Opening accounts with European Banks - how to?

[annapurna]

Hello everyone, hope you all had a great holiday! My husband and I will be getting more back, neck, and knee work done in Europe in the next few weeks-months-years and are really getting hit hard with the USD-to-Euro exchange rate. Politics aside, the USD could very likely plummet further, and I would like do something to protect my poor wallet against future dollar-plunges.

My husband and I were thinking about simply opening a savings account with a European bank (Deutsche Bank or Hypo Bank or similar) and start saving money in Euros when the exchange rate is favorable, or at least on a regular basis and, therefore, even things out a bit. We have a habit of paying for expensive surgery when the dollar hits historic lows (bad karma, I guess).

Here's the problem, there is nowhere on the website of either bank that tells you where/how to open an account. Does anyone know how to go about opening an account with these banks from the US? Thanks very much.

[Alastair]

It could be a good idea to buy Euros in the USA now if you think things are getting worse with no sign of recovery.

If you are certain of going to Europe this is a good idea if the $ is strong against the �.

I paid for all my costs at the AK with my Credit cards - -no cash involved.

Queen of hearts did something quite clever when she went over to Europe from USA. Maybe E mail her?
Best
Alastair

[Harrison]

In the past, when traveling to different countries, I was thrilled to have seen that credit card transactions gave me the most favorable exchange rate possible at the time. As long as you have an internationalized creditor, you'll get the same treatment, right? That's my understanding -- any bankers out there know differently?

[chuxk79]

Wiring money is more frustrating than my upcoming surgery on 1/17/05 in Straubing with Dr.B. I still haven't wired, there's a diff between what you see on the converter web site compared to what the bank quotes.
Has anyone ever took a bank draft with them and went into a bank in germany to change their money into euros and had the german bank send the euros???? Wouldn't you get a better rate in Germany??
See some of you today at the globalpatient
luncheon and Doctors presentation.

Take care
Chuck Dobovsky

[become]

It might be worth checking with an international bank having a strong presence in germany to see what they can offer--citibank comes to mind, as they also have german internet banking, though I'm sure there are others.

But the dollar is likely to fall further in the future and stay low for some time, so I think you'd have a long wait for a significantly better exchange rate. I'm not very happy about it either! Everything here is 40% more expensive than 4 years ago, without even including the significant post-euro inflation.

Bruce