The Bank Account
The USA is known for its sophisticated telephone services. It is very strange to realize, that the banking system in the US is only slowly moving out of the prehistoric phase. If you were used to logging in on your bank’s computer from home and transferring money to other persons, utility companies, or the landlord: forget it. If you’re used to having automatic money transfers every month or so for the rent or for a savings account in another bank: not done in the USA. Americans still like to control all these things themselves, apparently, because most people will issue a check for the rent or the utility company a week before the actual due date. This check then is sent via the mail to the other party who takes it to his/her bank and puts the money in the account (again takes a few days). An enormous waste of time and energy!
Another reason for doing this are the fees that the bank will charge for all these automatic transfers. I expect that the cause for these fees is the low interest rate in the US. In Europe, the few days that the bank keeps your money during the transfer may pay for the effort. With a low interest rate, the customer has to pay. There are a few banks that can do some of the above things, but most of the smaller local banks will not offer this service. They will not go further than allowing you to call their voice response system and place an order for a money transfer, or allow you to log into their computer but only transfer money between your own accounts. I called 8 banks in the New Jersey area, and only three of them offered this service. In the Netherlands, the transfer service is free (or at least, it is paid for by the few days of interest that you lose in the transfer process). In the US, they may charge you $ 5 to $ 10 per month for this ‘home banking’ service, some also with an entry fee. Writing checks will also cost you money, unless you have a minimum of money in the account (usually between $ 500 and $ 3000), because then the checks are free. Some banks will allow free transfers from your account to companies like the gas or electricity companies.
Money transfer to individuals, however, is often seen as a special feature and they may charge you extra for this (up to the ‘money by wire’ transfer rate).
Reason for this all: the US has no equivalent of a ‘Bank of Banks’ as there is in many European countries. Transfer is done by several private companies (e.g. MAC) that are closer to an organization like Swift, and ask money for their services (and also eat up some interest while transferring your money). Since a lot of checks still have to be written by hand by the bank clerks, the expenses are of course much higher than in most European countries where 99% of the banking is done via computerized (pre-printed) forms.
And don’t expect that you can call your bank to buy you some shares on the stock market: that is not allowed since the Wall street crash many years ago. Banks may still help you with it, but via an investor services office that legally is not part of the bank and may require you to open an account specifically for this service.
Dutch expats can maintain all their local banking with the Postbank in the Netherlands while they’re in the US by getting a "Girotel" computer login, eliminating delays in sending mail orders over, and you can withdraw money from many ATM machines in the US with you standard "Giropas", at no extra charge, with a dollar/guilder currency exchange that is near the mid-rate. The Postgiro sends the account updates to your US address free of charge. This service, by the way, is also planned by other banks. So with this you will not starve in the first ‘social security empty’ days in the USA. Money transfer between your home bank and your US bank will always require a ‘wire’ transfer (Swift) and could cost you up to $ 40. If your US bank is a regular contact of your home bank the wire transfer takes about 5 days, but you first have to do a written request to transfer money to your bank. If your US bank is not on their list, it will take some three days more.
Some banks allow you to apply for a special status to do transfer orders by fax. Expats from other countries told me that they also had this service. You have to request this status in writing and specify why you want it. If they agree, you will receive a code number that you have to use with your faxes. This reduces the delay of a transfer considerably. I did not try this option yet, so I’m not able to report if it really works. Do not expect to get international assistance or banking facilities from your banks abroad: their advertisements for international banking are only for large business customers.