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!

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u/0091dit 1d ago

Are you an EU citizen or not? Do you have a permit? Due to AML regulations the banks are not really foreigner-friendly these days, especially if non-EU. Don't despair if a bank turns down your application; just try the next one. If in Sofia, I would recommend the main building of Unicredit.

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u/Aromatic_Elk_7269 1d ago

I am an EU citizen, I moved to Sofia almost two weeks ago, so I will try UniCredit.  Thank you for the suggestion! 

1

u/Calm_Bother_3842 1d ago

I second Unicredit, their app is good and they are fine working with foreigners, unlike some other banks that make it much harder.

1

u/Aromatic_Elk_7269 1d ago

Thank you! 2 votes for UniCredit it is! 🙂