American paid from an American company

Mandi - yeah, assuming you've got the cash! Glad you did :).

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A wise young crackpot knows no fear - Ian Dury.

Shellyjean, sure can if you don't mind paying for the transaction fees.

Ditto on the car buying although it took 6 months to get it set up.

Motherhood...The hardest job you'll ever love! : )

Actually, we didn't need a local bank to buy a car. We just did a wire transfer from the US.

Mandi

Not to pile on, you've received very good advice from the above. Depends on how long you are going to be here, I think. If you are a contractor still paid by a US company and your pay goes right into US bank probably don't need to change. But if you are paid by a local/Qatar based co. they won't direct deposit to US bank (I don't think). Plus if you're going to rent an apt or buy a car you'll probably need local bank.

Keep your US account open for transfers back home and for emergency access to cash when things go wrong - as they inevitably do - for short periods with you Qatar acct.

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A wise young crackpot knows no fear - Ian Dury.

I don't know what your CU charges, but we have BofA and they charge 3% on every purchase here and a $5 fee with a 1% charge on ATM withdraws. It is really not a problem. Like Mandi said, it's a small price to pay to not haveto deal with the banks here.

Motherhood...The hardest job you'll ever love! : )

If we simply kept our account in the States? How much money? I love my CU, but don't know how we would work it so far as the money is concerned.

I consider the finance charge for taking $ from my US account a small fee to pay for NOT using these ^&*%ing banks in Doha!

Mandi

will probably rack up the charges. You might try taking out enough cash to last for a while if you are visiting and if you are moving here, I would suggest a local account.

I didn't drink the kool-aid! -- PM