Opening a bank account in Turkey

[medseA]

One of the most must to have tools in our daily life is a bank account. Foreigners who come to Turkey frequently might need to have one for various basics like exchanging currency, or even for buying a house, then for paying monthly utility bills, property tax etc.

The OLD required documents for foreigners opening a bank account were,
(1) notary stamped passport translation
(2) local tax number
(3) turkish mobile number
(4) local address registration

With these requirements you could open a bank account, even with multiple currencies (GBP, USD, EURO, TL) under the same customer number. You could even get online banking to do your transactions online from anywhere around the world, with the condition of having a turkish mobile number because the banks here would not send out an SMS message (one-time used security pin number) to foreign mobile operators. The second handicap was having a hard time to register your name to a local address when you didn't even live here or own a property.

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The NEW required documents for foreigners opening a bank account are,
(1) notary stamped passport translation
(2) local tax number
(3) foreign mobile number
(4) foreign address registration

To open a turkish bank account these days for foreigners have become more simplified and takes a few minutes, 1 - 2 application form signature, and your done. During the application you now can give your foreign mobile number and any official document with your address abroad (electric or water bill, passport, drivers license). With any savings account you are also issued an ATM card to make purchases with merchants or markets without carrying any cash.

The Turkish banking system is one of the most advanced in the world and you should have no worries about the money in your saving account as (whether a foreigner or turkish citizen) it is automatically insured by the turkish government for upto maximum 50,000 USD.

For external resources, you can visit the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency here and find the Central Bank Daily Exchange Rates here.

 

[Barny]

Interesting to see how the Economics of Turkey developers over the next few years.

My in-laws live in Northern Cyprus and have done so since April 2013 and I know when they moved they opened up the account using a process along the lines of your 'Old' method and since then knowing the interest and exchange rates there are far better than what we have here in the UK, we have always said we'd consider opening an account there purely to take advantage of the interest.

Therefore with the 'New' method, how do people get a local tax number? If this is an easy process I can see alot of British visitors who visit Northern Cyprus a reasonable amount, we generally have 3 holidays of between 1-3 weeks there every year, it's only a matter of time until this is taken advantage of and Brits as an example will make use of the Turkish exchange rate and high interest on accounts.

 

[jas]

you can get the tax number and open bank account the same day.
I went to Tax office with foreign passport, outside there is usually a photocopier somehwere in the conrner. make photo copy of pasport.
go inside fill in one page form with your details and passport detail, hardly 7 or 8 lines.
then go get your number,

take the number to any Expat branch where they can open any account for you with that number.
the end.
Or online book appointment with branch . 2 bank have online apointment system AK and GR...
If walking into branch, has to be Expat branch , normal branches dont want to know foreigners.