How to open a Dutch bank account as an international

The short version

• Most Dutch banks want your BSN first, because they report your balances and interest to the Belastingdienst under that number.
• Some open on your ID alone and give you a set period to add the BSN. bunq says you can sign up before you have a Dutch address.
• Bring your passport, your BSN, proof of your Dutch address, and your residence permit if you are from outside the EU.
• A euro account in another EU country cannot lawfully be refused for a euro payment, so an employer or landlord demanding a Dutch IBAN is outside the rules.
• If every bank says no, you have a right to a basic payment account, and a defined order to work through before you give up.

Opening a Dutch bank account is the step the rest of your money waits on. Your salary lands in it, your rent leaves it by direct debit, and most Dutch subscriptions assume you have one.

It is also where people get stuck. The bank wants a number your gemeente (your local municipality) has not issued yet, and the gemeente wants an address you may not have signed for. Two of the answers below are set in law rather than by the bank, which is worth knowing before you take a no as final.

Can you open a Dutch bank account without a BSN?

You can start without one. You cannot keep the account without one, at least not once you are paying tax in the Netherlands. Rijksoverheid gives the reason directly: banks have to report your balances, the interest you receive or pay, and any loans to the Belastingdienst (the Dutch tax office) every year, and your BSN (Burgerservicenummer, the Dutch citizen service number) is the number that filing hangs on.

What a bank asks for at sign-up is a tax identification number. Once you are taxable here, that is your BSN. Before then it is your home country's equivalent, which is the gap that lets an application start ahead of your gemeente appointment.

Several Dutch banks work in exactly that gap. They open the account on your ID, take the tax number you already have, and give you a set period to add the BSN once it exists. bunq goes furthest, and says you can sign up from abroad before you have a Dutch address.

What you need to open one

Every bank publishes its own list, and the one that counts is on the page where you apply. Nearly all of them come down to the same five things.

• A valid passport, or an EU national identity card.
• Your BSN, or the tax number you already hold at home if you are not taxable here yet.
• Proof of your Dutch address, usually the registration confirmation from your gemeente or your rental contract.
• Your residence permit, or the MVV sticker (your provisional residence permit) that stands in until the card is made, if you are from outside the EU.
• Sometimes an employment contract, a recent payslip, or proof of enrolment.

Two of those come out of one appointment. Registering with your gemeente issues your BSN and puts your address in the BRP (Basisregistratie Personen, the Dutch population register) in the same visit, so the bank's list and the list you take to the gemeente are largely the same documents in a different order.

Which makes the address the real gate. An address you are not allowed to register at leaves you without a BSN and without the account that waits on it, so ask about registration before you sign anything. If you registered at an RNI desk (the Dutch register of non-residents) instead, you have the number but no Dutch address to show, and a mobile bank is often the only one that will proceed.

A mobile bank or one of the big Dutch banks

Both work. They fail in different places, which is the useful way to choose.

Mobile-first banks open in minutes, run in English throughout, and will take you before your BSN. bunq is the Dutch one, and sits on iDEAL's list of participating banks, so the account plugs into the Dutch payment rails from the start. What you give up is a counter to walk into and, further out, the product range you will want at mortgage time.

The big Dutch banks (ABN AMRO, ING, Rabobank) generally want the BSN and proof of a Dutch address up front, which means waiting for the gemeente. In exchange you get branches, the densest cash machine coverage in the country, and English service at all three. Those requirements are theirs to set and to change, so read the application page rather than this one.

Prices move without notice, so we do not quote them. Compare, on the bank's own fees page and on the day you apply: the monthly cost and what it includes, cash withdrawal terms, whether English covers the letters and the app rather than only the marketing pages, and whether the account handles Dutch direct debits and iDEAL, the payment method Dutch webshops and government portals run on.

Sometimes the choice is made for you, and taking it is usually right. If your employer's onboarding or your university's enrolment desk steers you at one bank, the friction you save in your first week is worth more than the difference between two current accounts. You can open a second account later.

Money before your Dutch account exists

Two things to do before you fly, neither of which costs anything.

Tell your home bank you are moving. Update your address, and set a travel notice if they offer one. A card that has only ever been used in one country tends to get declined on its first Dutch transaction, and sorting that out from a queue on a foreign SIM is a bad first afternoon.

Then open a multi-currency account to move money through. Wise and Revolut both give you euro account details and convert at rates a home bank's international transfer will not match, with limits on their free plans worth reading against the amount you are actually moving. Verification is faster while you still have home-country documents and a home address, so do it before you leave.

Neither is a substitute for a Dutch account. They cover the gap between landing and having one. On a stay of a few months, with no Dutch salary and no Dutch direct debits to pay, they may be all you ever need.

Can a landlord or employer insist on a Dutch IBAN?

Not for a euro payment. Under the EU payment rules an account cannot be refused because it sits in a different EU country from the party paying you or collecting from you, and that covers direct debits as well as transfers. So an employer who will only run payroll to an NL account number, and a letting agency that will not collect rent from anywhere else, are both outside those rules. A complaint goes to the competent authority in the country of whoever refused you, and the European Commission collects reports of it.

Knowing that is worth more with an employer than with a landlord. Payroll is a system you are already inside. A viewing you have not won yet is a weaker position, and a landlord with a stack of applicants never has to explain the one they dropped.

If a bank turns you down

Refusals happen. The ground a bank is allowed to refuse on is that it cannot manage the money-laundering risk of taking you on, which is usually paperwork it could not verify rather than anything you did. Rijksoverheid sets out the order to work through, and it is worth following rather than stopping at the first no.

Try a different bank first. If no bank will give you an ordinary payment account, apply for a basisbetaalrekening (a basic payment account) at ABN AMRO, ING, Rabobank or SNS. That one is a right rather than a favour. Anyone legally resident in the EU is entitled to one, and it has to cover deposits, cash withdrawals, transfers, direct debits and a payment card.

The conditions are real. You cannot already hold a payment account or a pending application at another Dutch bank, and you have to show a genuine connection to the Netherlands through living, studying or working here. A bank can still refuse on money-laundering grounds, and if that route closes too, the Convenant Basisbankrekening (the basic bank account covenant) is the last one. It generally means applying alongside a recognised support organisation. If you think a refusal is wrong, complain to the bank first, then to Kifid, the Dutch financial services complaints institute, which costs nothing to use.

Whichever way you go, open something early. An account you outgrow later costs you far less than a month of a foreign card being declined at the till.

Where to open one, fastest to open first

b

bunq

Dutch mobile-only bank with English support. Open an IBAN in minutes with just your passport. No BSN required to open the account.

A

ABN AMRO

One of the three big Dutch banks. Full English service, physical branches, broad ATM coverage.

I

ING

Largest Dutch retail bank. Solid English app, dense ATM network.