Transcription
You don't want to be abroad alone and suddenly lose access to money. Luckily, it's preventable with some easy think-ahead steps. Today, I'm breaking down exactly what you need to do to maintain your US presence while living abroad, so you don't face any of these money challenges that we hear about all of the time. We're talking addresses, phone plans, mail forwarding, two-factor authentication, mobile wallets, and other basic tips that you need to make sure that this isn't a pitfall you fall into. With all that, let's get started.
First things first, you need a US address. Period. I know a lot of people like us want to sell our house, completely disconnect, pack up, and peace out, as I like to say, but that's not doable if you want to maintain any sort of relationship with your US banks. And for a lot of us, this is extremely important. Maintaining a US address isn't optional. If you want to keep your US bank account, your credit cards, your investment accounts, any of the financial services that you've been used to, you need to have a US residential address. Period. Non-negotiable. Sorry, guys.
But here's the catch. It can't just be any address. PO boxes do not work. Mailboxes, etc., or UPS Store, not an option. It needs to be a residential address. Luckily, you have two options.
The first option, friends and family. And that's by far the easiest and most cost-effective way to go about maintaining your US presence while abroad. You need a parent, maybe an adult child, a lifelong friend, someone you really trust who will let you use their residential address long-term, who doesn't move a lot. Think about that. Will allow you to receive and is potentially willing to forward or scan you mail and won't mind banks or the IRS or other government institutions sending important documents their way. This is a relationship based on trust. So don't just pick someone random or someone that you might know. This is free, it's legitimate, and it keeps everything simple.
But we know a lot of people don't have that option, and that's okay. That brings us to option number two, which is using a mail forwarding or domicile service in a low-tax state. There are a couple that we recommend. What we used personally was a service out of Florida called Savvy Nomad. They're essentially an RV park that allow you to, for a monthly fee, have a registered address and support you in all of the ways that you need to get a driver's license in Florida, move your tax residency there, and have all the things that you need to be able to maintain a US presence. That's how we've been able to maintain our US accounts by using Savvy Nomad. South Dakota is also an option for a lot of folks. There are multiple services there. I can put a couple up on screen here, although we don't have personal relationships with them. That allows you to get a South Dakota address and maintain your residence.
A bit more about taxes. Location is very important for one main reason: state income tax. Florida and South Dakota do not have state income tax, whereas the place you're currently living might. Now, I'm not a tax professional, so please consult with your professional before taking any advice, but I want to relay a quick warning from a conversation I had recently with one of our community members. They were telling me about how they had lived abroad in Thailand for over 10 years. And while they were there, they used a sister's address in California for official bank correspondence and for all of the other things that they needed. They got back to the states and suddenly they were being sued by the California Department of Revenue because California stated that they owed state income taxes for the entire time they were in Thailand, simply because they used the residential address of somebody in California. Now, in this case, the client was able to go through a long process and through the stamps in her passport book, prove that she was not a California resident during that period. She had an address there, but was not a resident and was able to get the whole thing dismissed. But it's important to keep tax in mind when you're picking a place to have your home address. You don't want to be in a high-tax area and suddenly be hit with a bill that, while you may be able to fight it, causes complexity and challenge.
Florida and South Dakota are great options that a lot of nomads use. Most of them require a one-day stay in order to make that happen. And again, the services that facilitate that are pretty easy to use. Just make sure you keep up with their payments because otherwise they could refuse documents or letters sent to you, and that could cause you some problems.
And another thing most people don't think about before it's too late: renew your driver's license before you move abroad, especially if you're selling a house or leaving your apartment behind. Think about it. In order to renew your driver's license or get a new one, most DMVs will require a proof of address, like a utility bill, a lease, a mortgage statement. Sometimes they need two proofs of that address from the last 90 days. They need you to appear in person with your birth certificate. If you're selling your house or letting your apartment lease lapse, you're not going to have those documents anymore. So, if you lose your driver's license abroad or if it expires, it's going to be really challenging for you to get a new one. If you're keeping your driver's license in the state you currently live, renew it or get a longer time span on it. And if you're moving, the good news is that services like Savvy Nomad in Florida or some of the ones in South Dakota that I previously mentioned offer service to help you do this. And from our chats with people that have used these services, it is relatively easy to get a renewal.
Also, before you go, consider getting an international driving permit from your local AAA office in the USA. They're not that expensive, and while they're not necessary everywhere, it's a good thing to have in your back pocket just in case somebody asks you for it. I haven't been asked for it in any of my time in Europe, but I know a lot of people who have, and there are some countries that require you to have an international driving permit if you're driving on a US license.
