Can U.S. citizens borrow $ from overseas banks?

Question

I've been reading quite a bit about negative interest rates in many countries (Japan, Netherlands, etc).  Do U.S. citizens have access to any programs like this? If so, why wouldn't someone in Japan borrow at -1%, make a low cost loan to a U.S. citizen for, say, 5%, and make money on both sides of that?  Clearly it's nowhere near that easy or we would be hearing more about people doing this, but I'm curious as to how this could be done?  Thank you.

Account Closed · Answer

You can't borrow money in Japan for negative rates, however they are low.  Home loans go for roughly 0.5%, investment property loans for 2-3%.  Personal loans are anywhere from 3-18%, depending on your credit, etc., but they're generally for smaller amounts.

Alesandro Breguez · Answer

Does anyone have the experience in lending in EU? Especially in Switzerland the rates are extremely low. Please share your experiences

Kirk R. · Answer

Thanks to negative interest rates in the European bond market, Berkshire was able to get investors to lend it money at a 0% interest rate -- essentially securing free financing.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/mone...

Michael Lewis · Answer

Thank you, Ivor. Very interested in learning more about this as well.

Ivor Grisel · Answer

Just a side note: we don't have negative interest rates on most mortgages. There is a very specific subset of mortgages that were able to become negative. Those are older mortgages that had strange arrangements. It won't happen with a mortgage you can get now.

I recently talked to my property manager and he mentioned that he has a contact which can arrange German mortgages for me, even though I'm a Dutch citizen. I haven't been able to follow up on that (mostly because I'm just getting down from my first property being bought), but it seems possible to do it across boundaries... If I've talked to the financial professional, I can get back to you on German terms. But looking forward to any info on this from somebody else!