Can anyone recommend a bank where I can easily exchange from dollars to euros at hopefully a minimal cost? I am wanting to start a joint account with my German fiance after we get married over Christmas. I work in the states and I am payed in dollars.

Hi again,

The Deutsche Bank cooperates with Bank of America, which means you can withdraw money at a BofA ATM without any fees from the German account. Downside: Deutsche Bank account has fees, about 50 Euros a year. But their service is great. I am sure that there are transfer fees, but since the two banks cooperate they might offer a good fee. Ask them, they can help you. They also transfered my credit score to America, so they really know what they are doing.
Another option is Washington Mutual, they have no fees for transfering money to Europe, but most likely you will have to pay a fee in Germany then. Within Europe it is always 10 Euros, international fees depend on the banks. I would advise to rather choosing a big bank since they have easier fee systems to understand. Let your fiancee do some research about fees at several banks in Germany and you should inquire at Bank of America how much they would charge.
But in general you will loose money (Euro is worth more than the Dollar), so I'd say you should make a transfer like every 3 months rather than monthly (depending on the fees, most likely a % of the amount).

Good luck again!

Hi Flicki,

also ich bin auch Member von der Deutschen Bank und werde das Konto auf jeden Fall behalten. Mann kann hier kostenlos abheben und wenn man im Urlaub in Dt. ist, ist es das selbe. Zur Flugbuchung etc. ist es auch total praktisch und die Eltern und Freunde koennen Geld einzahlen etc. Ich finde das total praktisch. Die Kosten im Quartal ist echt erschwinglich und die Vorteile ueberwiegen auf jeden Fall.

Depending on your location in the US and Germany Citibank may also be a good option - check if they have a branch where you are. I pay no monthly fees on either account in each country and money transfers between the accounts are extremely fast (funds are available in the other account within seconds).

yeah i hear about citibank too, they are present in germany and usa. as far as i understand it goes like this: you have an account in germany and one in the us: so you can transfer money for free or whatever or use the atm for free etc. they do offer free accounts but you have to have at least 2500 euro balance if you want no monthly charge.
downside: I have heard a few times that usually the people that work at the citibank in the us have no clue that citibank exists in germany too and they are overchallenged when you go and ask for that kind of internatuional money transfer. they just dont know about it and have never done it and then you have to spend hours trying to explain it to them.
thats just what i heard, i am not a citibank member yet, so i can not speak from my own experience. i am still thinking about becoming a member of citibank as well, but have not decided yet.

can anyone confirm tell more about citybank?
i think the bank of america - deutsche bank option is good too but i just dont like the high account fee of deutsche bank. it is about 50 - 60 euro a year and i think for a bank that i just have on the side in germany this is a little too much. it would be different if it was my primary bank here in the us.

well, i hope i could help, hope there will be more reply

Transfers from Citibank US to Citibank Germany accounts are no longer free. They changed that earlier this year or so. I think the transfer fee is something like $10 which is still rather cheap compared with most other banks. The account in Germany is free if you keep a balance of €2500, the account in the US is free if you keep a certain balance (there are different account options and the balance requirement varies) or if you have direct deposit into the account.
Most banks in the US have no clue about international money transfers but with Citibank's online account service it is very easy and fast to do all of your banking business online including international transfers. The only problem I have encountered was that some areas have very few ATMs and depositing checks without an ATM can sometimes be a challenge (in our area that is not a problem though, we have many branches here as well).
From Citibank Germany I also receive an annual tax statement for the IRS - everything is already in the required format (including line item numbers on the IRS tax form) and takes the guessing and currency conversions away.

thanks thea for the info about citibank.
greetings

Citibank truely rocks. I still have an investment account with them and they send me the 1099 forms for the US taxes which is great. The downside is that when having a Citibank account you cannot make online transfers to any US bank account unless it is held by the US citibank.
Deutsche Bank is great if you want to make transfers from Germany to any account in the US. You can also make these international transfers online which is great when you're stateside.

You really do not need a German bank. Open a US account with ATM card. She can withdraw from any network ATM in Euros if desired. I use paypal for my fiancee and it costs $1.00 per withdrawal.

Great Information - I know the Topic is dated but in case anyone is still following it...

