Living overseas

Dixie_Dean_3

Hi Everyone,

I’ve not long left the UK to live overseas. I’m living on the interest from my house sale back in the UK. I’m currently banking with two UK banks, one being the NatWest and the other is the HSBC. Most of the money from the house sale is with the HSBC who I chose because of safety reasons. As you can imagine I need to stay safe so I don’t mind receiving a bit less on interest. With the current climate in the UK I am considering moving my money offshore. Can anyone here give any advice for investing offshore. The HSBC international are offering a fixed term deal at present and I was wondering if I should stay with them, or should I look elsewhere?

Thanks in advance
Dixie Dean

pete80

Hi Dixie Dean,

Same nickname (Dixie) and I also sold up and left UK this year.

As far as Offshore Banking goes, the IOM and Channel Islands have very poor or no compensation schemes for depositors. The DCS in IOM is only funded when a bank does fail and took 23 years to pay out one-third of the money lost by savers of Savings & Investment Bank who failed in 1982. Nothing paid to them since 2005.

HSBC are still a very strong bank after their losses with US sub-prime lending but I do worry about the depositor's schemes on these islands.

Northern Rock Offshore have full government protection on deposits but their rates are not so good now and fixed rate bonds were unavailable last time I looked at their site. I was lucky enough to fix at 6.85% for 2 years in early September.

Dixie_Dean_3

Hi Pete80,

Thanks for your reply. My nick name is Dixie, I had to use Dean as there is already someone registered with the same name.

I suppose it's not easy for anyone to chose what to do and, which bank to go for. Which bank are you with?

I'll have to keep looking and hope I can find something before the banks drop their rates.

Dixie

pete80

Hi Dixie

I managed to keep 2 accounts open when leaving the UK but one bank is trying to close my accounts with them even though I have been a good customer for 10 years. This just leaves me with Nationwide who are good with no charges using a debit card abroad, but they do tax you on interest which you can claim back from HMRC if it doesnt exceed your personal allowance when cmbined with any other income, like pensions etc.

Apart from Nationwide, I keep 20% of my house sale proceeds with Northern Rock Offshore who have the full 100% guarantee for next 3 to 4 years whilst they are nationalised The other 80% is currently held with US Banks as Certificates of Deposit (like a fixed rate time deposit) which are tax free in my case as the country I live in does not tax me on income received from outside of that country. I staggered my deposits from 6 months paying 4% with citibank.com to 5.15% for 5 years with Wachovia/Wells Fargo. The base rate has dropped another 1% here since I opened these 2 montha ago.
I deposited money in the US Banks as they currently have $250,000 guaranteed per beneficiary per bank by the FDIC. This is limit due to reduce back to $100,000 from beginning of 2010.

I just can't chance depositing cash with IOM and CI Banks apart from Northern Rock as the Depositor's guarantees are non existant or useless
:beer:

Dixie_Dean_3

Hi Pete,

Thanks for the information, it's funny I was looking at Northern Rock earlier this morning. I’ll keep looking and see what I come up with. About the banks closing your accounts, I opened my account with the HSBC just before I left the UK and informed them at the time I was leaving. I’ve noticed the NatWest who I have been with for years are not showing much interest since I moved abroad. I applied for gross tax as an expat and sent the papers the week we arrived overseas, that was 5 months ago and I’m still paying tax on my savings. I’ve phoned them and written to them but, they don’t seem interested.

Dixie:beer: