Corozal Atlantic Bank ?

Hola, yes your debit card is usable at Atlantic Bank. Single withdraw of $750bzd. $3.00 fee. Belize Bank will charge$3.00 plus 1% of amount withdrawn. A friend of mine had his banker in the states made all of necessary transactions. Checking account was open when he arrived.

Thank you, Do you know which bank that was?  If it is the same bank I use, my banker will be doing the same for me!

Nowadays, ARM retrievals in Belize or Mexico are very safe.
If concerned about fees transactions you can obtain from your bank back home particular atm cards with less fees or less fees

Hola, being most streets do not have signage, no I can not. It is by the AR store. Lol

Opening bank accounts overseas, for US nationals, do not implicate only the Belize bank but also the IRS.  The easierst thing to do at first, is tomuse your atm card.  Some US banks like bank of america allows retrievals with no fees.
Opening a bank account in Belize, demands your social security number and other info.  It is not just a simple thing.

The most imoortant thing, before your departure, is to go online your bank and set, your travel overseas, with dates renewable. Very easy to do but very important, because you would be block at the second retrieval.

I have had excellent transactions with Atla bank in Corozal.  They service my very well while I am away in Canada or in Belize.  It is a bit of a hassle though to get set up initially.  They have a form with all the requirements they need.  Including a utility bill in Belize with your name on it proving residence.

I too recommend Atlantic Bank. It's not so much of a hassle to open an account if you know up front what documentation you will need to provide, and bring it with you when you come to Belize. We didn't research that well enough and assumed it would be like opening an account in Canada. You know a couple of pieces of ID and a small deposit and a way you go, you just can't take out more than you put in.

In Belize you need a bit more documentation and they have to be originals that can be verified. For us it took 6 months to open an account because we actually had to wait for a trip back to Canada to obtain those documents. When we returned it was less than a week to have the account opened and check book and debit cards in hand shortly after.

For those That are interested here is a link that will explain exactly what you will be required to provide. Hope it helps.

https://youtu.be/5xr-58J4-LQ

I am still at a loss to know how a Banker in the US was able to open an account in Belize for a client. everything has to go through Central bank and the information needed mostly individually notorized is enormous.  Please can you let us know through what banks this was done.

Not to be arguementitve, but in my experience we submitted original documents and were not required to have anything notorized. I don't think everything goes through the Central Bank, but must adhere to the rules set down by the Central Bank (which of course are in response to the requirements of the American banks). The process to open an account can be started in the US (by you or your banker for example) but will only be approved and opened when you arrive in person to sign and provide the originals of any documents that have been emailed. Not sure if your example differs from this, or if American's are being treated differently under the guise of money laundering.

cochise

I am not disbelieving you I am assuming this was some time ago.  Since Jan 2014 if out of the country and wishing to open an account in Belize, all banks  have had to go through Central bank.
if already In the country expats still go through Central bank but  is faster as original docs given and are held by central bank only a day or two while being processed, so they need to get them returned to owners after they make their own copies so days not weeks.
Included in the process on line, among  docs they require, front and back and up to 12 pages of current passport.   Proof of residency of current non Belize address. SSN. copy of Green cards if applicable, Bank references for   accounts held in the expats country, at $10 per notarized page we had costs of over $300.  We also had to fill in the FATCA forms before approval also.
We got approved for our First account in 12 weeks which the Belize bank informed us was quite Fast. All  done line just had to redo the signature forms In Belize to get access to the account.
When  later we wished to  simply CHANGE banks within Belize to Scotiabank after the problems with correspondence bank withdrawal at Belize bank. We had to do the whole process again luckily by this time we were able to be in Belize part of  the time and could have them just copy the original docs themselves to start the process,  still took nearly 3 weeks for approval, but then could not give us our account details until we were physically present  back in the branch in Belize.
My only question was how this process could be done by a bank  for their client from outside of Belize and have an fully open account on first visit.

Good Morning, the person I was referring to who had his bank account started by his US banker, was done some fifteen years ago. Also both bankers had went to college together.

Yes it was way easier back then to open an account with any of the banks. We had our Credit Union in Canada fax a letter to Atlantic Bank and had a savings account and a chequing account functional the next day, right after we signed the signature cards.That was with Atlantic Bank, not Atlantic International Bank. From what I hear today, it's easier to deal with Atlantic Bank, both local and offshore branches, than it is to deal with Scotia or BB. And no, Central Bank was not nearly as involved as they are today.

It could be just that, the money laundering thing. Believe it or not, I have seen a lot of changes in the process for Westerners and other's relocating to Belize. I bought property a couple years ago, haven't built on it yet. I need to get approval. Simple. Just follow their rules and regulations, things will work out fine.