# Paying bills, second hand stuff



## movinghome (Jan 13, 2013)

Just a couple of quick questions - it's just dawned on me that the year's tourist visa doesn't allow you to get a bank account (or so I've heard). So, how do you pay your bills?

I was in any case planning on leaving most of my money in Europe and just transferring chunks through when I needed it (or withdrawing directly from a machine using my European cards). However, someone pointed out to me that when your cards are up for renewal, they will have to be posted to Egypt and may get lost. Is there any way round any of this? I originally thought the post would probably be OK, but I've heard that these days the post is unreliable.

And - just out of curiosity - is there an Egyptian equivalent of ebay?


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## canuck2010 (Jan 13, 2010)

If you're renting an apartment, utility bills will be in the landlords name.
For any important docs, always courier them.
International cards work in most ATM machines here, just have to be careful which one's you use.
souq.com is egyptian ebay equivalent, also, most large Egypt shops have online deliver now.


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## alexvw (Mar 10, 2012)

We've lived in Egypt for 2,5 years and would not ever open a bank account here. Our German Visa card allows us to draw money from ATMs without charge, so we just keep pulling cash. We pay all utilities in cash, groceries by credit card, and the rent is transferred from German bank account.


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## Gounie (Jan 27, 2011)

I have lived here ten years on annual tourist visas and have two Egyptian bank accounts. It can be expensive to use your UK cards here depending on the commission they charge. All my replacement cards from the UK have arrived OK in the post.


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## alysonmortimer (Apr 14, 2013)

hi , we have got a bank account set up from england with h,.s.b.c and transfer money accross . its really simple .


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## Biffy (May 22, 2012)

Since the revolution the criteria for opening a bank account have changed.

WHen I opened my bank account I waas requried to have a valid residency visa - I know this becuase it took a couple of months to get and I couldn't open a bank account until it was on my passport.

If you already have a bank account I don't think that they are going to bother with this - but opening a new one is a different story.

ALso to transfer money from the UK to here - surely you need a bank account here - so the problem is the same!?


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## movinghome (Jan 13, 2013)

Thanks for the replies - good to know that (so far) new bank cards have arrived safely through the post. I wonder if they will change the ability to have a bank account in Egypt - you'd think this would be beneficial to their economy so I find it quite strange that they don't allow it for those with the tourist visa. 

I've just read the residency visa information (so good to finally have the info online somewhere!) and it seems as if they are getting a bit more open (they need to encourage foreigners really, if they want the income). The Egyptian Embassy in Switzerland is really frustrating - office hours are only 10-2; if you phone outside that time, you get a live person telling you to phone back in office hours; when you phone in office hours, you have to wade through tons of recorded messages! And they don't have a Swiss (ie local) bank account and accept only cash! Really bizarre.

I might have to search a bit and see if there any banks that don't charge too much in exchange rates (shame Nationwide stopped not charging anything, although I was never sure if they clawed it back on their exchange rates).

Anyway, thanks again for the replies.


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## Biffy (May 22, 2012)

I don't know what you have read - but honestly Egypt is not becoming more open to foriegners at all - it is getting harder and harder to get work permits/visas these days.
There are many unemployed Egyptians.
And as for needing foriegners - not really - they need investment more.


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## movinghome (Jan 13, 2013)

Yes, sorry, didn't mean to be disrespectful to the situation. It was just that at long last they had the visa information online and they've reinstated the 50k in a bank criterion for residency (not that I will do that). I just meant that they needed foreigners who had money they could spend to boost their economy - actual business investments would be better, of course.

It's a complete fantasy and most likely very unrealistic (no money to do it just now but dream for the future and no knowledge as to how to do it and maybe I will have lost the desire by the time I am in a situation to do it), but in the back of my mind I have a long-term idea to set up a museum. However, what I read so far is that the govt is making NGOs very difficult to set up and I believe a museum would be a NGO. 

On the offchance that anyone has a useful link or something that I could read about how to set such a thing up (I've seen things on setting up a business, but I'm not sure it would fall under that), I thought I would just float the question here (about a link as to procedures etc).


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## Gounie (Jan 27, 2011)

Have you tried all the banks? Here in El Gouna we have:
Arab African International Bank
Bank Audi
CIB
Credit Agricole
HSBC
Misr Bank

A museum for what?


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## hurghadapat (Mar 26, 2010)

I have an account with the CIB bank and at the time that i opened it was one of the easiest banks to open an account with...all i had was an extended tourist visa that was for one year...mind that was quite a few years ago so may be quite different now but here is another option

An alternative to opening a local Egyptian bank account is to open an international account before you arrive. In addition to giving you access to a range of access to a range of savings and bank accounts, you will also benefit from a comprehensive range of international banking services, including online banking, international payments and online money transfer services.


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