Non-sterling savings (how to avoid hyperinflation)

gozomark

the fact they are paying as much as 6% in euros should get alarm bells ringing...

gunnaknow

Charles1968 wrote: »

Perhaps the best place for Euros are continental banks that have been nationalized or partly nationalized and hence have government guarantees like northern rock now has.

Probably not if you want a half decent rate. Northern Rock's rates are rubbish.

gozomark wrote:

the fact they are paying as much as 6% in euros should get alarm bells ringing...

Their usual rate is 5.4% but it's 6% from the beginning to the end of december, for new customers. It's hard to say whether their rate is good because they are desparate for money or whether it's because their specialization in credit cards and bare bones savings accounts allows for better rates.

I too would like to have more info on the best european savings accounts available but I couldn't find anything decent when searching extensively yesterday. I tried doing searches for swiss, luxembourg, french, german, spanish and Irish savings accounts. The only really good rate I could find was from halifax based in ireland but it stated that you had to be a resident of ireland, for tax purposes!

NumbersGuy_2

Having looked around at what Euro savings accounts there are:

- Advanzia seems a bit risky for me post-Icesave (each to his own) - new bank, compensation scheme in Luxembourg, interest rate at 6% unusally high.
- Citibank appears covered by the FSCS, but the rate is very low on anything but a large deposit (.5% to 0-€55k, 1% to 55-€165k, 1.5% to 165-€275K, 2% on €275k+).

http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/banking/info/tariffandinterest/other.htm?merchant=citi

- Halifax and Nationwide are both protected by the Isle of Man Despoitors Scheme rather than FSCS. But perhaps as these are UK banks they might be propped up by Brown before they went to the wall(?), so the best hope might be that you wouldn't need to call on it. Still a risk though. The advantage seems to be they both pay >3% interest rates.

http://www.halifax-international.com/Savings/euro-websaver.asp
http://nationwideinternational.com/accounts/accounts_euro_glance.htm

If anyone else has found any other good accounts please post them (particularly still keen to find one with decent interest rates and covered by FSCS).

gunnaknow

NumbersGuy wrote: »

If anyone else has found any other good accounts please post them (particularly still keen to find one with decent interest rates and covered by FSCS).

If you don't mind investing in an Irish bank then First Active's demand bonus account has a decent rate. It is available to non residents of Ireland, unlike most of their other accounts.

http://www.firstactive.ie/savings/demand_bonus/index.aspx

Fitch downgraded their long term issuer default rating in October though. Many other Irish banks have recently had, or are due to have their long term issuer default rating downgraded.

http://www.fitchratings.com/corporate/ratings/issuer_content.cfm?issr_id=80360046&grp_typ_id=4&mm_id=&sector_flag=3&marketsector=1&detail=

gunnaknow

FYI, First Active is part of Ulster Bank Group, which in turn is part of Royal Bank Of Scotland Group.

climbgirl

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

I was wondering about the AUS$ but after research it seems that Australia has an economy which was built on nothing, overpriced housing etc similar to the UK so I don't think its such a good bet.

Not necessarily. The Australian economy relies heavily on mining and minerals and they have a large proportion of certain commodities in these sectors. While it is a fairly mature industry, a lot of mining companies are looking to countries like Australia more and more as developing countries become increasingly difficult to do business in (look at Chavez' recent upheaval to the oil sector by way of example).

They're actually reasonably well insulated from the global downturn, more so than the UK. Not entirely insulated, but won't be hit quite as hard. Interest rates are falling, but they started from a much higher base than in the UK so returns are still much better there than they are here.

I've been watching the housing market closely there (and in NZ) as I'm waiting for the price crash so I can afford to get on the ladder finally! Prices have fallen (6.78% since last year) but they're aren't crashing in the same way as they are here. In fact, they're starting to track back upwards again in NZ.

So I wouldn't write it off completely! I hold dual citizenship with NZ and have sent the bulk of my savings there for the moment - interest rates are higher and the exchange rate was very favourable so it seemed like the right thing to do.

A lot easier as a dual citizen, I'll grant you that. But I wouldn't write off Australia completely! It's prospects are better than the UK's in the short term.

gunnaknow

NumbersGuy wrote: »

Having looked around at what Euro savings accounts there are:

- Advanzia seems a bit risky for me post-Icesave (each to his own) - new bank, compensation scheme in Luxembourg, interest rate at 6% unusally high.
- Citibank appears covered by the FSCS, but the rate is very low on anything but a large deposit (.5% to 0-€55k, 1% to 55-€165k, 1.5% to 165-€275K, 2% on €275k+).

http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/banking/info/tariffandinterest/other.htm?merchant=citi

- Halifax and Nationwide are both protected by the Isle of Man Despoitors Scheme rather than FSCS. But perhaps as these are UK banks they might be propped up by Brown before they went to the wall(?), so the best hope might be that you wouldn't need to call on it. Still a risk though. The advantage seems to be they both pay >3% interest rates.

http://www.halifax-international.com/Savings/euro-websaver.asp
http://nationwideinternational.com/accounts/accounts_euro_glance.htm

If anyone else has found any other good accounts please post them (particularly still keen to find one with decent interest rates and covered by FSCS).

Halifax in spain offers a better deal than Halifax international. The savings account is 4.0%, or you can opt for a short term (1-6 month) fixed at 4.0% instead. Available to both residents and non residents of spain.

http://www.halifax.es/halifaxing/dep/eSavings.asp?sec=dep

StevieJ

Charles1968 wrote: »

Although there's a lot of talk about deflation hitting the UK economy, an increasing number of commentators think the UK could be heading for a bout of hyperinflation. If the government resorts to printing money to get the economy moving, then sterling will get trashed.

For anyone with substantial savings - for instance funds from sale of a house - this is an absolute disaster as hyperinflation will decimate wealth held in sterling.

I'm wondering what other forum members think is the best solution to protect yourself from this fate. There are several options: invest in property (though that's currently losing value quickly); buy gold; move savings into a foreign currency. The last option is the one I know least about. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Buy a house Seriously if Hyper Inflation strikes physical assets or stock market are the way to go.

trenchwars

gunnaknow wrote: »

Halifax in spain offers a better deal than Halifax international. The savings account is 4.0%, or you can opt for a short term (1-6 month) fixed at 4.0% instead. Available to both residents and non residents of spain.

http://www.halifax.es/halifaxing/dep/eSavings.asp?sec=dep

Looks interesting. Any idea how one would deposit into this account and what sort of fees would be involved? I assume it would be better to make a large one-off payment.

gunnaknow

By bank transfer or by cheque. There is mention of needing to have another spanish bank account, you should call them to find out if this is mandatory or if it's only needed for a certain type of transfer.

https://www.halifax.es/halifaxing/dep/guide_opening.asp?sec=dep

The bank charges appear quite numerous. Spanish banks are renouned for charging for almost every service. The charges listed below are a little complicated, so I'd call them to clear up exactly which charges would apply. I think that the transfer into the account is free, in some instances.

http://www.halifax.es/halifaxing/pdf/commission_rates.pdf