Most day-to-day life in the Netherlands — rent, groceries, transit, your salary — runs through a Dutch (or Dutch-friendly) bank account. Here's what you actually need, and which route is fastest depending on your situation.
Traditional Dutch banks (ING, ABN AMRO, Rabobank) generally require a BSN (citizen service number) and proof of Dutch address before opening a full account in person. If you haven't registered with your municipality yet, this can create a chicken-and-egg problem — you need a bank account to get some things set up, but a BSN to get the bank account.
Digital-first banks like bunq get around this: you can often open an account remotely with just a passport and a foreign address, before you've even arrived, then update it once you have a BSN.
Fully app-based, opens in minutes, works before you land in the Netherlands. Popular with expats specifically because it doesn't gate account creation behind a BSN.
Open a bunq account →One of the "big three" traditional banks, widely accepted everywhere including for salary payments and mortgages later on. Requires BSN and in-person or video verification.
Open an ING account →Not a Dutch bank per se, but widely used alongside a local account, especially useful if you're still being paid in another currency during a transition period.
Open a Revolut account →