Summary
What questions arise regarding digital nomad banking?
Well, yes. I’m not going to write about the Jason Statham movie.
In the past few weeks, I’ve had a lot of questions that the internet could help me solve. However, I have a premium banking advisor, so I decided back in December that I would contact the lady on the first normal working day and set up a personal meeting with her. We did this in about 5 minutes today, so I’m going to visit the bank next week.
I don’t like to arrive at such meetings unprepared, so today I’ve collected the questions that would be good to discuss at the bank.
These are the ones as of today:
- The relationship between my salary and the apartment’s down payment.
- How USD and EUR accounts work and cost.
- Can we work together on insurance?
- My regular Mastercard bank card expires on 07.2025. I would like to apply for a new card. How many years is a card valid for? What is the card replacement fee?
- My Mastercard credit card expires on 04.2026. A renewal may be necessary here too.
- A power of attorney for my confidant to act on my behalf.
- Is there anything the premium banking advisor can bring to my attention? What has escaped my attention.
- Let’s stay in touch, I’m sure I’ll have more questions.
Salary and apartment repayment amount
I haven’t told you yet, but it’s part of it, how much my thinking has changed regarding my home loan. When the idea of leaving came to my mind last summer, I still saw the repayment amount of my existing home loan as an obstacle. At the time, I thought that I would have to squeeze the next 2-3 years to save as much money as possible for pre-payment or final repayment of a loan, so that I could leave with as little burden on my neck as possible. So I can start after 2-3 years. On the other hand, by the end of November, a natural, simple thought occurred to me: Don’t let that 340 USD per month hold me back from leaving. I have to earn this money on the other side of the world. It’s as simple as that.
When designing the housing loan structure, we followed the usual (Hungarian) procedure: the condition for the appropriate loan condition is that my monthly salary arrives at the bank providing the loan. This did not cause a problem at the time, since I had been with the bank where I took out the loan for many years.
However, the situation will change now. In a few months, no money designated as a salary will arrive at the relevant bank account. So I need to find out whether my monthly repayment amount will change, and if so, by how much it will increase.
USD and EUR accounts
Although it is unlikely that I will open a USD and EUR account with a Hungarian bank, I do not rule out the possibility of this happening. Let’s look at the conditions!
Insurance
I have Hungarian life insurance, but I am sure that I will need more sophisticated insurance that is valid in international waters. My bank also has an insurance business, so it is worth listening to an offer from there.
Bank cards
I have two bank cards with this bank. (They also manage my sole proprietorship account, but I did not apply for a bank card there, because my business is completely cashless.) My bank card will lose its validity before my trip, so I will need a new one, in the first half of the year.
My credit card will not expire until April 2026, but it will be easier to replace this one along with the other card, so I can extend the validity period for both to the longest possible time frame so that I don’t have to deal with replacing another card as soon as possible in the future.
I will be embarking on this journey with the support of at least two Mastercards from my own bank.
However, Vigh Bori drew my attention to the fact that a trip around the world requires at least three types of cards:
- Visa
- Mastercard
- American Express
I still have to get Visa and American Express.
I have a Revolut account where I have had a EUR account for years, and I also opened a USD account in December. But I am not yet familiar with the use of these, this is also one of the tasks ahead of me.
After a conversation with a friend this evening, I also opened a Wise account. This was a task that took about 20 minutes. My next bank card will arrive in twelve days.
As I see the future, I will have a deck of plastic cards with me.
My confidant
I will have a personal representative in Hungary who will be able to act on my behalf in matters that require my personal presence. I need to clarify with the bank what documents are needed and what the bank will accept so that we can achieve the goal. I trust that a simple consent statement will be enough and that we will not have to go through an impossibly complicated procedure.
About the rest
After all this, there is still the possibility that something has not come to my attention yet, or will come to me later. That is what the last two points are for.