Money Doors
Six financial doors. Some must stay open behind you, some only open after you land, and one never closes at all. The expensive mistakes are almost all doors that shut quietly while you were busy packing.
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Keep a US checking account and one US credit card open, or your credit history dies while you are gone. Do not cash out retirement accounts, they can usually stay in the US, though what your particular custodian allows a non-resident to do varies enough that you have to ask them by name. ING and ABN AMRO reliably accept Americans with an extra tax form. And two US reporting rituals, FBAR and FATCA, follow you for as long as you hold the passport.
The US accounts you keep
Keep one US checking account and at least one US credit card open, and keep the card gently active. Close everything and your US credit history starts dying, which matters enormously if you ever move back. Know that some US banks freeze or close accounts when they see a foreign address, so before you leave, ask yours directly how they handle customers abroad and move to one that serves overseas Americans if the answer is bad. Tell them the truth about where you live. The workaround culture of borrowed addresses creates problems worse than the one it solves.
The retirement money stays put
Do not cash out the 401k or the IRA. Early withdrawal costs penalties plus taxes, and the accounts can generally stay in the US. What varies, and it varies more than people expect, is what your particular custodian lets a non-resident do with them: Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab each restrict overseas account holders differently, on both taxable and retirement accounts. Contributions usually change too, because they generally need US earned income. No government rule settles any of this, so call your custodian by name before you fly and get the answer in writing.
The brokerage door narrows
Regular taxable investment accounts are where restrictions bite. Some large US brokerages refuse customers with foreign addresses entirely, while others serve Americans abroad happily. Sort this before the move, not after. And learn one acronym: PFIC. Buying ordinary European index funds as an American triggers punishing US tax treatment, so most Americans abroad keep investing through US accounts instead.
The Dutch bank opens after the BSN
You cannot really bank Dutch until you have your citizen service number, so expect a few weeks of bridge life on US cards. ING and ABN AMRO are the two that consistently take Americans, and the price of admission is a W-9 form confirming your US tax status, after which the bank reports your account to the IRS through the Dutch tax office. That is normal, legal, and not optional. Rabobank comes up in conversation a lot. Reports of it opening new accounts for US persons are mixed, and while its own site shows it collects and reports FATCA data from US clients, nothing there settles whether it takes new ones, so start with the other two. A few smaller fintechs decline US persons because the paperwork costs them more than you are worth. Do not take it personally.
Moving the money itself
Bank wires across the ocean are slow and carry poor exchange rates. Dedicated transfer services move dollars to euros in hours at close to the real rate for a fraction of the fee. Compare two before your first big transfer, because the deposit on a Dutch apartment will likely be the largest currency exchange of your life so far.
The door that never closes
Two American rituals follow the passport. FBAR: once your foreign accounts together pass $10,000 at any moment in the year, you file a report of them, separate from your tax return. FATCA: Form 8938 arrives with the return once a single filer abroad holds $200,000 in specified foreign assets on the last day of the year, or $300,000 at any point during it, which is the threshold people miss. A big transfer that lands in March and leaves in June can trigger the form even if December looks quiet. Neither usually costs money. Both cost attention, and the penalties for ignoring them are genuinely severe, so put a yearly reminder on the calendar and make it boring.
0 of 6 handled.
Still open before the move: The US accounts you keep · The retirement money stays put · The brokerage door narrows.
Waiting on the BSN: The Dutch bank opens after the BSN · Moving the money itself.
Every year forever: The door that never closes.