Cambodian Bank account

It has all been discussed here before.

From my post 2 years ago and nothing has changed:

I got a Canadia bank account which works very well.
ATM at their branches for free, at other banks $0.50 is charged. Except at ANZ!!! I took money from an ATM in PP and ANZ charged me $5 for that, really ridiculous.

To open an account:

Passport with long term visa more than 4 months valid
Copy of rental contract (or hotel reservation)
Deposit $10
Can use your account the same day, ATM card takes a week.

They have free internet banking, so you can check your account from home, make transfers, and so on.

Cheers

Joe

ABA just as easy. ANZ has NO connection with ANZ in Australia so no advantage having an account in Australia (and I gather in NZ).

I hope my experiences may help.
Opened a CAB (passbook) savings account in 2004. Just needed a passport, Guest House address, and $5 deposit then.
2% interest. Added an ATM card last year, cost 50c/month.
Free at CAB, 50c most others, except ANZ was $5 and Malasia Asia - (which used to be free) I think now $2?

I did find using international banks then incurred high charges.
As a regular traveller, I now carry spending £££ each time, change at a money changer often at BETTER than interbank rates, and place in my CAB account.
Use WorldRemit, through Wing to add family cash remotely 3 years now.
William.

Hi Joe - I am now living in Siem Reap (got a 12 month ER extension), would you recommend Canadia above other banks?

HDGH29, On another tack - I asked the UK Cambodian embassy about renewing my ER visa, expired end of November - and was told they could only offer a working visa - and offered to give me a contact to get a letter offering me, (this old guy) a "Job" (for a fee!) to get one on arrival in PP. very dodgy...
Did you get your extension in Cambodia?
I contacted the PP visa office, no reply.

I got my extension here through a local agent,  she did it in 2 days while I was still in quarantine-excellent service,  smart lady. Khmer married to expat.  I will give you her contact details but not sure if she can help if you not in country.

I have Canadia bank account as an expat and it was very easy to open.

Hey mate. Canadia is good but ABA is the best. J Trust is also good. Any of these 3 will do

hdgh29 wrote:

Hi Joe - I am now living in Siem Reap (got a 12 month ER extension), would you recommend Canadia above other banks?

Yes I would still recommend Canadia bank.

I use it more than 5 years now and never a problem. When my card strip was damaged they got me a new one within one week.

They have on line banking which I use a lot, both on laptop and mobile, it's free and works fine.

Five years ago I chose Canadia because they were the cheapest when using my (then) Thai bank card at their atm's.

ABA to me is second best but they have regular problems with their atm's, just last week all atm's were blocked due to an update of the software.

They used to demand an employment contract to open an account and charged $50 to do so.
Canadia only passport with long EOS and only $10.

Cheers.

Joe

Willdduff wrote:

HDGH29, On another tack - I asked the UK Cambodian embassy about renewing my ER visa, expired end of November - and was told they could only offer a working visa - and offered to give me a contact to get a letter offering me, (this old guy) a "Job" (for a fee!) to get one on arrival in PP. very dodgy...
Did you get your extension in Cambodia?
I contacted the PP visa office, no reply.

Wildduff your post is totally off topic and contains illegal actions, not from you but from an official of a Cambodia embassy in UK.

It would never work, You would be arrested at the airport where they check all your documents.
Provided the embassy got you an Ordinary visa your illegal documents would be a give away at the airport.

So please don't post this kind of non sense, some people might think it is reality, it is not!

Joe

hdgh29 wrote:

I got my extension here through a local agent,  she did it in 2 days while I was still in quarantine-excellent service,  smart lady. Khmer married to expat.  I will give you her contact details but not sure if she can help if you not in country.

It is impossible to get an Extension of Stay EOS when you're not in country.
No embassy can do this for you, it's the Immigration Department that handles extensions.

I know which agent you mean, she is great indeed, just got my one year extension though her, took only one week.

Cheers

Joe

Regarding the banks, did you mean that ABA charge $50, or do they want an initial deposit of $50 when you open the account? $50 as a fee to open an account seems a bit high.

Yes when I compared the two banks 5 years ago Canadia asked a $10 deposit and ABA $50.