All right. Now, the big one: staying connected. You face a unique challenge here. Your US phone and your US phone number need to stay active because you need to receive two-factor authentication codes from banks. You need to have data basically wherever you go. You don't want to pay an absolute fortune, and you want to be reachable. Let me make it crystal clear, though. You cannot and should not cancel your US phone number and just plan to get a new number abroad. Think about all the services that you log into online that require a text message code for verification. If you decide to cancel your phone number and get a new number, especially one in a foreign country, it's going to be a logistical nightmare to set up all those services again. I guarantee you there'll be one that you forget about and only realize when it's too late. And you don't want to be without access to your money. Your banks in America, credit cards, your investment provider companies, they all require a US phone number for two-factor authentication. If you think you can just update your number on your account to some foreign number while you're away, you are mistaken. That'll cause a red flag in their systems, and you risk your account being closed. It takes effort to make sure that you appear to be a non-risky customer to bank with, and you've got to put in the time to maintain that effort. So, do not under any circumstance think you can cancel your US phone number while abroad.
Now let's talk strategies to maintain that number while not spending a fortune.
Option one is going to be a budget approach where you're going to use multiple different services and carriers to achieve your goals. You could go with a low-cost US carrier like Mint Mobile or Tello that offer barebones plans that will allow you to, at a minimum, receive text messages and calls while overseas on Wi-Fi using Wi-Fi calling. These cost between five and $15 a month. They're not going to provide you with a lot of calling or texting or mobile service, but they will allow you to, on Wi-Fi, continue to access those phone numbers for two-factor authentication. Then, when you're on the ground in whatever country you're moving to, you can get a local phone plan. Here in Albania, there are two carriers for that: there's 1L and Vodafone, between $15 and $20 per month. That'll give you a pretty decent phone plan. You'll get a local number. And then when you're traveling, because while abroad, you're probably going to want to do a good amount of travel, you can get a travel eSIM from a provider like Solis or Airalo that provides you with limited data coverage in countries you're visiting for maybe a week, a couple of days at a time. And that's can be your way of staying connected. The advantage of this route is that it's flexible. At the bare minimum, you're paying only $5 or $15 a month. When you're going somewhere, you get more data. When you are not going anywhere, you're on Wi-Fi or you get less data. It's very capital-light. But in my opinion, it's complex. If anything goes wrong with any of these carriers, it becomes a challenge. You need to juggle multiple SIMs or eSIMs, know what to turn on or off at any given time, and frankly, from personal experience, it is frustrating to have to know what SIM I need to shift to at any given moment. It works, it's cheap, but you're juggling multiple SIM cards, and it's kind of complicated.
Option two, what I recommend, is an all-in-one service and full international phone plan from my favorite carrier, US Mobile. This is what I use: the US Mobile Unlimited Premium plan on the Lightseed network. Here's what you get: it's $44 a month, less if you buy an annual plan. You get to keep your US number, but you can make calls internationally to international numbers. You get unlimited data in the US and 20 gigabytes of data in most countries around the globe. You can make international calls, and if you need more data, you can top up with US Mobile for a fee, or you can get an on-the-ground SIM plan that's data-only for relatively affordably. I've been on US Mobile now for two-plus years while traveling across the globe, and I've been extraordinarily happy and impressed. In any country I land in, I simply reboot my phone, and after a moment or two, I have service. It's truly wonderful to not have to worry about connectivity, especially when taking long road trips like we have across the Balkans where we might be crossing four or five countries, and I don't need to buy an individual plan or an eSIM for each of those countries in order to get maps, directions. Also, I'm just generally a really big fan of US Mobile. They've been extremely easy to work with. Anytime I've had a customer challenge, they've been very easy to communicate with. My bill has been the exact same every single month. They don't raise or lower things on a whim. And overall, it just works everywhere. And that's what you want. You don't want to have to think about this.
Two critical warnings on cell phone and phone numbers before we move on. Number one, Google Voice is not an option. A Voice over IP, VoIP provider, not an option. Banks and other two-factor authentication providers are able to tell if phone numbers are Google Voice or a VoIP provider, and they are not supported because they're not real numbers. In the same way that a bank won't accept a PO box or a UPS Store account for your address, they're not going to accept a Google Voice or Voice over IP number for your phone number. Anyone can get them. It's not secure enough, and it doesn't meet their know your customer requirements.
