Chile Forum

Greetings -

New member here, this is my first post.
Compulsory biographical floor exercises to start off right -
- longtime permanent resident, Chiloe island
- well mobbed up socially, Junta de Vecinos, Comite de Agua, volunteer census taker, some tutoring
- kids graduated High School here, they returned to the USA
- have enough cash left, from decades of stateside work, but no income

I will soon be old enough to begin receiving monthly US Social Security payments.
I have no "real" bank account here in Chile, nor the prerequisites to obtain one.
The US embassy website mentions a convenio with Banco Estado, for depositing Social Security payments.
So let`s say I can get the silly account with nil prerequisites, that Cuenta RUT...

Does anyone here have personal experience with hooking up Social Security deposits to a Cuenta RUT?
Or might you know of a Banco Estado functionary who is knowledgeable in this area?

Thanks.

There is your problem right there. You used "knowledgeable" and "banco estado" in the same sentence.

Never heard of anyone setting that up.

If the embassy has some deal, chances are there is only one employee of banco estado in the country that knows about it.

It might qualify as the best kept american gov secret.

Poke at the local executives and see what they say. Sometimes the local guys for simple lack of carring will do things no one in santiago would permit.

If it´s of any help, I receive my SS pension via direct deposit to an account I opened in BCI. The Embassy said that BCI and Estado are the only banks that the SS have convenios with, and as I wouldn´t dream of going near Banco Estado for their total incompetence, I went to BCI. It wasn´t easy to get them to agree to open an account ( has to be in US$ as far as I know, and cuenta RUT is in Pesos), but once opened it works without problems. If you try to open an account, you´ll have the usual problems that all foreigners face , that you will be assumed to be totally untrustworthy and need to go to their main office in downtown to sign the usual multitude of forms. I even told them I wanted no checks , no credit cards, no nothing except to receive US$, change them to Pesos and take the cash out, hence they have no risk of loss or fraud but that doesn´t stop them from the national distrust of anyone.

You rule, Paladin!

So what kind of BCI account is it? The "Premier^, the "Ecologico", ...?

I know a captador at BCI, he gives me apple chicha in season,
I buy him Desitin for his kids^ "poto cocido" when I visit the USA.

You will get a US$ current account, on which you can only sell the US$ and have them transferred to your Peso current account( which you will obviously need to ask for at the same time), or you can simply take the US$ out in cash. If you change to Pesos and credit your current account,then you can have the normal checking facility, redbanc card, credit cards just as you would with any other bank. When you go to BCI in downtown ( they have one or two people only who handle the opening of these accounts), you will be asked to fill in some special forms as it´s a deal they only offer to people having their US SS payments deposited into. Once approved, they do the actual contact with the US Embasy, who in turn send the info to SS in the USA. If all goes well, you will just find that one day the money will magically arrive in your account

stanstiefel wrote:I know a captador at BCI, he gives me apple chicha in season,
I buy him Desitin for his kids^ "poto cocido" when I visit the USA.

Hahahahha! I love it.....poto cocido...and if you drink too much apple chicha, your potito will turn bién cocido as well

paladin wrote:You will get a US$ current account, on which you can only sell the US$ and have them transferred to your Peso current account( which you will obviously need to ask for at the same time), or you can simply take the US$ out in cash. If you change to Pesos and credit your current account,then you can have the normal checking facility, redbanc card, credit cards just as you would with any other bank. When you go to BCI in downtown ( they have one or two people only who handle the opening of these accounts), you will be asked to fill in some special forms as it´s a deal they only offer to people having their US SS payments deposited into. Once approved, they do the actual contact with the US Embasy, who in turn send the info to SS in the USA. If all goes well, you will just find that one day the money will magically arrive in your account

For what I understand if I'm not mistaken, there is also a charge of CL$ 7000 for every check you receive.