Theres something wrong with the concept ‘international account’ - a bank or savings account has to exist somewhere, in a currency, and is subject to the laws / banks rules governing that somewhere. How well you can access it then depends on what cards or facilities that work globally come with it. True you can play ‘us dollar account residing in the uk’ or ‘swiss franc account residing offshore in big bank managed from jersey or cayman’

personally i have normal uk accounts that allow management from anywhere, and locally i pay or withdraw cash by highly efficient uk credit card which is paid off from the uk accounts. The uk accounts have linked savings accounts. Of course to have a normal uk account you have normally to have a uk address and whether your SO other is local or not - they probably dont know...

some bnks are more accomodating about being abroad than others. HSBC / first direct seem good. The new crop of internet banks might also be good, but i havent looked at them personally, monzo?

I think its about choosing your jurisdiction and then making sure you can access it from wherever using the facilities ‘there.’