Opening a bank account in Chile is difficult, but there are better options than hiding your pesos under the mattress. Chilean banks are very conservative and prefer to play it safe when they can’t prove credit worthiness or if you have lived in the country less than 2 years. This is especially problematic for foreigners, as often they have no credit history inside the country, and, if for businesses, the new company has very little capital or assets.

Opening a personal checking account with all its privileges (checkbook, access to credit line, etc.) is the most difficult account to open. You may have read about the ”miracle pituto” who will open an account for you at a particular bank, but that doesn’t always work out.