Chandler

I've open up a "High Yield Savings Account" here in the US with Chase. The Interest rate for which I now discover (funny they don't advertise this before hand) is 1% per annum.

I wrote to them thinking that this must be a mistake. It transpires that it is "High Yield" only when compared to my current account which pays 0.3% per annum! Funny, I wasn't aware of this either.

I did some searching and ING offers a much more favorable 3%. However, this got me thinking, why not move off-shore and get a higher rate of interest?

Does anyone have any experience of this?
- I'm presuming that because I am not opening a UK account it won't matter that I no longer reside in the UK (different regulations)
- I also presume that the IRS would like me to pay tax on the interest earned. I'm not looking to dodge this, but I'd rather pay interest on 5.5% off shore than 3% on.

Thanks

Big D

I would be interested to hear people's opinions on this. I still have mortgage etc at home so my plan was to build up a cushion here and send home when the exchange rates were favorable ( and they seem to be heading the right way now), I can get a decent rate thru work so that isn't a problem. I would rather have my cash in the egg savings account back home than doing nothing for me over here!! Because i plan to send back to the UK i don't want to tie it up for too long, but haven't seen anything decent over here.

Chandler

I actually intend doing likewise, but I want to keep my $ here for 18 months (lowering interest rates in the UK etc hopefully strengthening the $) hence my desire to get the best rate I can on a savings account. A USD off-shore seems the way to go with a measly 3.5% being the best that I have yet heard of on shore.

The IRS should thank me, I'm actively trying to find a larger rate so that I can pay them more tax. What a good citizen I am.

krizzy

What are savings........????

anotherlimey

This might help:

http://www.offshore.hsbc.com/1/2/int...vings-accounts

Interestingly, when you search for "offshore savings US" on Google, most of the results are from UK banks.

sid_s

I investigated this a while go, but I could not find an offshore $ account that paid a decent rate of interest either (and they often have charges). I'm just keeping mine in ING at the moment.

You can open an offshore sterling account that pays over 5% but then you are back to the problem of having to convert your money from $ to sterling at a time when exchange rates are low. If you decide to do that you might as well just send it to Egg.

Shish kebab

For the HSBC offshore you need to keep a min balance of $5000 in your account at all times. I am with them at home and already looked into there offshore the extra fee's are not too bad.

Chandler

What is their rate for off-shore? HSBC is 3.25% here in the US.

I checked their website and I think the off-shore USD is actaully lower.