AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Belize Life Living in Belize Belize Banks

Planning a move to Ambergris Caye for a year to see How it works for us and I have a questions about the Banks.How comfortable would We be putting money in the Local Banks?I know Only as comfortable as I could be losing it....Seriously,are they insured or should I just leave it in a U.S. Bank but who knows how safe they are anymore.
Thanks and don't give me too much Grief for asking.Ha

I feel better about having my money in Belize bank than if it where in a bank in the US. i haven't paid US income tax in 23 years :-)

My advice. Open an account in a Belize Bank and move money as needed from your US account to meet expenses. Comparing bank security and dollar security between Belize and USA in my opinion is a little ridiculous. You have insurance on all US accounts up to certain limits and your US currency is welcome anywhere. Try using BZ dollars outside Belize. You can open USD accounts in Belize but there are certain drawbacks and costs.

I have no problem with relatively small sums of money; say $10K or so. Of course if you have a special situation or reason for moving large sums of money to Belize it could be warranted but not for me in my opinion.

I have accounts at Belize Bank (Belize dollars) and British Caribbean Bank (US dollars) and so far have had no problems at all, except service is severely lacking.

You might want to see whether any banks with which you already do business is linked to any banks in Belize. For example, LloydsTSB in England has commercial links with Scotia Bank here.

Peter, that's very interesting as I have accounts at Lloyds TSB and they have never once mentioned any relationship with a Belize bank. Of course my accounts are on the Isle of Mann but I would think that would be the branch or division of the bank most likely to tell me of an affiliation wouldn't you? Anyway, good to know that.

You might be in for a surprise after Sept. if you go north and have failed to file. The US Customs folks computers will have a IRS link with agents at all airports to detain you and possible haul you away as a Tax dogger. You can thank our greedy broke US goverment for trying to find where all of your money is Elbert.
This is no joke and their serious about it.

Larry - there is a huge difference between "not paying" and not filing.
For US citizen who legitimately resides outside the US, a certain amount of income earned outside the US is non-taxable. The amount is quite high - a bit more than $80,000 US. It's not so easy to make that kind of money here.

Martin - Scotia Bank isn't a Belizean bank as such, but a Canadian bank operating in Belize. When I wanted to transfer money here years ago (God help me!) Lloyds said it was easier to transfer it to Scotia than to another bank. As there wasn't at that time a branch of Scotia on the island it wasn't actually that convenient, but now that there is (right by the airstrip) and IMO it's the nicest bank to deal with, it's an easy decision.

It's pretty easy to wire transfer money to any of the banks in Belize provided you can supply the multitude, and ever growing, list of information (a US legal requirement rather than Belizean).

Bear in mind it is always very easy to convert US$ to Bz$ - be that cash, Travellers Cheques, Money Orders or Cheques. It is very difficult to convert Bz$ to US$. We looked at opening a Belizean US$ account and part of the Central Bank (they control all foreign currency)terms is/were that if needed they can seize(my word not theirs) US$ funds in extreme cases of shortage in return for BZ$. I was told this had never happened but it was enough for me to keep my US$ elsewhere.