What if I say that it is possible to earn in USD and save your money in USD and convert it to NPR at your own discretion, whenever you want or whenever the exchange rate is high, all by sitting in Nepal, no matter where you are from, Himal, Pahad or terai. You would either be confused, curious, think that I’m lying or nod your head in agreement because you are already doing this yourself. In this blog, I am going to explain in detail about the USD account, differentiate it with a Dollar card and drop in some ideas on how you could get started with earning in USD by staying in Nepal altogether. Let’s dive right in!
Difference between USD Account and Dollar Card
First and foremost, it is very important for us to establish and understand the difference between an USD Account and Dollar Cards that are issued by the commercial banks of Nepal.
Firstly, there are two different kinds of Dollar Cards that you can create from your respective banks:
- $500 Online Shopping Card (Dollar Card)
- Travel Dollar Card (Mastercard)
$500 Online Shopping Card
- The $500 Online Shopping Card has been recently introduced by Nepal Rastriya Bank and this is to allow Nepali citizens and bank account holders to be able to transact online with parties outside the business registrations of Nepal. This has been widely used nowadays by people running Social Media Ads, domains and web/mobile hosting and people shopping internationally via e-commerce platforms like Amazon.
- It is important to note that this account can only be created by individuals linking to their individual savings accounts in their respective banks and not by any company bank accounts. Hence, we should understand that this can be used at an individual level not an organizational level.
- Here, the amount already saved in your NPR account is transferred to your $500 Dollar Card.
- You will need to fill out a form and provide your citizenship along with your PAN Card to activate this.
- Charges to load into this card varies from bank to bank. Some charge 500NPR per loading whereas some banks offer this for free.
- This card is not available in physical form as an ATM card. You’ll be provided with details of the card via email, which you can directly use online in payment pages of vendors.
Travel Dollar Card
- This card is another kind of card that you can use to transact internationally. Imagine that your ATM card that you’ve been using day-to-day in Nepal can now be used internationally in any parts of the world for any purpose whatsoever. That is exactly what a Travel Dollar Card is.
- There is an annual $1500 limit to this card. Hence, if you are traveling multiple times a year, then this might not exactly be the best option for you. By getting the flight tickets from Nepali Agencies in NPR and carrying an authorized amount of cash, you might actually be able to cover your entire expense within this $1500 limit.
- You might have to show travel proof such as flight tickets, hotel booking and travel itinerary to your bank before they issue this Travel Dollar Card for you. In this case also, the amount already saved/deposited in your NPR account is transferred to the Mastercard.
- This card can be available in physical form just like an ATM card.
Introduction to USD Account
USD Account can be created just like any NPR savings account where you have to fill in the bank details form and KYC form, the only difference being, you tick on the USD option and not the NPR option. (Yes, there is an USD and NPR option in every bank account opening form). In this account, savings will happen in US Dollar, not NPR. But why would you open an USD account in the first place?
This USD Account is useful only in a very specific scenario. The scenario is, you are working for a company outside Nepal and the company is going to pay you your service fee, monthly fee or your salary in US Dollar. In this case you have two options:
- You can ask the company to directly send your fee to your NPR account that you’ve been regularly using in Nepal. In this case, they will send your fee in their currency, USD, the bank in Nepal will convert the USD to NPR as per the exchange rate of that specific day and time, and finally the amount will be deposited into your NPR account as NPR.
- You can request your bank, with proof of employment contract, to open an USD account. In this case, when your employer sends your fee in USD, the amount will be saved as USD in your Nepali Bank. Now, you can convert the USD to NPR anytime you want, during any exchange rate later down the line with the help of a brand new cheque, the USD account cheque.
Benefits and Criteria for USD Account
Hold on! Since you can directly get the payment into your NPR account as NPR, why would you even opt for creating the USD account? Good question! Creating the USD account comes with a couple of benefits:
- You can exchange the USD at a higher rate in the future from which you can create some extra profit in NPR.
- You get a higher spending limit to your Travel Dollar Card, if you issue a mastercard from this USD account i.e. $2000. Hence, you’ll be able to spend more if you are traveling and spending abroad.
- Hey, not gonna lie. It kinda looks and sounds cool that you have a USD account in a Nepali Bank and have savings in USD. :V
However, one thing, that is extremely important to note, is that, you have one very specific criteria to fulfill before you can create a USD account:
- You need to have an employment contract with a company that operates outside Nepal that has agreed to pay you in USD for a fixed duration of time. This contract must have the following details:
- You full legal name
- You national identity number (Citizenship or Passport or PAN or National ID)
- You location of remote work (Has to be somewhere within Nepal)
- The details of your employer company (Has to be a company, not an individual contract)
- The amount that you’re going to be paid in USD
- The overall duration of the contract period
- Once you have this in place, the bank will be happy to facilitate your USD Account and Mastercard opening process.
There you have it! This is how you can create your own USD Account that is very different from the Dollar Cards.
Let us know in the comments below, if you’d like us to write another blog with the details of how you can land a remote job in an international company so that you also can start earning in USD.
