From U.S. to Germany — Financial process?

Since every bank has a different process and fee structure, you should read the fineprint before you decide.
I just kept an account at home, opened one in my guest country and transferred money by bank transfer whenever necessary.

Thanks Beppi, sounds pretty straight forward. I've also been told that having an international bank like HSBC can be beneficial since it allows you to work with multiple currencies (though I'm not sure of the details of how that works). Would love to hear from anyone that has gone that route. Does HSBC have any presence in Berlin? Would I be able to find ATMs around for it?

ericarl wrote:

Hello everyone! I'll be moving from the U.S. to Berlin and am trying to find out how people usually handle their money. I assume I should keep a bank account and credit card in the U.S., but how do people do the transition to their new city? Should I just move the majority of my funds to a new German bank after I've arrived? Should I move to an international bank before I leave instead and use that? One person told me to switch to Bank of America (I'm currently at Wells Fargo) because they have a relationship with Deutsch Bank. I guess I'm just looking for the general process that people usually go through when making this transition. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

It will be better to transfer your money to German bank as every time you use ATM other than your bank's ATM they can charge up to €4.95 (or up to 2%) and from my personal experience in Germany I would recommend your to keep cash all the time with you as very less restaurants, bar, club etc.. will accept debit/credit card and as mentioned above, to use other bank's ATM to withdraw cash can cost you arms and legs