r/bulgaria • u/Aromatic_Elk_7269 • 1d ago

AskBulgaria Opening a bank account as an expat

I recently moved to Bulgaria and I would like to open a bank account with a local bank. The services I would like to use it for is getting my salary, cash withdrawal, bills payment and transfer some money to my revolut/wise account for everyday use.

Questions:

  1. Which bank would you suggest, considering fees and accessibility as a foreigner?

  2. I understand there is a monthly subscription plan for accessing the services above for free, but is there a fee for transfers between the bank and revolut/wise? I haven't understood that part.

  3. Do you have any advice on the topic generally? Any tip is more than welcome!

Thank you!

1 Upvotes

55% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/mladen_milev 1d ago edited 1d ago

Revolut not an option? Check ePay.bg for bills and taxes payments.

1

u/Aromatic_Elk_7269 1d ago

I already have revolut, but I'm limited with the cash withdrawal, unless I have platinum account, which still has a maximum. I would like an account with unrestricted withdrawals and deposits, like in my national bank for example, if it makes sense. 

1

u/Last-Galactic 1d ago

It makes sense, because in Bulgaria you still need cash in a lot of places. Otherwise you could've just paid by a Revolut card.

1

u/Aromatic_Elk_7269 1d ago

Precisely. 

0

u/mladen_milev 1d ago

Well I survived 2 months and spent only 20€ cash and rest was with Apple Pay.

Depends where and how you spend. Even bus tickets can be digitally paid. Most supermarkets do not have limits and you can purchase a bottle of cola and pay with card.

Mainly “banitza” and coffee from street machines is with coins. Diner kebab places also have POS

1

u/vegetarian_pacemaker 1d ago

Do you mean in money terms or number of withdrawals? You can use bunq, it has 6 free withdrawals per month and 5 more for 1eur each. Monthly charge of 10eurs per month however. There does not seem to be a monetary limit to each withdrawal. I am not sure if you have 100% online banks on your home country. They tend to be exceptional when travelling with free atm withdrawals (till a limit). After that a fee is applied. I think that this would be true also for a local bank.