I have to do this often, but it was tricky to setup. You will have to have a U.S. address to open the account and you will have to be present to sign paperwork. Then you will have to do a SWIFT wire transfer from Switzerland to the U.S. bank and that takes 3 days to complete.
Here are some things to look for in a bank in the U.S. to be used in your manner. How much do they charge to accept wire transfers? Do they accept wire transfers in CHF or does the Swiss bank have to do the conversion to USD? Do you have to maintain a minimum balance to avoid charges on the U.S. account? Do they charge for online bill pay? Once you have the account and the SWIFT information, it becomes easy.
Another option if you can't be present is to have a family member open the account and give you access to the web information. I don't know the impact of doing this because your SS# will not be on the account and you will be doing wire transfers every month to this account. It may raise a flag somewhere in our government.
I hope this helps.
Mike
I've also had problems sending money to US. If you open a bank account in the US, how can you be sure that you won't have the same problems with payments getting lost when you send money to it? Remember this is a country which still runs mostly on cheques...
Why not just get yourself a credit card here (since I presume you are using it mostly here) and you'll save yourself getting ripped off on the foreign exchange transactions, and fix the admin headache as well?
1. Fee don't like to pay fees for a credit card.
2. I DON'T have a job. No one here will give you credit without a job, we just recently got a real post card instead of a conto card when my wife did 2 months of temp work, lucky we did it when we did.
3. I already have 1600 U.S. dollars on my U.S. card that I need to pay off. London is REALLY expensive. I have been here 3 weeks and that is where the 1600 came from, I needed to buy a laptop for one. That was about 900. The rest is school stuff and food. I just hope I pass this CELTA course and get a job when I get back, than I can at least deal with 2 and 3.
We have obligations in the US and so just kept our accounts active when we left the US last year. The bank just changed our address and we have no issues. We bank with a smaller bank though with good service - they actually know who we are which is always a refreshing change from just being an "account number" at the larger US banks.
if you bank with UBS just go and ask them and they will do it for you or at least they did for me and I have a US UBS account - which I also need for making payments and receiving funds from US companies that seem hell bent on appearing global and thinking and acting local...
A paper check from the US would take about a month to clear here. It's not an issue you can float the amount, but it is something to consider if you cannot.