Any insight into Sparkasse for the same reasons as stated above? (Transfers, exchange, online banking, future purchases in Germany, etc..) We have an account with them and Chase here in US.

Thanks..

p.s.
Any noted restrictions for US Citizen opening account in Germany? And/Or German National in the US?

My experience (and I hope I'm not offending anyone here:) Sparkasse s*cks big time.

Don't get me wrong, I've had an account with them for a while- but each of their city branches sees itself as an independent bank, meaning that if I want to cancel my account with the Sparkasse Heidelberg, I'd either have to go to Heidelberg OR have to open an account in the city I'm currently at to have them close my account and then close the new account...
Sorry to ramble- the easiest would be to go to the Sparkasse and just ask them and find out if they have some ideas- doubt it though.

Plus, my husband has researched the best ways of transferring money (he lived in Germany for years and still had student loans to pay for every month) and came up with Deutsche Bank/ Bank of America.
During the time he still lived in Germany his sister had a Deutsche Bank card for his account and could take money out for free every time necessary and deposit it into his US account.

We have a joint account in Germany with DB- and we'll keep it, so that my family can put money in if they want to (for Christmas maybe ), even for them to use if they come visit...
At least with this, we can directly access our money without having to transfer it and pay for transfer.

yes, i would not recommend sparkasse for this kind of thing at all.
they are kind of regional and very unflexible.
in fact, i went to sparkasse before i moved to the us and they recommended me to just close my account with them because it would not be worth it to keep it.

you want to go with a big bank like deutsche bank. (sparkasse just uses these big banks to do its international stuff anyway, which makes it more expensive.)
the annual account fee from sparkasse and deutsche bank are about the same, but the international stuff is for free with deutsche bank.

i hope i made sense.

cheers

Deutsche Kreditbank is a great option for geting money in Euros into dollars in the US. They offer an interest rate of 3.3% on money in a credit card account. First, you open a regular savings account with them, but then you can transfer it into a credit card account with a higher interest rate. They say they have no ATM fees when you then withdraw money in other currency, but rather offer the exchange rate that Mastercard/Visa give. Also, there's no annual fee to have an account with them. Their web address is www.dkb.de

Hope this helps!
Mary

Good tip, we looked into that one also, but I think you have to have a certain amount of money coming into the bank every month in order to open the account and I'm still student- so no way I could open an account with them...

To show your monthly income you have to send in a current paycheck- so if you're still employed in Germany that might be a good thing to look into.

I double-checked on this with my husband. We don't have any monthly income going into this account. This might have been a requirement in the past, but now, because all of their banking is online, I think they're just happy to have your money to make more money on.

The only thing our income did affect was the credit limit for the credit cards. I am a student also, and therefore unemployed. Plus, I'm American with no real working history here in Germany. Consequently, my credit limit was set at 500 Euros. My husband's credit limit is higher since he has a job. The thing is, it doesn't change how much money I can take out of our account using an ATM. That's limited only by how much cash we have on the credit card accounts themselves.

What we had to do was open one joint savings account, with two credit cards linked to it. We have separate credit card numbers, but they are linked to the same account, so we can move money between them really easily. Does this make sense? I'm headed to the States on Tuesday and will see how it works withdrawing money with my card while I'm there.

Best wishes,
Mary

That's interesting- when we inquired about the account, we were not married yet and my husband couldn't open an account (because he didn't have permanent residency in Germany, just a year- to year work permit) and I couldn't because I wasn't employed but a full time student...

Bummer we didn't check it out after getting married, maybe that would've worked. (my husband REALLY wanted that account).

But now I'm all set and ready to go with the Deutsche Bank and my husband is in the US already so he couldn't sign any papers...

Ah well...

Wow, I almost missed this I see you are also a big fan of Sparkasse Heidelberg!!!! All I can say about Sparkasse is put your money somewhere else. My sister didn't want to believe me either but recently learned that "Sparkasse" is not equal to "Sparkasse" in Germany - she went to visit a friend in Saarbrücken and got money at an ATM. Usually such a transaction should be free if you use a Sparkasse ATM anywhere in Germany. Turns out that apparently Saarland is not Germany... or so the Heidelberg bank wants to make her believe... All the other fees they charge are an insult as well.