Best bank account for someone visiting the U.S. on a student visa?

December 12, 2015 5:06 AM

Are there any interest bearing checking accounts one can open while in the USA on a visa for work and studying? Apparently Bank of America will allow it but I'm not a fan of their business practices. I'm trying to help a friend get an account. She has a Social Security number.
posted by treehorn+bunny to Work & Money (11 answers total)

not sure if this is much help, but my partner opened an account with the local credit union when she had a sabbatical in the usa. pretty sure we had checks, but not a credit card (there was a debit card that could be used online).

(what i'm trying to say is i think opening an account wasn't that hard - has your friend simply walked in to somewhere and asked? or maybe it's the interest part that's critical - in which case, sorry, can't remember if it had interest or not)
posted by andrewcooke at 6:43 AM on December 12, 2015

Is there any reason this has to be interest-bearing checking, and not savings + checking? Interest bearing checking accounts are sort of unicorns in my experience. The only interest-bearing checking accounts I've seen lately require a non-trivial minimum balance ($10k+ USD at least, for my bank), and if you've got that much money you're probably better off with another approach for the majority of your emergency fund (savings account? money market savings?) and just keeping enough in checking to cover monthly expenses.
posted by Alterscape at 7:57 AM on December 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

Credit unions often have interest-bearing checking accounts but the interest rate is AWFUL. Seriously, I think I made about $4 in interest last year despite my account balance being a very healthy number. I wouldn't bother spending much time looking for such an account. Just go with a regular checking account and get a savings account with a nicer interest rate.
posted by joan_holloway at 8:11 AM on December 12, 2015

Best answer: Lake Michigan Credit Union (LMCU) has a checking account that pays 3% interest, no monthly fee. Joining the union just requires a $5 donation or local ties.

Note the 3% interest requires you to monthly have a direct deposit of some sort, login 4 times online, use the debit card 10 times, and get estatements. It's a bit annoying but I've looked extensively and it's really the best offer I can find.

I'm resident, not a citizen and didn't have any problems signing up. Also the application went through a person with an email so there's someone to talk to with application issues.

I've used them for a few months and will stick with them. Here's the offer link.
posted by artificialard at 8:42 AM on December 12, 2015

just filling in some details from our experience:

the credit union already had many clients from the university, so all that was needed was to show that she was employed there. and the account had a checking account (no interest) and a savings account, and you could move money between them via the slightly clunky web site.
posted by andrewcooke at 9:36 AM on December 12, 2015

Does your friend's bank in their home country have a relationship with a bank in the US? There may be benefits here in terms of ease of transferring money and cost of doing so. Also, does friend actually object to BoA? Your objection doesn't really matter as it's not you opening a bank account.
posted by koahiatamadl at 11:33 AM on December 12, 2015

Many credit unions and community banks seem to be offering interest again through a program called Kasasa.

We get 3% for up to $10,000 in checking as long as we have one thing on automatic billpay (rent) (I think alternately you can have direct deposit to count for this), receive free e-statements and a certain number of uses per month on the debit card.

If it turns out there are several options, figure out which one has the best online interface. Some credit unions have great online access and some don't. I would imagine that this would be more important to an international student, because they'll want to have easy solid access to their information after they leave the US.
posted by aniola at 12:36 PM on December 12, 2015

Best answer: Here's an AskMe on how to jump through the hoops associated with getting interest from your bank account these days.
posted by aniola at 12:40 PM on December 12, 2015

First American Bank in the Chicagoland area can definitely do this - no idea where your friend is located, though.
posted by Juliet Banana at 2:27 PM on December 12, 2015

As other posters have said already, if she is studying, her school may have a relationship with a bank that would enable her to set up a checking account. (Interest bearing checking accounts are few and far between - I wouldn't focus on the interest as that's going to be minimal at best at the moment).

I know you said that you don't like Bank of America, but they were the one bank that went out of their way to jump through the hoops needed to get me set up with a checking account when I first moved to the US. And they gave me a secured credit card that they automatically converted to a normal credit card after 9 months. I didn't have the luxury of choosing a bank based on ethical concerns - I just needed a bank account! I've only ever had exceptional customer service from them. (Our local Credit Union were far less interested in my business, despite the fact that my husband banks with them)
posted by finding.perdita at 12:33 AM on December 13, 2015

Response by poster: The most important thing is that the bank account not be out to trick the customer in terms of fees and so forth. My impression of BOA is that they don't care at all about their customers (although it appears others have had different experiences) and will screw you in any way possible, so I wasn't about to recommend them to a young foreigner who would be vulnerable to predatory bank practices because she doesn't easily understand English and won't be likely to read fine print.

I will take a look into some of these options, thank you! Unfortunately, since the reason she is here is to work as my au pair, she doesn't have any direct deposit options.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 2:47 PM on December 13, 2015