When a foreigner is able to get a labor VISA, or a temporary visa, or any visa that provides him with a Chilean ID ard ( cédula de identidad), then he is able to open a RUT account at Bancoestado. It is normal bank account, without checks. It will give you a debit card called REDCOMPRA, and you can withdraw funds on hundreds of ATM machines that have a sign on the entrance REDBANC. All the Chilean banks are a partner of this company owning the ATMs, so there are thousands of them throughout the country. Banco Estado probably may have over 2.000 ATMs machines. Banco Chile around 1.500, etc. When you withdraw funds from this ATM machines, you pay CL$ 300, or aprox. 47 US$ cents per time. However this RUT accounts only provides CHILEAN PESOS. Of course you can pay in all stores, small and big, as it functions as a Debit Card. The account has some monthly limits that you need to check. The largest deposit may not be above CL$ 2.000.000 or around US$ 3.125 at an exchange of CL$ 640 per US$ dollar. In total at a given month, the maximum balance can only be up to CL$ 3.000.000 or US$ 4.687. Most of Chilean workers use this account to receive their wage. The same is used by immigrants. There are over 8.000.000 RUT accounts. The only requirements are to be older than 18 years old, and have the cédula de identidad mentioned above. As this account has full access to internet, you can transfer Chilean Pesos from any account, or deposit into it. And you can transfer freely from this account to any other account in pesos. The cost for transferring money to other account is the same said before CL$ 300, or 47 US$ cents per each transference. Besides you can pay all your Chilean bills. For instance, you enter the web site of the mobile phone company, and you use this account to pay. The same for any utility company, as water, electricity, etc. The bank at the moment of opening the account, will give you the card with the coordinates or keys to use on each transference. I have read on many post, the difficulties of foreigners to operate financially in Chile. But there are solutions available for all if you ask the proper advise. As this RUT account, that has no fees other than those mentioned. When you use it as a debit card for instance to pay the restaurant bill even including the tip, there is no fee at all. Not on any purchase. Bancoestado has hundreds of branches that are open from monday through friday from 9: to 14:00; plus hundreds of offices called SERVIESTADO, that are open from 08:00 to 19:00 pm monday though friday, plus opening on saturday. So, you can always have access to deposit there. On any Serviestado, you can sell the dollars you withdrew from an ATM in dollars from another bank, and then deposit the pesos directly on this RUT account. All on the same counter. There are solutions to small business open owned by foreigners. Those need a close look and professional advise. Regards, Teo www.businessinchile.cl
