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Traveling to Europe or USA for Bank Account... (19)

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I've been facing problems with banking latelly. I noticed it is better to travel to EU and or USA for opening a bank account.

Before planning the trip I would like to get some ideas from you. Which banks would you indicate us? Which are the best for Internet Marketing (I run adult ads too... so needs to be ok with transfers from companies such as CC Bill and to send to Exoclick).

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I wouldn't recommend choosing a bank within the EU. For people based here, they can work but it's not simple. We've had some events that make me say you should never get an EU bank account unless you can instantly go to the bank and solve issues. The issue is not the company itself, but several other indicators:

1. Country (not EU, US, CA, or other "Tier 1" geo)
2. Currency (non-EUR)
3. Keywords associated with the company (porn, gambling, etc. are all "high risk").

If you can choose, probably US banks are better, or even HK, SG, etc.

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Banking is definitely getting more difficult across the board.

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there is good, multi-currency and trouble free EU banks. and there are payment providers, giving you access to bank account and cc. without the hassle of traveling. an important information to have is, what is your citizenship and country of residence?

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If you are just doing it to send and receive payments to other online marketing companies & affiliate networks, its not worth it to travel all the way to europe/USA (don't know where you are based) just to open an account.
Just open a paypal or payoneer account and link that to your existing bank account. 99% of all (big) networks accept payments through that and send them out to those two as well to their pubs.

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Can you tell me more about it? I though EU was the safest place for adult related stuff, mainly jurisdictions such as Czech Republic, Spain and Netherlands. But of course I don't have any personal experience to confirm it, so I'm asking.

1. Country (not EU, US, CA, or other "Tier 1" geo) <<< So if I incorporate in a Tier 1, I'll have less problems?
2. Currency (non-EUR) <<< if I use only EUR, it'll be ok?
3. Keywords associated with the company (porn, gambling, etc. are all "high risk"). <<< This one would be the hardest. Any suggestion here?

Would appreciate your answer.

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Would indicate any bank or payment providers? Here or by PM if you prefer. I'm Brazilian citizen live in Brazil. I can incorporate in most popular jurisdictions in Europe.

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I understand, but it's not just to affiliate networks. To receive money from merchant account providers (such as CCBill), I'd need a bank account in my company name. They usually don't offer Paypal or Payoneer (at least the ones I've asked).

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No, it's when you get paid or pay to British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, Hong Kong, China, Costa Rica, Seychells, etc. from a bank account within the Eurozone. Could be different in Czech Republic or other non-Eurozone EU states.

If you use only EUR you improve your situation on one side but then you end up paying way more exchange fees, since most international companies work in USD.

It's not easy to dissect the policy of each bank when it comes to what risk they are willing to take. There are likely banks in any country who are known to take such risks, question is for how long and what cost. If you were a EU citizen already, it would of course make complete sense to do so but once you are a foreigner, I can only assume it gets much, MUCH more complicated.

Since you do not want to have a bank account in your home country, I then just think most EU countries at least are not favourable for you when compared to alternatives like Hong Kong, Singapore, etc.

Since you are Brazilian, I would say have a look at Portugal. Knowing the language will help you. I certainly recommend against bank account and incorporating in a country where you have no idea about the official language and have to 100% trust a consultant.

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Furthermore...

Payoneer + PayPal + Skrill are a good combination though. Payoneer and Skrill both offer you multi-currency and prepaid credit cards. That means you can get paid and pay reasonably easy for most necessary services in AM. Then you limit your bank account usage and it probably opens up more options. You don't have direct porn and gambling payments to your bank account. They reach these payment processors first.

The "local IRS" usually doesn't mind the legitimate porn and gambling business but the banks just consider it high risk and might say they will close your accounts (happened to us already).

You have to check your costs, check with more knowledgeable people in detail and then decide

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Payoneer + PayPal + Skrill, yes they help, but our main traffic source (Exoclick) has a monthly limit to receive money by Paypal. We can send more only by wire or Paxum. This is the main problem for now;

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Exoclick is based in Spain, you won't have issues paying them from Eurozone bank account, pretty sure Just telling you so you can consider all your options as specific to your case as possible.

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I'm on a similar issue right now. I think you can open a bank account on the U.S as a foreigner with certain banks (wells fargo, US bank), i'm going to try it this year when going to asw.

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as you plan to incorporate, cyprus should be your best bet! you won't face any problems with the incorporation or bank account opening. documents and customer service are provided in english. and adult is not a topic over here in general. just send me a PM, if you need further details on banks etc!

ps: have you been asking exoclick to raise your paypal limit already?

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Places like Cyprus would definitely be among the easier countries to open a bank account within EU. Haha, as long as you have enough cash, you can even buy citizenship on that country ...

Just make sure you don't hold too much cash in these accounts in case there is another banking crisis though, and you lose all of your money like happened in Cyprus not too long ago.

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Im in Slovakia and always used Slovak banks only, during the years I received several millions of "adult" dollars. It was wires and checks, about 50/50 split I would say. I ran into direct problems with one bank only (DEXIA), they literally told me to not bring them the "porn" checks I should add that there was a porn domain printed on some of the checks, otherwise they'd have no idea.

In some cases the checks alone were problems, it's a lot of work for them to cash those, so one bank after another refuses to cash them. You should have seen the face of the bank clerks when I showed up with 50 checks in my hand - 2 hours work for them

Regarding wires, I had some problems with intermediary banks, but that wasn't related to adult stuff. I received tons of wires and checks from both CCBill, Epoch and all the other processing companies.

Many adult companies use Paxum, look into it in case you didn't already. Its' pretty much the same as paypal but with lower fees.

I'd say our country is still pretty safe for adult related stuff, they don't really care. And I'm pretty sure Czech Rep. is the same, there is a ton of adult companies registered there.

The problem could be actually getting an account opened, they have some shitty regulations and can refuse a foreigner from outside of the EU. I would recommend sending an email or have a phone call with the bank, before you travel.

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Paypal isn't too happy about working with adult companies, it's way better now than a couple years ago, but still... some risk is there. On top of that, last time I used paypal to receive affiliate payment from a network, they sent me $5000 and paypal took $400 fee - not sure if there is a way around it, I didn't look for it as that was the last time I used them this way

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Not if you use Kantox. Your foreign exchange fees suddenly drop to 5% of what they used to be when working with a bank for this. Never exchange currencies through a bank - they rip you off big time with the foreign exchange commissions they charge.

Another alternative solution is to open one euro account and one dollar account. Then of course its important to only send/receive payments in euro on the euro account and in dollar on the dollar account. Otherwise you'll end up paying the massive rip-off commissions again. Most european banks will let you open three accounts free of charge (eur/usd/gbp) if you have some decent trading volume with them.

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At least in AT, banks offer you a fair rate. They don't charge commission, they just do it at market rate from what we've noticed (for internal account transfers). Of course, if you receive USD in EUR account, that could change

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