In the mailbox beneath my apartment, I found a letter from Central Pacific Bank, a Hawaiian bank I’ve had my account with for almost 15 years, stating that it had changed its policy for customers with Non-Resident Alien (NRA) status. According to the new policy, effective April 1 this year, the bank will deduct $20 from the monthly service charge on NRA customers’ accounts if they don’t keep at least $10,000 in total in their accounts.

I’ve used this bank’s checking, savings, and time deposit accounts since I opened them in Honolulu during a trip in 2007. Every time I get paid, I transfer $100 or $200 to the checking account via Revolut and send some money to Firstrade’s investment account to buy stocks and ETFs. I sent a check to DreamHost to pay for its hosting web service. I have a CPB debit card for shopping on Amazon.com and other American shopping sites. Also, I registered it as the payment method on the Apple ID in the US. 

Such a sudden policy change makes me act as soon as possible. My options are to raise $10,000 in any way to keep these accounts without incurring service charges, or to switch to other US bank accounts I can open from my home in Japan; the latter would be reasonable. 

I may need to consider reopening the bank accounts at Union Bank again, as I did from 2003 to 2008, when it was Union Bank of California. To open a Union Bank account from your home in Japan, you must be an account holder of Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, the parent company of Union Bank. Once you open MUFJ Bank, you can open Union Bank’s checking and savings accounts as well by sending paperwork issued by MUFJ.

What I have to do from now on would be: (1) to open MUFJ Bank account; (2) to open Union Bank’s checking account and send money to it; (3) to have a debit card issued from Union Bank linked to the checking account and activated; (4) to register it to Apple ID; and (5) to close my Central Pacific Bank accounts. So I still have a long way to go, but I’ve got to do it by the end of March. How time-consuming it is to keep enjoying America’s services!