Warning number two, and this is critical: you must set all this up before leaving the USA. If you're keeping your number, you need to do the number porting before you leave America. We've run into many people who have come and moved here to Albania. They've realized that they need to do something with their phone number. They left the US on an expensive Verizon plan or something like that that's costing them $15, $20, $30 a week to have international service. And once they get here, there's really not a lot they can do because you need to be on American cell phone towers in order to make a number port to another provider. So, this is absolutely critical. Any changes you're making to your cell phone plan, you must do before you leave the US. Now, if you get a new phone while abroad, but you've already ported your number, that's a different story. You can swap SIM cards or swap eSIMs easily. I have broke my phone recently. I had to go to the Apple Store to get a new one, and it was not a challenge to reactivate my US Mobile service on that new device. But in terms of initially porting your number and moving from one carrier to another, you need to do that while you're still in the US. And I don't want to hammer this point home too much, but we have talked to many people who have been in Albania for multiple years. They finally decide, I'm going to let go of my US phone plan, and then have real serious banking challenges after the fact. They're not able to verify themselves. They're not able to access funds, and it becomes a panic. If you want to avoid that, you need to make a plan for your US number before you leave America.
Our next section: banking and financial tips. Just some things you need to do before you leave the USA.
First, travel notices. I know how appealing it is to tell everybody that will listen, "I'm leaving. I'm moving abroad. I'm living my overseas dream." But that's not something you want to do with your financial institution because it raises a red flag. Feel free, and we recommend, setting travel notices on all of your cards or bank accounts saying you'll be abroad in certain countries over certain periods of dates. This means that your card won't get declined, which is a good thing. But, and this is important, don't necessarily advertise that you're planning on moving long-term. Why? Well, investment platforms, brokerages, banks get really nervous about people moving overseas, especially long-term, and it can be a flag to close your account. Some have restrictions on serving customers who aren't US residents. So, when you talk to them, frame your travels abroad as adventure, as globe-trotting, as checking things out, frequent travel, not a permanent relocation. You have a US address, after all, so there's no need for them to worry.
A lot of people are concerned about this specifically with Charles Schwab. Charles Schwab offers a couple of different account types. Primarily, they offer a domestic account and an international account. And if Charles Schwab determines that you are living outside of the USA, they'll switch you to an international account, which severely restricts your ability to make trades, to balance your portfolio, and to do a lot of things that you're ordinarily used to doing in your American brokerage account. The main reason this happens is because people disclose to Charles Schwab that they no longer have an American residential address. However, we have also talked to people who have been Charles Schwab customers for 10, 15 years while living abroad who are able to do that purely by maintaining a US residence. It's not too complicated. You just need to maybe not give so much away to your banking representative. Don't lie, of course, but just frame it as long-term international travel with your US as a home base.
And the last thing: make sure to add all your cards to your Apple Wallet or Google Wallet on your phone, so you can use Tap to Pay wherever you go. And do this before you leave the USA. This is critically important. A lot of banks have restrictions as to where cards can be added purely to prevent fraud. Whenever you add a card to your mobile wallet, your phone sends a geolocation signal to the bank for authorization. If you don't add these cards to your account before you leave the USA, you might not be able to. And this provides an important level of redundancy. Let's say that you're at an ATM and that ATM eats your bank card. If you have that card in Apple Wallet, you're probably going to be able to use Tap to Pay at other ATMs or other point-of-sale locations, whereas if you hadn't added it to Apple Wallet, you wouldn't be able to access the funds in that account anymore. So, one last thing to do before you take off and enjoy your new life abroad.
All right, a quick checklist to recap before we go.
Number one, have a plan and get a US address. Whether that be family, a friend, or a mail forwarding service like Savvy Nomad in Florida, or one of the options in South Dakota. Renew your driver's license or get a new driver's license before you go. Set up your phone plan and make sure you have access to your US number before you leave the US. Be strategic about what you tell banks and financial institutions regarding your travel warnings and what your intentions are. And load your cards into Apple Wallet and Google Wallet before leaving the states.
If you do these things right, you can live anywhere in the world while keeping your US financial life running smoothly. Mess them up, and you'll be dealing with headaches. We've talked to multiple people since our last video who have told us about their emergency trips back to the US to sort out banking messes. You don't want that to be you. So, be prepared, and you'll be okay.
Feel free to drop your questions in the comments and hit that subscribe button if you want more content like this. If you're in the process of moving abroad, check out our website, smileabroad.al, where you can access our decision to wheels up checklist, as well as join our Smile Abroad Club, where we help people from all walks of life leave the USA and start a new life abroad. Until next time, take care. Bye-bye.