I had heard about the Schwab accounts reimbursing international ATM fees but I didn't realize they eliminated currency conversion costs too. Awesome, I'll be opening an account soon.

They probably make *something* from it, no one gives market rates. And I haven't closely scrutinized it. But it seems about right to me yes.

If someone can suggest a good solution for British/European people, I'd be all ears. Had so many problems trying to administer my UK bank accounts while based in Asia.

For european numbers check ovh.com, for less than 2€ a month you get a SIP number with unlimited calls to a bunch of country

And HSBC is good for travellers, if you find an hsbc bank you won't pay any fee either

I have a tip- I use twilio's openvbx.com to power my US and UK phone numbers, for pennies a minute I have it forward to my local number where ever I am in the world. So I share those numbers with friends and family, then just buy burner sim's in each country. But I also carry a TruPhone and Mobal SIM's to make sure I always have phone service if I need it.

We use EarthClassMail for both personal and business use and have found it to be excellent. They scan and email us all of the mail we receive. We can also forward/ship that mail to us anywhere in the world. They've recently added a service that will even accept and deposit checks into your bank account...really cool.

I forward my Google Voice to my Skype number. If my computer is open I answer it there...otherwise it forwards to my cell.

Seb might disagree with this, but as an American I find it worthwhile to register with the State Dept. You'll get email updates about any changes in status in the country you're in. Living in Mindanao it's good to know about security or violence issues that are going on down here and to avoid the hot spots.

Let me put my 2 cents in International Banking thread. I would say HSBC rules. For sure they screw up once in a while but 85% percent of the time I am extremely happy with them. They have PREMIER service which is incredibly useful tool for travelling entrepreneur. It costs a lot to get started (1 million HKD or 500 000RMB in China). In Aus, CAD etc it can be 200 000 USD+. They call it relationship balance. However when it drops below that amount then you pay monthly fees. They differ on country.
The good thing is, once you are Premier, You can open premier in pretty much any country in the world and use their worldtransfer service (for eligible countries). It allows you to send money from account to account without fees and lightning fast. You also have better rate for currency conversion. How to get started. My suggestions. Option Number 1. Money. If you have minimum required amount for your country, just deposit and then you can have it back, however, check how much you would have to pay in monthly fees, then while you travel, open account in a country that have lower requirements and open an account there. Now you have 2 accounts. Make one that has lower fees your primary branch. Now you will pay lower monthly fee. Option 2. Sometimes HK has promotions for existing clients. You can upgrade to premier without money and don't pay for a year. However I have no idea where to get this information. I overheard 2 girls in Teller line. Ask me if you have any questions about HSBC.

Cheers, I'll check out HSBC. I'll ask if they can give any of the Premier features to people without that much money (yeah, hoping to get to that level within the next few years!) - here in the UK banks give a few special offers to entice students to open accounts with them, knowing they don't often switch when they're older.