American Banks in Finland

Goldie · Post by **Goldie** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 4:24 pm

sinikala wrote:

Why would you expect English speaking tellers & phone reps? That's not to say you won't get them, but this is Finland, the language here is Finnish.

(I understand this is Finland, and that the language is Finnish. I also understand that in a lot of service industries (banking, tourism, airlines, etc.) English is a requirement for employement.)

Can you recommend a US bank that has branches through out the western World?

(Citibank)

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Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 5:48 pm

Question is why would anyone *want* to go inside a bank, let alone call them? Giver me the hives the thought of queuing up. Nordea and Sampo both have pretty straightforward user interfaces.

And I don't much get the idea what benefit there would be of having offices in other countries - Nordea Estonia would tell me to piss off if I tried to access my Finnish account from there.

GaryK · Post by **GaryK** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 6:35 pm

sinikala wrote:Can you recommend a US bank that has branches through out the western World?

A third alternative might be to go for an international bank, such as HSBC. I've got accounts with them both in the UK and the US, and it all works fine. I'm not entirely sure if they've got day-to-day banking operations in Finland at least yet, but it might be worth checking...

Jussi · Post by **Jussi** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 6:56 pm

I'd definately reccomend Nordea - as others here have.

Everytime I have called they have been more than helpful, The netbank is in english, and they speak english on the phones. (I've never had one who was below the fluency I needed.) Also their service has been extremely prompt (dont ask me about sonera...grrrr

) ie. less than 5 mins wait time.

So overall, been very good to deal with.

Hope this helps

sinikala · Post by **sinikala** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 8:40 pm

Goldie wrote:
sinikala wrote:Can you recommend a US bank that has branches through out the western World?
Citibank

So you've answered your own question, simply go to Citibank and open your account.

So off you trundle to

http://www.citibank.com/us/d.htm

go to the bottom left of the page "select a country" and select Finland... except you can't... so that would indicate that they don't have branches throughout the western world.

sinikala · Post by **sinikala** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 8:46 pm

GaryK wrote:
sinikala wrote:Can you recommend a US bank that has branches through out the western World?
A third alternative might be to go for an international bank, such as HSBC. I've got accounts with them both in the UK and the US, and it all works fine. I'm not entirely sure if they've got day-to-day banking operations in Finland at least yet, but it might be worth checking...

http://www.hsbc.com/#

No representation in Finland, and unless they buy one of the existing Nordic banks, they are unlikely ever to.

Quin · Post by **Quin** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 12:15 am

One thing you have to keep in mind. Europe is very different from the US. There are really no banks that operate all over the european countries like you have banks in the US that operate in alot of states.

The bigger european banks within Europe normally have an office in most capitals but they are only for business customers, not private.

Just open an account on a finnish bank. Your employer (if you work) does not want to pay fees ( so you would have to too) to put your salary in a non-finnish bank.

I personally use Nordea like many people here. I use their online banking which is easy and available in english. I barely go in to the office (why would you unless you want a loan or a new credit card or something) but when i do there always is someone available who speaks english

zam · Post by **zam** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 4:32 pm

I have an account in Sampo and in Nordea. Both have internet banking and other services available in English. But ATM's will only speak to you in Finnish or Swedish if you insert a Finnish card in them. If you put a foreign card in, they'll happily converse in English.

Both Sampo and Nordea have offices abroad as well, but as all countries in Europe have their own banking laws and regulations, they all operate as separate companies. I.e. I cannot access my Finnish Sampo account through Sampo in Estonia, nor the Finnish Nordea account through Nordea in Poland. Nordea customers can withdraw cash from Nordea ATMs in other Nordic countries without commission with their Visa Electron cards.

asdasd12345 · Post by **asdasd12345** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 11:44 pm

y would u want to move to finland anyway. america is the greatest country on earth correct? i recommend you keep your money in dollars also - its a pillar of strength.

gistroud · Post by **gistroud** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 12:34 pm

I use nordea. They are ok. They have services in English and they do have online banking. They can arrange for you to send money (electronic transfers). However, it is costly. As far as checks are concerned, they don't have them here. Most bills are paid electronicly.

Matula · Post by **Matula** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 1:09 am

Choose Säästöpankki or Osuuspankki if you want to find a bank anywhere you are in Finland. There's one of each in every Finnish town or village. At least back in the good old days.

raamv · Post by **raamv** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 12:14 pm

We closed our Nordea account primarily because of non-use.
We use OP ( English site only for text-based banking if it is ok with you. I use the Finnish site as I am now more comfortable to use it and if I don't know what it is, I use a dictionary or ma SO to translate).
Customer service has never been a problem with Nordea or OP, but then they are not waiting there to fawn over a foreigner when they enter the bank even if they have loads of money.
If you really want to bank with an american based back, I suggest that you use the citibank virtual banking service.But then customer service is somewhere in India ( Indian Do speak with both American and British accents depending on how they hear the helo and where the call comes from).
IMHO, Finnish banks are more secure than any American bank that I can think of..
So in reality you have 2 choices: Citibank or Nordea.
err 1 choice: Nordea.
OTOH if you plan to stay here for a longer time, I suggest that you can learn finnish faster by banking with others too(Nordea, OP, Sampo, Alandsbanken, etc)
edit: As Matula pointed out, OP is practically there in every nook n corner of Finland.
But then are U in da HEL-ESP-VAN area (city areas) or the boondocks?

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 1:23 pm

Just notice there is 'national' OP with the orange ball and the percentage sign through and then the 'independnt' OP's with the green leaf. The green leafs are local hick banks.

jackal · Post by **jackal** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 1:49 pm

I find Nordea ok, online banking is English, the counter people have spoken only english to me at my branch and the Otto`s have english on them for drawing money...its good or even better than I expected, so I have to give them full marks!

sinikala · Post by **sinikala** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 4:05 pm

jackal wrote:I find Nordea ok, online banking is English, the counter people have spoken only english to me at my branch and the Otto`s have english on them for drawing money...its good or even better than I expected, so I have to give them full marks!

AFAIK "Otto" cash machines only give a choice of languages if you use a foreign card, if you have a Finnish issued card e.g. Nordea, there is no choice of language, not even Swedish.

Someone may have already said this.

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