deeosull

Hi, has anyone any recommendations for an off shore bank account. I'm living in Ireland moving to Saudi and getting paid in sterling. Because of the crappy exchange rate at the moment I want to keep my earnings in sterling but make regular transfers to my account in Ireland. Most of the Off Shore accounts i've looked into seem to have ridiculously high charges so any info would be appreciated.

Blue Cat

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=522296

read this, it might help

gusmac

I'm in the same boat - working in the middle east but paid in Sterling too.

Best offshore bank, with no monthly charges, is Bank of Scotland International. It is part of the UK banking system (UK format sort code and account number) so you can make free transfers to other UK accounts using BACS, but offshore so no tax is applied.

The only catch is you need to make an initial deposit of GBP5,000 to get your account active, but can transfer it out shortly afterwards. Preferably into a Bradford & Bingley International eSavings account, paying 6.5%! Note that both these accounts need a letter from your employer, so you need to wait until you're in Saudi.

Secondly, if you can make it over to UK before you go, open a Nationwide Building Society Flexaccount - the visa debit card and visa credit card are both commission free on foreign purchases so you can use them anywhere and take advantage of the weak dollar at no extra cost! You may have a similar type of account in Ireland, but I don't know.

Thirdly, you may want to consider setting up a savings plan for any 'spare' cash (offshore fund denominated in either Sterling, Dollars or Euros) to either augment a pension, or save for a rainy day, or even a new house. I use a good chap - PM me for details - or if you find one yourself, make sure you don't buy a mirror fund! If structured correctly, you can pay using a reward or airmiles card and either get cashback or airmiles for free too.

Any other questions, PM me.

Good luck in saudi - make sure you pack plenty of brewers yeast and wine finings!

gusmac

Miss Eck

I use Lloyds for offshore banking, UAE banking and UK banking so it works best for me. They have a couple of free transfers per month so I only pay a 7.50GBP monthly charge for the account.

Norm_uk

For current accounts Lloyds are very good...for deposit accounts where you don't plan on moving the money around too much Anglo-Irish are who I usually recommend to my clients.

N.

deeosull

Thanks for your replies. It's something I'm going to have to look into a bit more, with Sterling going to hell, I'm going to lose out on a lot of money if I have to convert back to Euro straight away