Question about Bank accounts in St. Maarten

[doctorg03]

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I got accepted into AUC for September 09 and I'm a little worried about the transition from the US. I had a lot of questions but most of them were answered by my adviser and other people. I did have one question about bank accounts and credit/debit cards though. Since I have a Regions bank account I'm assuming I'll have to open a new one once I'm there right? Do most places take debit or credit cards in St. Maarten? Sorry if these are stupid questions but I've never traveled to the Caribbean so I have no idea. Thanks for the help! 🙂

 

[TheLabRat]

I got accepted into AUC for September 09 and I'm a little worried about the transition from the US. I had a lot of questions but most of them were answered by my adviser and other people. I did have one question about bank accounts and credit/debit cards though. Since I have a Regions bank account I'm assuming I'll have to open a new one once I'm there right? Do most places take debit or credit cards in St. Maarten? Sorry if these are stupid questions but I've never traveled to the Caribbean so I have no idea. Thanks for the help! 🙂

Most places will take credit cards, but not debit. As for bank accounts, you can open one on the island, but it may cost you a lot more than just paying the ATM fees. For example, opening an account at Scotia Bank will cost you 6 USD a month, for every 1000 USD you have in the account, they will waive 1 USD off the fee. So unless you are planning on moving your entire savings down to this dump, I would just keep the money at your home bank.