Chile Forum

I tried the search function but wasn't having any luck with what I thought could be a simple question... where in Santiago can a gringo get a simple basic bank account?

a friend told me that Banco Estado gives accounts to foreigners without any hassle at all, but I went to a branch last week and was told that I need to have a contract that is valid for one year, and also that doesn't expire (not sure how both are possible??)

rather than running around to every bank in town and getting a million different answers, I was hoping somebody on here might be able to help...

I have 2 work contracts good through the end of 2010 (one for a major corporation in Chile, another for an institute -- I teach English) and I have a work visa good thru July 2011.

I'm not looking for a high interest paying saving account or anything fancy like that... basically I want (and need) an account where I can have money deposited rather than waiting in line at the bank to either get a check cashed or to receive my vale vista.... it's getting annoying.

please let me know if you have any advice! I've heard most basic checking accounts charge around $5.000 a month (at least.. which I find absolutely ridiculous. why aren't they free???) so anything that has low fees would obviously be preferable.

thanks in advance!

im going to answers this very bluntly,

once you find out how the search works
you will find it is easier getting blood out of a stone...

good luck with your search,

my advise, start making creative hiding places in su casa

cya

Hi,
I think the subject came up before many times, but I will just tell you what I did.
I went to Banco Estado and filled in the form for a cuenta RUT.
This is a VERY basic "bank account", its basically just a savings account with an ATM card.
Free of charge with a limit of 3.000.000 in the acount and you can deposit no more than 2.000.000 in one month.
You can deposit cash at the mashine and you can receive transfers from other people, your RUN is basically your account number.
VERY simple idea.

I hope this info helps.

Groschi

Groschi wrote:Hi,
I think the subject came up before many times, but I will just tell you what I did.
I went to Banco Estado and filled in the form for a cuenta RUT.
This is a VERY basic "bank account", its basically just a savings account with an ATM card.
Free of charge with a limit of 3.000.000 in the acount and you can deposit no more than 2.000.000 in one month.
You can deposit cash at the mashine and you can receive transfers from other people, your RUN is basically your account number.
VERY simple idea.

I hope this info helps.

Groschi

yes this is what my friend told me about! but the guy I spoke with at banco estado either was in a bad mood or just didn't know what he was talking about. is the name of the account "cuenta RUT"?

zer0nz wrote:im going to answers this very bluntly,

once you find out how the search works
you will find it is easier getting blood out of a stone...

good luck with your search,

my advise, start making creative hiding places in su casa

cya

getting blood out of a stone is easier than the search function?

but yes, the creative hiding places in mi casa are already established. but I'm thinking ahead about when I want to travel around in January and February of next year, and I don't want to be carrying around a couple million pesos... or deal with exchanging my chilean pesos for dollars (and taking the massive hit there) just to deposit the money into my US account.

sorry, getting blood out of a stone is easier than a bank account........

it is really down to the person in the bank on the day and what mood they are in...

if you are male, find the ugliest female on the counter you can find, flirt with everything you have, increases the chances of getting the account,

im not kidding.... i know its wrong, it is just chile!

haha yeah but this search function is giving me enough trouble... I've found a couple of threads that seem to maybe have the information I'm looking for, but when I click to go to page 1 I get this:


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you don't need to talk to anyone in the bank, the form for the CUENTA RUT is all over the bank,
about 500 in each corner in a holder.
Take one (or 2) go home and fill it in.
Go back to the bank, ask one of the "run around the hall" youngsters, they are helpfull, to check if you have filled in all you need and they will leave it in the right place at the bank for you.
In my case the form was lost the first time, the second time I had my card in the post in no time and only had to activate it in the branch of my choice.
It was realy streight forward.
If you want to be able to transfer money (free of charge to any Banco Estado account and a small fee to other accounts) you need to mention that. The "super clave" has an anual fee of 8.200 or whatever, otherwise the account itself is free of charge. I transfer money from time to time so I need the super clave and I am prepared to pay my 8200 per year.
You can even pay with your card basically everywhere where they accept credit cards, the symbol for the cuenta rut is nearly always on the signs too.

Groschi

Regarding the CuentaRUT card, it is a RedCompra card (the Chile debit card system) and can be used anywhere that accepts RedCompra for payment. There is no charge for paying via RedCompra. There is a 300 peso charge for each ATM withdrawal and a 600 peso charge for a caja live person withdrawal. The account works fine as a deposit payment account or transfer payment account from other Chile banks and as a validated account linked to one's MercadoPago and Dineromail accounts.

regioncentralX wrote:Regarding the CuentaRUT card, it is a RedCompra card (the Chile debit card system) and can be used anywhere that accepts RedCompra for payment. There is no charge for paying via RedCompra. There is a 300 peso charge for each ATM withdrawal and a 600 peso charge for a caja live person withdrawal. The account works fine as a deposit payment account or transfer payment account from other Chile banks and as a validated account linked to one's MercadoPago and Dineromail accounts.

But isn't that what I just said?

We use Scotiabank and they have been brilliant. No problems opening an account with them, the manager came to our home with all the forms to sign and the credit and debit card already in the pack. We had to wait a day for the pin numbers to arrive and we were set to go. Very impressed. We pay all our bills online and transferring money across accounts is done very quickly.

maxine wrote:We use Scotiabank and they have been brilliant. No problems opening an account with them, the manager came to our home with all the forms to sign and the credit and debit card already in the pack. We had to wait a day for the pin numbers to arrive and we were set to go. Very impressed. We pay all our bills online and transferring money across accounts is done very quickly.

Didn't they ask about any accounts that you might have had outside of Chile (bank statements from there, etc) to see where your money is coming from? Or are you earning money in Chile? Since you mentioned credit card, I am assuming that you don't mean an account (cuenta rut) like Groschi is talking about.