ATM vs Debit; Intn'l Banks

Planning on traveling to Thailand,Philippines and also Central America.
Then I will settle in one of the cities, with BKK and major city in
Philippines on on the list.

Need advice on how to make funds currently in USA major bank available
to me in these cities. Which is better ATM or Debit card? Thinking I
need a good international bank with branches in both USA and various
overseas cities. Or is it better to stick with a local in country bank?

Need your advice on which international banks if any are any good,
preferably one that has a branch in the USA also. Any help?

echo wrote:
> Planning on traveling to Thailand,Philippines and also Central America.
> Then I will settle in one of the cities, with BKK and major city in
> Philippines on on the list.
>
> Need advice on how to make funds currently in USA major bank available
> to me in these cities. Which is better ATM or Debit card? Thinking I
> need a good international bank with branches in both USA and various
> overseas cities. Or is it better to stick with a local in country bank?
>
> Need your advice on which international banks if any are any good,
> preferably one that has a branch in the USA also. Any help?

Yeah like Alohacyberian said, just use your debit card and
that way also you can control how much you can lose if
you lost your card, or someone uses your card number,
(like takes a phone picture of your card). It is hard to
get a card to Thailand because most banks want to
send it to an address in the USA ect. But you can
with a bit of effort get them to send it by FedEx DHL
etc. Thailand is cleaner and cheaper than the Philippines,
and Central America is more dangerous. You can more
easily (I'm told) stay in the Philippines than Thailand,
but it is a lesser civilized place (my opinion).

I could not figure out how to stay in Central America,
which was my first venture in becoming a expat. If
you know of a way, tell us all? I'm sure many would
like to know, if you know. Any information on any other
country would be niced as well.


PS had to take out ( *****travel.asia)

Chris Blunt wrote:
> On 1 Apr 2006 01:24:01 -0800, flyaway840@************ wrote:
>
> >
> >Chris Blunt wrote:
> >> On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 02:47:13 +0000 (UTC), echo <echo@echo.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> >Thanks to Jim and all those who replied. I notice no one had any bank
> >> >recommendations. I have pretty much concluded that they all suck, so
> >> >probably there is no good one.
> >>
> >> I have had accounts with HSBC in several countries for many years, and
> >> have been happy with their service in both the Philippines and
> >> Thailand.
> >>
> >> My main source of income is credited to another account I have with
> >> them offshore in the Channel Islands, and any transfers they do for me
> >> from there to my other HSBC accounts elsewhere in the world are free
> >> of charge. Also, it normally only takes a couple of hours for the
> >> money to arrive in my overseas account.
> >
> >Like RAK I find this interesting, because I went into an office
> >in Australia and the HSBC told me you must transfer $6000
> >at a time, and there would be a fee. And you did not say it was
> >an internet transfer, so I doubt you meant that.
>
> I did mean via internet banking.

So you can transfer money from bank to bank internally?
How about to other banks as well, over the internet? I have
been looking for a way to use a debit card to transfer funds
to a bank, because the only way to wire transfer from one
of my banks, is to physically go there, and I don't live there.

>
> > And of course
> >you are not from the USA (I don't think) so you do not have the
> >restrictions on you as would one from the USA, and the reason
> >the Channel Island banks seem unwilling to open accounts to
> >Americans. (Because of the stock exchange rules and the
> >IRS (yes just like the ones in Ireland) in the USA.)
> >
> >The only branches for HSBC are only in Bangkok (that I know
> >of) so if you go anywhere else that won't work.
>
> That's right, but their ATM network in interconnected with one of the
> domestic networks in Thailand (ATM Pool??) and you can withdraw cash
> from other bank's machines elsewhere in the country.


But as above if they want to deposit or wire transfer etc.
they would have to take a trip to Bangkok. Of course you
can use a ATM anywhere, but I doubt you can deposit
there unless they have an agreement.