Cheapest banking solution for monthly dues payment

[Brandis]

When I stayed on my DVC contract for the first time, I went to the Suntrust branch which existed at the time just next to the casting center at Downtown Disney. Since I don't live in the US and don't have a US SSN, I had to open the account in person.

I chose Suntrust, since they had a fee-free checking account. Some time later, they started to charge a $5 maintenance fee, but very inconsistently, so it didn't really hurt. Now, they are called Truist and my account was automatically moved over to them and they now charge $10 each month you don't put in at least $500 each month. So this is really digging into my dues fund.

While they have a so called Confidence account without physical checks (which I don't need anyway) that only charges $5 a month, I'd need to open that new account in person as well and my next trip is only in October.

So I am curious, what banks other members (especially non-US) use to have their dues charged monthly and how much their monthly bank maintrenance fees are.

 

[fitnessmouse]

I have an account with wise that i use to pay my dues monthly. It is free and has a way better exchange rate

 

[Matty B13]

You can buy Disney Gift Cards in your home country, and then use them to pay dues with them. You just have to set up your account dues to be paid monthly.

 

[fitnessmouse]

You can buy Disney Gift Cards in your home country, and then use them to pay dues with them. You just have to set up your account dues to be paid monthly.

You can only set up to pay dues monthly if you have a us banking account.
It’s not always as easy to buy Disney gift cards from outside the usa without getting flagged for fraud. Some companies don’t even allow you to buy if from outside usa.

 

[Brandis]

I have an account with wise that i use to pay my dues monthly. It is free and has a way better exchange rate

I used to have a Transferwise card, but like Revolut better. I use it to transfer money from my bank account in Switzerland to Truist free of charge. But I thought if you pay your dues by credit card, monthly payment is not an option?

 

[Minniesgal]

I used to have a Transferwise card, but like Revolut better. I use it to transfer money from my bank account in Switzerland to Truist free of charge. But I thought if you pay your dues by credit card, monthly payment is not an option?

Wise gives you a US bank account for monthly dues

 

[Brandis]

Wise gives you a US bank account for monthly dues

Oh, OK, didn't know that, I'll look into it. Thanks!

 

[fitnessmouse]

I have both wise and Revolut and use them both for different purpose. Revolut does not give you a us (or eu or uk) bank account number and Wise does.
I think the option at Wise for usa bank account number to have direct debit only exists for maybe a year or so. It did not use to have that when it was Transferwise

 

[Brandis]

Cool!

Although right now I'm getting really p****d off by Truist. I go to Payments and Transfers. I added an external account with the bank credentials from Wise. The account shows up as "Evolve Bank & Trust". So I go back to Transfers to initiate one. There, it tells me "Only one of your accounts is eligible for transfers. Please open another account or add.a non-Truist account to start making transfers." Thats in the mobile app, if I try to do the same on the website, the external account doesn't show and if I try to add one again, it tells me: "Something's not quite right, but we're working on it. Please try again later."

Another thing, when adding an external account in the app, I get the choice of adding a payment account or a transfer account. I figured I want a transfer account, but then the routing number is not accepted, if I select payment account, that works.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Just use a credit card that does not charge for international exchange. You do not have to pay your dues monthly. We prepay ours throughout the year and it runs a negative credit balance until about Dec 15 at which time we find out if we “guessed” correctly and if necessary pay more before the end of January (when dues are due). You go into my dues. Pick pay by contract. Then put whatever amount of money you want toward whatever contract. If you have more than one contract, it doesn’t matter what contract. DVC just applies it all to your total dues. This is what our account looks like right now. We have a credit balance.

 

[starquake]

Truist don't seem to charge monthly fees on our ex-suntrust accounts if we keep them > $1000 in credit. We just do that. Makes no odds, as the dues need payment anyhow, we just move money over annually when the exchange rate is good as it saves us dealing with poor exchange rates on dues.