psb182

Can someone give me a list of the pros and cons of an off shore bank acct,also any info on how accessable it is to get your money in and out of it thanks

Baz

I am no expert, but i do live in the Cayman Islands (therfore i must know something!) It is very difficult to get an ofshore account, you need referances, including one from your current bank, which must show massive amounts of money moving in and out of it, i think you need lots of money aswell, and all sorts of other stuff. I can't really see why you would need one to be honest unless you are a big time (and big money,) investor or business person.

Englishmum

You will find some info here:

http://www.expatinvestor.com


We have an offshore account (checking account, called a 'current' account in the UK) with Lloyds TSB Offshore in the Isle of Man. It operates in exactly the same way as a Lloyds TSB account anywhere on mainland Britain, it's just that it is outside UK tax jurisdiction (we have a house in Essex which we rent out and our daughter is at university in London so we are constantly sending her money LOL!). Our account is in sterling but you can choose to have a Euro & US$ a/c (I think that it's mostly people working in the Middle East who prefer to do that). We have a small savings account (also in the IOM) with Britannia (think it's called Britannia International - but it's a building society).

If you open an account (current or savings) with any offshore bank in Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man, although it is 'offshore' for UK tax purposes, your money is safe as it is regulated by the UK govt. as far as I understand (unlike the Cayman Islands where to the best of my knowledge your money doesn't get the same protection).

We do plan to move back to England in a few years and all we will need to do is to transfer our Isle of Man account to a mainland branch as we will then be under the mainland tax jurisdiction.

All the major High Street UK banks have branches offshore in the Channel Isles or/and Isle of Man....just google for example, Barclays Offshore, National Westminster Offshore, HSBC Offshore, Alliance & Leicester Offshore, Britannia Offshore etc. etc.

Here's the link to our offshore bank, and it's not so difficult to open an account. There are safeguards they need to have in place to prevent international money laundering but you can read up on how to open an account here:

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

The good thing too is that if anyone is planning to move back to the UK in the future, if you have an account up and running and regularly transfer some funds into the account it will start you in good stead for your credit rating when you do go back.

Ray51

Very briefly :
- Pro's : any number of , depending on where you live now and where you intend to be in the future , also taking into account your various other individual requirements , creditors/investments/tax angles etc - usually you can have sterling and/or US$ and/or Euro accounts , individually and/or company ones...;
- con's : hardly any !
- access : by electr. transfers , bankers' drafts , ( free ) gold VISA/MC debit cards for each separate A/c , multiple if req'd ...etc...
A new Jersey/Isle of Man offshore A/c of any interest to you ?
Then send me a P.M. or e-mail : I arrange many such A/cs , with reputable long-standing offshore banking institutions , in my usual course of business.
Good Luck !
R.

TruBrit

i have an account with barclays isle of man, easy to deal with no probs, email me if you want any links etc and i can dig them out for you

Dan725

I'd agree, except that Cons are you usually need to maintain a more substantial balance than you normally would to open things like savings accounts and to avoid fees. Really shop properly for an account as well - some have substantially lower interest rates on savings than do others.

JAJ

That doesn't alter your liability to United Kingdom (or US) income tax, in the vast majority of instances.


Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man are not part of the United Kingdom. They are Crown Dependencies. So they may have their own local deposit protection schemes instead.

The Cayman Islands are a British Overseas Territory and the same applies. That said, funds deposited in an offshore branch of a major British bank (eg Barclays) are likely to be fairly safe.


You could leave the bank account in the Isle of Man if you wished. As noted, it would not alter your UK tax liabilities. Many people keep both offshore and onshore accounts.

Pamela 1

I want to open a savings or current bank account and think Jersey would be a good place, but having been into HSBC website (have not gone into Barclays, Midland etc) they want a minimum of 5000GBP.

I want to open an account with a hundred pound or two at the most and then arrange to have my UK Pension paid into it - if that will be possible.

I am wondering why I can't open an account with a smaller amount.

If I had known all the problems of opening an account in UK, I would never have closed mine at the Building Soc. in the first place when I did a few years ago.

Englishmum

We have a small savings account with Britannia International on the IoM (it used to be called the Britannia Building Society on the UK mainland). I've just looked up their various savings accounts and they have one called 'Easy Access' with a minimum deposit of 250 pounds. I guess the interest won't be that great as you can withdraw funds without notice......but it's a good way to get started:

Home Page:

http://www.britanniainternational.com/index.html

Easy Access Account:

http://www.britanniainternational.com/easy.html

How to Open an Account & FAQs:

http://www.britanniainternational.com/questions.html

Hope this helps!

psb182

question on how they work.......I only have US dollar accounts and I was wondering if I could open an offshore UK pound acct.
Also I was wondering how I could deposit money into the acct,would I have to wire US dollars to forex then they send the pounds to my offshore acct.All help would be much apperciated thanks

Englishmum

Yes - virutally all the main offshore banks eg. Lloyds TSB, HSBC, Barclays etc. offer bank accounts not only in pounds sterling but also in US$ and Euros.

We used to wire money to our offshore account via our checking/current account with Chase - but they charge approx $40 per wire *and* the forex rate has always been poor. We now prefer to use http://www.xetrade.com as no service fees and you get a much better exchange rate. Loads of expats on BE use xetrade.

It takes a few days to set up initially as they have to check that you're not money laundering. You send in paperwork to them and they will call you for a telephone interview. We provided them with the account nos. for our US and UK bank. It's all above board and we've been really happy with them. You can even do a search on BE for 'Xe' 'xe.com' or 'xetrade' and you will find a number of positive comments.

As you know, the US$ is very weak right now and you probably won't get a better US$ to UK pound rate than with xetrade.

(Here's a thread about xetrade aka xe.com):

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...ghlight=xe.com

So once you have set up your offshore account, you can start using xe to transfer money from your US account to the offshore one.....and no need to call in to your US bank, you can do it all electronically on your PC. :0

northernbird

We have an account with Nationwide International in IOM and it is quite honestly the best bank account we have ever had. You can have sterling or US$ accounts with them. They are easy to set up and the customer service is second to none.


www.nationwideinternational.com

Pamela 1

Thanks Englishmum, that looks really promising. I have checked out the website and that might just work for me. You are a wealth of information!