ePayService card. It is possible to deliver the card by USPS Express Mail. Shipping cost is $45.
Cards of foreign banks
A freelancer who has lost a card may try to get a new one from a local bank. You can open an account and order a card issue in Poland, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Austria, Hong Kong, South Korea and many other countries. Each country has its own laws governing the opening of bank accounts by foreigners, but if you try, you can always find a bank that will issue a card and thereby solve the problem of obtaining cash. For example, in Thailand, beloved by many freelancers, a debit card can be ordered from Kasikorn Bank. You need to have an immigration certificate from the police and any identification card with you.