The short answer: a Chilean tax number (RUT) is the first requirement, but it does not by itself open a bank account. Each Chilean bank decides whom it accepts, and most accounts are built for people with a Chilean identity card, which a foreigner gets with residency. If you do not live in Chile, plan your purchase, sale or inheritance so that it does not depend on a Chilean account — it rarely has to.
The RUT comes first, and is not enough
Every bank in Chile identifies its customers by their RUT, the national tax number. A foreigner who does not live in Chile can obtain one without residency and without travelling — see our guide to the RUT. But a tax number is a tax identifier, not a banking identity: it does not prove where you live, what you earn or where your money comes from, which is what a bank needs to know before opening an account.
What Chilean banks usually ask for
Requirements are set by each bank and change over time, so the only reliable answer is the one the specific bank gives you. In practice, foreigners are commonly asked for:
A Chilean identity card (cédula de identidad para extranjeros), which is issued with residency. Without it, many products are simply unavailable.
Proof of address and income, often in Chile, and documents showing where the money you will deposit comes from.
An in-person visit to a branch for identity checks, at least for the first account.
A common mistake: planning a property purchase around "opening an account when I get there". If the bank declines, or asks for documents you do not have, the purchase timetable breaks. Settle the payment route first and treat a Chilean account as a convenience, not a dependency.
Buying or selling property without a Chilean account
A purchase does not require the buyer to hold a Chilean account. Usual practice is for the price to be deposited with the notary under written instructions — typically as a bank draft (vale vista) — and released to the seller only once the property is registered in the buyer's name. That protects the buyer and avoids any need for the buyer's own Chilean account. See how we handle a purchase from abroad.
For a seller or an heir abroad, the question is the reverse: where the proceeds land, and what the bank paying them out will ask before it lets the money leave. That is covered in our guide to selling from abroad.
Moving money into and out of Chile
Chile does not prohibit foreigners from bringing money in or taking sale proceeds out. What slows transfers down is the banks' own anti-money-laundering and source-of-funds checks. The practical rule is to keep the paper trail complete from the start: how the funds were obtained, the purchase or sale deed, the registration, and proof that the taxes were settled. Assembling that afterwards, from abroad, is what leaves money sitting in an account for months.
What we do
We do not open bank accounts — that is a decision only the bank can take. What we do is make sure your transaction does not depend on one: we obtain your RUT, set up the payment through the notary, prepare the documents a bank will ask for when funds move, and coordinate the timing with your bank abroad.
By Felipe Andrés Solar Rojas, partner · Published 8 October 2026 · Last reviewed 8 October 2026
Heads the real estate, wealth structuring and company advisory practice at Iriarte & Solar. His work runs through Chilean notaries, the Conservadores de Bienes Raíces, the Internal Revenue Service and municipal works departments. Full profile (in Spanish).
This guide describes general banking practice in Chile at the date of last review. Bank requirements are set by each institution and change; confirm them with the bank concerned. It is not legal or financial advice for a specific matter.