How to open a US bank account from outside of the United States

If you live outside of US and you work as an affiliate for various online companies, then you know how hard it is to cash in your earnings. Most such services have two main ways to pay you: through bank check or through your bank account. You will soon learn that payment through bank check is a real pain, because the time delay between the check release and the moment you have the money in your pocket could be up to 3 or 4 months. And more than that, there are not too many banks outside US that allow you to cash in your money from the check. The second payment method (and the fastest) is the withdrawal through your bank account. The only problem is that most affiliate services work only with US bank accounts, so if you live outside of US and you have a bank account in your country, you can't really use it.

As I said, having a US bank account will speed up the payment process with most affiliates, and in some cases its the only way to cash in your earnings. You will learn that the service I propose has another advantage: it allows you to access your account directly from your browser or through your smartphone. More than that, you will receive a mail as soon as the money are received, so you can load them to your credit card. I'm not sure what affiliates are you using, but this banking service is compatible even with Paypal. Yes, you can send money from your PayPal account directly to the credit card attached to the account.

First, let me reveal the name of the service: Payoneer, a processing system that allows you to open a US bank account that can be used with most affiliates programs. The actual opening of the account is free, but $29 will be deducted from your account once you will have money in it. This is the yearly fee for your account and you will pay it in advance. Once you register for a new account, a credit card will be sent to your address in 2-3 weeks. After you have activated your account and your credit card, you will be able to activate the US payment service (your own US bank account).

From your Payoneer account, go to the main menu > Services > US Payment Service. Ask for an US account activation. Mine was activated really fast. When you receive the confirmation email, you will see there your US bank account id, your name, routing number and account number. Check the image below to see what it should look like:

All the details needed for your affiliate account payment system are on that Payoneer page. All you have to do is copy each detail from Payoneer page to your affiliate payment page. Here are two additional details that you may need:

Payoneer bank: First Century Bank

The type of bank account: Checking

These two service are probably the most important that are used by affiliates all over the world. Even if you work with Amazon or with Paypal, you should know that you will be able to withdraw your money from both services using Payoneer US banking service.

Amazon

For Amazon, adding the US bank account is simple. Go to your affiliate page, find the Account Settings in the upper right corner of that page and click on Change Payment Method. From there select US bank account and add the details from your Payoneer page.

Paypal

For me, adding the Payoneer US bank account to my Paypal withdrawal options was not that easy. Every time I entered the details, I received an error from the system. After a quick call to Paypal's customer service, my payment option was activated by a nice lady from the other side of the line. I'm not sure if this is available for all users, but I think that you need to make that call...

Here are some additional details about the Payoneer account that might be useful for you. The annual account maintenance is $29.95 and this amount will be deducted each ear from your available balance. If you lose your card, you will have to pay $12.95 for a replacement card.

Withdrawal fees

You will pay $3.15 for every successful withdrawal from the credit card, 1$ for a declined transaction and $1 for a balance inquiry. From my experience, the Payoneer credit card works great with most ATMs all over the world.

If these are good enough reasons for you to use the service, head over to Payoneer and create your account now!