Ah ok - so there is no fee to open the account, I just start off with a deposit. Thats ok, I would probably put at least $500 in to start with anyway - no point having a bank account with no money in it!
cheers
David

Except that you cannot take away the deposit.

I have opened an ABA account because here in Siem Reap their ATMs are everywhere (for comparison I think Canadia have 2 or 3 in the whole town). As a retiree I just needed to show my EOS visa page and my apartment lease contract. There was no requirement for a cash deposit, I told them I would transfer some money to the account online later. So all very simple. Except I had to do my signature on two separate documents, and the first two times the girl said she could not accept because they were not identical! Ever tried to write a signature real slow? Its not easy, I got it in the end (or the teller just gave up). All part of the fun I guess.

Hi Joe. Just for clarification. What ever you first deposit needs to be your minimum balance ? So say you open the account with a $500 deposit. You can’t use that cash ?

You use a foreign bank card and compare the fees.
That is not the same as comparing having a bank account in country,  like I did.

No no no,  the initial opening deposit is fixed,  like I said it used to be $10 at Canadia and $50 at ABA.

The opening deposit stays in your account so if your balance is $500 you can withdraw $490 at Canadia.

Thanks Joe.

OK so I got caught out as a new player. I opened an account at ABA, and asked about interbank transfers. ABA charge 4% to receive international funds under $10,000, so I thought I could handle that. On Monday to get the account started I transferred $250 from  my bank in NZ, but this morning I checked with ABA, only $185 arrived. I went to the bank, they explained that yes, their fee would be around $10 but the transfer has to go through a secondary clearing bank overseas which charges $55 for the privelege. No-one told me that! It is in fact cheaper for me to withdraw cash from an ATM using my overseas card, and then deposit the cash into my ABA account. Then I called in to Canadia Bank, they do the same thing but the clearing bank only charges $30. So its going to be goodbye ABA, hello Canadia for sure!

Do all the Cambodian banks charge a fee for receiving international funds ? If so. Any idea who has the lowest fee?

hdgh29 wrote:

OK so I got caught out as a new player. I opened an account at ABA, and asked about interbank transfers. ABA charge 4% to receive international funds under $10,000, so I thought I could handle that. On Monday to get the account started I transferred $250 from  my bank in NZ, but this morning I checked with ABA, only $185 arrived. I went to the bank, they explained that yes, their fee would be around $10 but the transfer has to go through a secondary clearing bank overseas which charges $55 for the privelege. No-one told me that! It is in fact cheaper for me to withdraw cash from an ATM using my overseas card, and then deposit the cash into my ABA account. Then I called in to Canadia Bank, they do the same thing but the clearing bank only charges $30. So its going to be goodbye ABA, hello Canadia for sure!

Told you Canadia is the better choice.

I had $2000 coming in earlier this year and apart from the $10 Canadia fee only $30 was charged.

Cheers.

Joe

DaveAb wrote:

Do all the Cambodian banks charge a fee for receiving international funds ? If so. Any idea who has the lowest fee?

See hdgh's and my post, ABA $65, Canadia $40.

Thanks Joe, but like everything in my life I had to learn the hard way. I hope it doesn't apply to my current project - I have ridden scooters all over SE Asia, but now finally bought a 'big bike', a nice Honda CBR 150....just have to learn to ride it now, hopefully not the hard way...

He,  I'm the opposite.
After having reached my age I decided I don't want to die in a traffic accident so when I moved from Sihanoukville to PP  3 years ago I sold my motorbike and won't have another one.

Now in Kampot I pay 5000 Riel to get into town or back.  That's $1,25 and I don't have to worry about the 1,2,4 beers I consume and the ability to drive.

But I like your choice of bike,  very nice bike!

hehe, I think at my age (67) I got nothing to lose. Too late to live fast / die young I guess but life is an adventure. When I left NZ back in August, heading to Dubai, Greece and UK, my friends said "you must be crazy to travel at this time". Maybe, but I ended up here in a happy place, and if this is the last great adventure, I will live it. Maybe when I get more confidence I will do the big road trip and see you in Kampot.

I agree in all subjects about living the good life now that we don't have to work anymore.

Just the fast & furious is not my piece of cake anymore.

Hope to see you soon.

Joe