Opening a bank account in Austria

= Very easy

I know have an Austrian bank account with:

I bank with Bank of America in the states. They do have an alliance with the Deutsche Bank in Germany. However, I’m not in Germany…I’m in Austria. So every time I use my card here at an ATM or “Bankomat” I am charged $5 plus a 1% conversion fee.

A lot of the students here at FHV get a Sparkasse account. The student account I have was/is free, so no problems there. The only problem is getting the money transferred from the States to my bank account here in Austria. Since I have never done international transfers it will be a new experience. But I will be sure to comment on how it goes. My plan is to go to my contact at the Sparkasse bank, very nice man, and ask him to help me through the process. I know I will need my international IBAN number…but I’m not sure what else. Hopefully he’ll be able to help.

Note: That the bank here is able to convert your American dollars to Euro for practically no charge. So avoid the one’s in the airport. I believe I mentioned it before…but twice never hurts.