W10

One good reason. If you die intestate (and if someone disputes your will or the court doesn't recognise it) your assets will be frozen in the UAE (not sure how it works in the GCC) until the Sharia Court decides who has the right to the money. In practice this takes months and sometimes years.

Jeeper

Oh

Blue Cat

Ziggy - diamonds!

W10 has said exactly what I was just going to say. Don't risk any money being here at all. Meow is the best one to speak to, she is a financial advisor. PM her for some help. She presented at an event of mine last week and was really really helpful.

W10

I keep my basic living expenses in an account here and transfer 65% of my salary each month.

It causes problems when I go for my rent loan though.

Blue Cat

why get a loan when you could pay cash and avoid the interest??

Bodach

Its all about the money! As we know the dirham is basically tied to the [email protected] dhrs = $1 at a fixed rate, well mean time! So if put your saving into a dollar account say 1000 dhrs = $273 at the present time if you converted to pound @ 2.029 $ = one pound you would end up with 134 quid, however if the pound got week in say 6 months time and falls back to about 1.65 $ = a quid then you would get 273 / 1.65 = 165 quid or 23% more, its a waiting game as to when you convert and who you use for the transactions?

B

Dago

Jeeper - your simplistic view is exactly right - you have sussed economics perfectly!!They used to be popular for two reasons firstly you avoided tax on interest and secondly avoided putting the money in your home bank - for whatever reason. For those provelages you paid handsomely and probably still do.

The underlying issue is do you want to eventually spend dirhams, dollars or pounds. This takes us to converting and you can either transfer the money to a UK bank changing it in Dubai or in the UK or keep it in a local sterling account in Dubai.

Subliminally you may be trying to get the best exchange rate - that is a relatively easy calculation and if you can be bothered you can worry about exchange rate trends then it may be a good idea to to choose between feeding money to the uk monthly or just saving it all up and cash in accepting the best deal you can.

There are clever ways of dealing with the risk such as buying sterling forward (i.e. you agree to dive a buy a certain amount of sterling say next year at a rate fixed today. This gives you certainty but won't be a good deal. Alternatively you can speculate - gamble on how the AED will fare against the GBP - and potentially against the USD as well.

Now don't make the basic mistake of looking at interest rates in isolation. There is an economic principle along these lines. You have a pound (assume an international context - as you are in one) People want you to invest it with them (so they can do stuff with it). Do you put it in the bank account with the highest rate? Actually it does not matter - Because markets are fairly well organised it makes no difference. The exchange rate will eventually compensate so that the entire round trip of sending the pound to UK and back again will make no difference irrespective of interest rates. And they will even adjust to country risk too!

...I don't think you asked that..

arbroath_abroad

Very interesting Dago thanks,

We are currently unsure of what to do with our money, most of it is here in savings (AED) as i am paid in AED, but would really want to transfer it back to UK at some point, but when!!

a really interesting thread this for us financial bufoons

Meow

Sorry, but please forget that stuff above. One of the main reasns for have ing an offshore account is due to the complications of Sharia law in the event of death. I don't have time to go into this now, but at least one poster here has heard me speak on this matter.

Do feel free to PM me though if you have questions x

arbroath_abroad

Im back in Dubai in and around the 10th Sep. Would it be ok to drop you a PM with some questions, once i have discussed with my good lady. i.e once she has prompted me on what to ask!

I have loads of questions regarding ISA's, Taxation, No of pensions i can still contribute to etc etc.

cheers Meow

Meow

Sure! This is exactly what I deal with and I am also authorised to advice on UK business. I will be in the UK myself between 8th & 15th September on business, but I'll be popping in here.

Gotta dash as off to see a client. Have a good day!

Blue Cat

yes Meow is right, I suggest you all make an appointment to speak to her

Madam Medusa

don't need to, i've already got the best finanacial adviser in the world...

MM, xx

Dago

I need to set up a standing order to transfer money from my Dubai bank to my UK bank...any idea who is the best and easiest???


There is the original question.

I have used RBS International and found them to be easiest and relatively cheap and very predictable. I do have an RBS a/c in the UK.

I also tfr money to my account in Africa and use Std Chartered. I find that it works but I have needed to chase them on occasion.

I have gone with a pile of cash to a money changer and found that to be by far the most cost efficient and got the best rate.

It is not difficult to present a scenario of buying 1000AED worth of Sterling and asking the charges and exchange rates. Just try it but don't get too hung up!

Paidtoplease

Thanks I have a BOS account I will see if they have the same service