Dal Dy Dir

Apologies if this has been previously discussed but new to forum.

Owing to the poor interest rates for savers in the UK at present (and looking like for some considerable time) I was half thinking of putting some money on deposit in Portugal.

Has anyone else on the forum done this, in a fixed term bond or the like, what sort of rates can one enjoy and do Portuguese banks offer the "going bust guarantee" that the UK government offers on UK bank accounts to a certain amount?

Obviously I already have an account in Portugal and transaction history with them with all the direct debits etc for the apartment bills.

Many thanks in advance for any personal experiences / advice.

Dal Dy Dir!

nigel.b

To state the obvious, your big worry with this plan is that the euro cracks and Portugal pulls out. Then your euros become a new Portuguese currency which will surely devalue: your capital loses maybe 50% of its value. To my mind you're better off accepting 3.5 - 4.0% from a UK bank.

With a PT deposit account you also get into PT tax issues.

Dal Dy Dir

Yep appreciate what you are saying Nigel, it's just dammed annoying for those of us of a certain age who many years ago paid mortgage rates of 17% and now we have amassed a bit of money we can make next to nothing on it, which is the reason we are still here grafting and not sunning ourselves in Portugal!

Oh well just have to wait a few more years and hope my pension doesn't collapse.

nigel.b

Yep, I remember paying a 15.4% mortgage rate to Chelsea Building Society around 1990!

There are investment trusts (my favourite) and unit trusts that pay dividends of around 5%. But again your capital is not protected. No easy answer...