Sooty and Sweep

Hi,

Has anyone any idea as to if or how you can open a sterling savings account based in Australia.

Basically an account where you can hold you sterling money which pays a monthly interest in sterling and is accessable from within Australia. An account where i can deposit my money held in sterling until the rate of exchange improves in my favour?


I know all about the tax on any profit due to an increase in my favour of the exchange rate when entering Oz as a permanent resident to when i exchange my money etc etc, but i would rather pay the tax if there is a tax, than pay no tax as i have made no profit?

Any other ideas most welcome, its just the exchange rate at the moment is poor, very poor not in my favour and i know there are no hard or fast rules on what exchange rate you should get, but your savings do not come easy to earn, so to maximise your return on exchange makes sense to me, to anyone, and i am coming over in September, and may have to wait along time to wait for what i think is a good echange rate which i am happy with.

Thanks.

jad n rich

HSBC do one, however the interest rates on usa and uk currency are about zero, they are based on the rate of the currency you are holding not the australian dollar rate.

Sooty and Sweep

Thanks jad n rich, did not think i would get a reply!

billymacker

There is plenty of accounts you can have in the isle of man look in the international express under offshore savers selection, the irish nationwide is one of them paying 4.50% and this is gross no tax deducted

jayr

Not sure what the benefit would be of holding an Australian based sterling account over a UK based one.

Tooterelli

Please be aware that any IOM and Guernsey based bank accounts are not coverered by the British Government. Lots of poor savers in the Icelandic Kaupthang bank have lost 70% of their savings.

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/Manx-...ion.4566940.jp

billymacker

Yes but if you go with the irish one's they are covered by the irish government.

IanAbroad

the Irish ones may be covered by the Irish government, but look at the state their economy is in.
It's another Iceland. They'll be off to the IMF for a loan soon, it's a basket case.
In this economic climate, bank onshore with the main banks. So you don't get a good interest rate? So what? At least your capital is safe.
Next year look again, the worse of the shake down will be over by then.
Why take a risk offshore? It's a fools game.
No one banking onshore in the UK has lost a penny.
Look at what's happened in Jersey, Guernsey and IoM.
Peoples life savings wiped out. Gone. Never to be seen again.

leave_n_on_a_Jet

why not use a UK based bank and change your address to Australia thats what i done, then if u need cash you can use your uk bank card in the ATM in australia, only good for small amounts. (or you could use a friends address and select online statents)

also i would get on to hifx or world wide currencies and book the rate you would like to exchange at, personally i would aim high, 2.65 - 2.68 if it dont make it that high you can always cancel that order and place a new Spot or Forward order, when you see a rate you like.

set up an OZ bank as well to tranfer you Aud$ to incase the rate goes in your favour sooner than u think.

if it goes up before you have an oz account setup order the money for a future date, (eg 3 months) you only need to pay about 10% to secure the rate you are offered.

James

walkermat

Do NOT under any circumstances have ANY money in the Isle of Man. In Oct 2008 thousands of Expats lost EVERYTHING (including myself).

The depositors have been treated dreadfully by the Isle of man Government. If you cant get a bank account in your country of residence then rent a safe deposit box and put the cash in that OR buy gold (or other precious metal).

I know that all sounds a bit dramatic, but please dont make the mistake I made. I was forced to use an IoM bank while transfering my money to Australia (and taking the exchange rate hit) as the UK banks forced me close my accounts when i tried to change address - now i/we are penniless. If anything good is to come from this please dont make the same mistake!!

A few websites of the carnage;
www.ksfiomdepositors.org
www.manxherald.com
www.ksfiom.com

suggs

Sorry to hear this, we have friends, well friends of friends, lost the whole proceeds of their business sale, around 500k in sterling. I do not know the full story, as i have only heard rumours. But they went from being in there early forties, planning to emigrate to the US with at the time around £500,000.00, to now nothing left, well what i am hearing is she is quite unwell. They spent all there life building up the business, worked 12 hour days 6 days a week, only to lose it all to the banking crisis. He is working behind a bar, its a shame, nice people, working class hard working people.


You have got me worried now. We sold our business, we are just hard working people, sold up, now have a considerable sum to exchange into Australian dollars. But i want to wait, the wife wants to exchange, the difference to exchanging now and waiting for 2.5 to 1, is around $200k. So as you can see, waiting could make a difference. I was worried about forex gains, but i have seeked proffesional advice, not worried now, what worries me is the safety of banks in general. We currently have a large chunk of money in the Nationwide Building Society, and was thinking of putting it into the Lloyds/TSB offshore account in the Isle of Man. It pays 3% gross, on a monthly basis. So great, also we do not have to return to the UK to CHAPS it into our Forex account, unlike if we leave it in the Nationwide, as they do not do CHAPS online. See my previous posts, i know its a nice problem to have, and i am not gloating, i have worked for every penny i have, and put two kids through university, and given them both deposits for their own houses. So i have done my bit, just want to enjoy a bit of time in Australia, with the money from my business sale.

Do not know what to do now, leave it in the Nationwide B/S, fly home to do the CHAPS when ready to exchange? Put it offshore for ease of CHAPS, exchange before we go?


Thanks for the heads up, i wish you all the best of luck in getting the UK goverment to support your cause.


Suggs

walkermat

Please dont get confused with any 'banking crisis'.. This was 100% caused by the UK Government and made alot worse by the Isle of Man government.

walkermat

Another website i found:-

http://iompauper.blogspot.com/

Unfortunately with banking, people usually only find out when it is too late (IE. Banks have started to close their doors). For me, it WAS too late. I just want to try and make sure it doesnt happen to others. Almost all other Countries Governments around the world have said they will support their banks 100%. IE. If a bank starts to fail, the Government will shore it up and protect customers deposits. The Isle of Man stands out as NOT offering this protection (it has only 80,000 residents! Of course it cant offer that protection).

The Isle of man government have also shown their true colours in trying to make those who have lost everything already, pay for the costs in developing a fundamentely flawed scheme (the infamous 'Scheme of Arrangment') that was not asked for and which was crafted to protect the IoM Government rather than actually help depositors.

I'm already going into a mega whinge, for which i apologise - the BritishExpats site was good to me and helped alot during the process of moving. I just want to give something back and if i can help prevent one family from losing everything as we have done then I'll be slightly happier. The Isle of man banking industry as a whole, is on the brink, get your money out now (not tommorrow, not the day after). Ask yourself what would happen if YOU lost everything. Please, just do it!

tawkins1

Is there any time limit as to how long you can keep your money in a UK bank when you've made the permanent move to Oz?

Fly Away

I don't think so. However some banks only allow you to keep an account open if you are going to be out of the country for 6 months or under. You have to check with each bank for each type of account. Nationwide seem to be happy to allow expat accounts across the board.

Incidentally we asked at Westpac about sterling accounts and they said they could open one for us but we would get no interest on it. So it wasn't worth doing. We have ours spread around various UK accounts - to avoid exceeding the 50K limit on protection. Check you can access your funds from overseas easily - some banks will happily send statements to Aus but need you to go into the branch to close the account .......... or to authorise withdrawals.