Can a Swede open a US bank account?
If you have a taxpayer ID number you should be able to open a U.S. account. My bank in Seattle has been mailing statements to Stockholm for 15 years. The problem with a US account is that if you are using this for business, you might create some tax obligations in the US. You should be able to open a “valutakonto” in dollars at any of the big banks Handelsbanken, SEB in Sweden. Handelsbanken doesn’t take any fee for “överföring mellan konto med växling”. I don’t know how it would work with depositing checks though – I’ve never tried this. It is really quaint and old-fashioned that Americans still use them, but useless to me. If you run into a pinch and are close to Stockholm and need a US check cashed into SEK, send me a Mefi mail and I’d be happy to extend some Mefi-solidarity and help you out.
