BristolUK

I've been researching offshore accounts. It's pretty time consuming and some of the features I'm looking for are not always that clear.

I'm looking for an account that doesn't need a big opening deposit - say £500-£1000 and doesn't need regular deposits. A debit card allowing withdrawals in Canada would be good.

Anyone know anything that fits the bill?

Englishmum

We have a current account with LloydsTSB Offshore in the Isle of Man (they also operate from Jersey). It operates in exactly the same way as our Lloyds current account did when we lived in England; we have the Visa debit/credit/ATM withdrawal card, a chequebook (rarely used these days!) and do online and/or telephone banking.

Our account is in Sterling as we still have a house in the UK which we rent out, and it's very useful on visits to the UK (spouse is often on business trips to London) etc. LloydsTSB also offers accounts in US$ and Euros.


http://www.lloydstsb-offshore.com/international/

http://www.lloydstsb-offshore.com/in...ontact/canada/ (offices in Canada)

How to open an account

http://www.lloydstsb-offshore.com/in...account/apply/ (You need an initial deposit of at least 100 pounds/$100 or 100 Euros.....then within 6 weeks of opening an account they like you to have 1500 pounds/$1500 or 1500 Euros as a balance (we usually have less than that in ours!)

All the big UK banks have offshore branches in the IoM or Channel Isles, eg. NatWest, Barclays, HSBC...also try AlliedIrish, Zurich etc.

PS. I have used my LloydsTSB Cashpoint/debit card to withdraw cash in a number of countries....I even used it in India as my US issued card from Chase wouldn't let me withdraw cash (when the Chase staff informed me that it would work there!). Have also used the Lloyds card in various parts of Europe, Australia, SE Asia...it's been more useful than my American card!

BristolUK

Thanks very much for that. I had seen the details for Lloyds but I was a little put off by the £1500 within 6 weeks part. Perhaps it's not rigid then.

Nat West seems to want £50,000 Barclays and HSBC don't seem to fit my requirements. Nationwide seems possible.

BristolUK

Hmmmm...the Lloyds option looks a little expensive.

£7.50 a month to have the account and 2.99% currency charge plus 1.5% (min £2;max £4.50) for a cashpoint withdrawal outside the UK.

Every £100 withdrawal in foreign currency is going to cost a fiver.

£15 fee to have the card delivered and £30 for subsequent renewals.

Brownstar

I don't understand the need for an offshore bank account in this day and age of international tax agreements, when I did some investigation the only real advantage was if you had several hundred thousand pounds as you could pay an annual 'tax fee' rather than income tax on the earnings from the account.

Am I missing something or are there other advantages to having an offshore account?

BristolUK

Interest rates seem to be considerably higher than UK accounts.
For some there may be advantages in holding balances in different currencies rather than risking exchange fluctuations (although that seems available without going offshore).

New UK accounts can't be opened for non UK residents (so they all say) but the offshore accounts can. For those with a UK income it's sometimes convenient to have a UK bank account...and if an offsure account offers the same convenience but with a higher interest rate why not?

Except the charges may cancel the advantages.

Brownstar

I see...........I kept my UK bank accounts open when we left and I've opened a sterling account here in Canada.

BristolUK

I kept mine too. Since interest rates fell I was just wondering if there was something better.

It seems not, given the charges they make. Unless one does have loadsamoney of course.

gryphea

Of course off-shore isn't covered by the financial regs. I beleive if the bank goes down the pan so does all your money.

BristolUK

I think that's why people tend to use the international parts of the UK banks though.

Englishmum

No - that only applies to banks in places like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda etc.

The banks in the Isle of Man and the Channel Isles are protected in the same way as if on the mainland of the UK.

Englishmum

My husband's new cashpoint card arrived last month - it came in the ordinary post, you only pay the 15 pounds fee to have it couriered (if you don't have a safe posting address eg. if you live in parts of Africa etc.) and certainly no fee of 30pounds for 'subsequent renewals'....perhaps that's if the card doesn't arrive at all and they have to send another one out?

As already mentioned - it works for us as we rent out our house in Essex and of course receive the rent in sterling; the estate agents just pay it directly in to the Lloyds account (and outside the jurisdiction of the Inland Revenue or whatever it's now called) and of course whenever we are in the UK we use it.
We only tend to use our card for withdrawing cash when in the UK (and when I was in transit at LHR 3 weeks ago I used it in the shops). However, it has been a Godsend when our American cards haven't worked in the ATM machines and we would have had no way of quickly getting cash.

When we eventually return to live in the UK there will be no problem just transferring the account to a branch on the mainland.

BristolUK

You may well be right about the courier thing. I just read it and assumed they wanted to use a courier for out of UK?CI deliveries.

It certainly does sound useful for your circumstances. For the amount of money I had in mind, the other charges mean it's not attractive.

I appreciate your help anyway.

Edna Bucket

Bradford and Bingley have an expat offshore account - minimum deposit is 1000 GBP but the interest rate isn't very good at the moment in common with other accounts.

http://www.bbi.co.im/

gryphea

When I looked into it- that wasn't the case. I looked at a bradford and bingley off shore in Isle of man and it expressly stated it wasn't covered.