Hi everyone!
I have recently opened a company in Estonia, and now looking for a bank to open a private account to receive salary to. Thing is, I am a Ukrainian citizen, and the fees are huge when making payments from my Estonian company bank account to the Ukrainian private account. For EU transfers, there are no fees. Also I do not feel my money are safe in Ukraine.
So currently I am looking for a bank in EU to open a private account with.
My priority is to have the costs associated with the account as low as possible. E.g. Iโm fine with paying โฌ200-300 to open the account, but it is a no-go for me if they require a monthly maintenance fee of โฌ20-30. Which many of them do for foreigners. Also if they need an initial deposit or minimal remainder on the account of โฌ1000+, this would be a strain for me. Another priority of course is nomad-friendliness: if I decide to withdraw the money outside the EU in a non-EU currency, I should not pay more than 5% in fees. And internet banking and customer support is also of importance, as I believe frequent visits to the bankโs country would be inconvenient for me as a non-resident.
So far I have looked at Swedbank, Rietumu and BlueOrange, all from Latvia. So far I had a great experience with Estonian corporate banking, so another Baltic country seemed like a good option to me. However, all of these banks have high maintenance fees for non-EU residents, from โฌ20 to โฌ50 per month. Also OrangeBlue has a minimal balance requirement of โฌ1000.
All in all, I am very unexperienced in the matter of banking and am a bit in a loss. Can anybody kindly advise me on the โbig pictureโ of banking in EU from the non-EU clientโs perspective?