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Best Bank for a Domiciliary Account in Nigeria – Compare Account Opening Requirements, Fees & Charges, Interest, Exchange Rate and Security for FCMB, First Bank, GTBank, Access, Zenith, Ecobank, UBA, Wema, Sterling, Diamond, Stanbic IBTC, Fidelity
This article will help you spot the best bank for a domiciliary account in Nigeria with 6 useful guides to compare the banks you want to open an account with.
Owning a domiciliary account with a Nigerian bank is not an option again, it’s a necessity for someone that wants to manage and protect his wealth by diversifying into foreign currency portfolio. A lot of Nigerians still don’t know that a domiciliary account is an alternative investment option to consider, now that the USD exchange rate is on a bullish side.
You will find tips on how to open an account with all the Nigerian banks alongside basic requirements you need to have before your account officer can proceed with the domiciliary account opening procedures. I also went ahead to give reasons you should own a domiciliary account; cost savings when paying online, exchange rate gain and access to offshore investment opportunities.
See – How to trade open a US Stock trading account using your Domiciliary account.
Best Bank for a Domiciliary Account in Nigeria – 6 Key Tips
For a new starter looking for the best bank for a domiciliary account in Nigeria, here are basic tips on how to compare FCMB, First Bank, GTBank, Access, Ecobank, Unity, UBA, Wema, Sterling, Diamond, Stanbic IBTC, Fidelity, Zenith Bank, Union and Heritage Bank.
1. Check Monthly Fees
When you go to the bank to withdraw from your domiciliary account at the counter, you will be charged for withdrawer (depending on the amount and whether you used a counter cheque or your own chequebook). Ask your account officer the bank charges on withdrawing, ATM maintenance fees, cheque slip charges and other sub-charges in order not be taken unawares. Two days before I wrote this article, my bank deducted $10 from my account as an annual account maintenance fee and I was wondering how they are maintaining account until I approached my account officer.
2. Minimum Requirements
Before opening a domiciliary account with a bank, compare what the requirements are across selected banks, while some will ask you to deposit a minimum of $100, utility bills, passports, two referees with current accounts, others may be higher.
3. Transaction Limits
Inasmuch as a domiciliary account allows you to make purchases and pay a merchant directly, CBN is still beaming its searchlight on foreign currency transactions, money laundry and so on, and as such, there could be some restrictions on your domiciliary account transactions. A few years ago, CBN mandated all domiciliary account withdrawal to be paid in Naira using official exchange rate and other time, they restricted foreign account transfers to $10,000. These are some of the ways your use of dom account could be limited but you still need to compare how individual banks transactions limit are so you can settle for the institution with flexible policy.
4. ATM Charges
Have you used the debit or credit card on your domiciliary account to withdraw from an ATM machine? I tried it during an emergency and was amazed at the exchange rate my bank applied, it was over N100 lower than what I would have sold the currency per dollar at the black market. You need to compare inter-bank exchange rate on AbokiFX and what your bank currently offers.
5. Mobile and Internet Banking;
You may not be free to walk into a bank to carry out transactions on your domiciliary account every time but with mobile banking app on your smartphone, you can easily check balance, transfer fund, view on incoming flows real time and monitor your account history. Compare features available and how fast mobile applications for your banking services will be across some selected banks so you don’t experience network issues; though, it could occur but shouldn’t be frequently as this could be frustrating.
6. Security
This is the most crucial of all these tips mentioned here. Find a bank that sends security alert and tips to its customers on a weekly or monthly basis, this will help you know the method scammers are using to access users account online. That doesn’t mean you should relent and leave the security of your account to your bank, update yourself and subscribe to some internet banking security blog for useful guides.
Scammers are constantly adopting new strategies, most of which are mobile related, to steal sensitive information like credit cards, from forex account owners and you can’t afford to be relaxed, take actions, buy genuine anti-virus like Kaspersky internet protections.
While these are my 6 basic tips to find the best bank for a domiciliary account in Nigeria, feel free to share comments and suggestions.
