living abroad

codetown

Ted_Bloke wrote:

Bank with HSBC or similar! They will relieve you of this problem!

How exactly?
Do you have actually experience with it or is it just a joke because of their stupid TV ad?

I was with HSBC some years ago and I can guarantee you that I could not get any support whatsoever to get my money abroad, let alone allowing you to stay if you were not resident anymore in UK.

Ted_Bloke

codetown wrote:

is it just a joke...?

I was with HSBC some years ago and I can guarantee you that I could not get any support whatsoever to get my money abroad, let alone allowing you to stay if you were not resident anymore in UK.

It was a joke and before I could write more I was interrupted. I meant with HSBC you won't have the worry of tax on interests because there won't be any interests worth taxing.

Seriously, keep your UK account, especially if you're visiting often. You'll probably find it useful for countless things like visits, presents, subscriptions, stuff you order, UK investments or pensions, etc. It will be much more active if you have or acquire a house. (In my time to get a mortgage you had to hide the fact you were abroad, abroad was funny and suspicious for building societies even ten years ago and I got 'we wouldn't touch a proposition of that kind' down-nose looks. From what codetown says that attitude persists.)
With electronic banking you can keep an eye on it and top it up easily.
I was abroad for yonkers and kept my UK one, HSBC actually, or rather its previous incarnation as Midland. Useful and no-one was bothered.

But also offshore British banks are useful. IF you've got more than £5,000 check out e.g. Bank of Scotland offshore. IOM or Jersey. http://www.bankofscotlandinternational.com
It pays a decent interest. If you want a cheque account you'd probably have to open their Flexible Current Account. Minimum opening balance is £5,000. You can also open an Instant Access Savings Account now paying 4.25%. I got both, try to keep more than £5k in the second and very little in the first. Can also get accounts in $ or € there if wanted. You'll have the same hassle of proving identity as in the UK so it might be as well to go to a bank and open it whilst still in the UK, save traipsing into consulates though you'll be doing that for other reasons. But most big banks have an offshore part too, offering similar services as in UK with slightly different conditions. (BTW the fact that they're now Halifax-BOS has not led to any interoperability between the two.) I think BOS interests are among the best. Quite easy to find out by internet. As for tax on interests, at least in the EU you have to pay it. You will be told of the Disclosure Directive. Either your income will be declared to and taxed in an EU country, or if you want confidentiality it will be paid anonymously for you, but as time goes on you'll pay more that way. This is on the BOS site.

Cook_County

I do not quite understand the inferences of Ted Bloke's comments on the EU Savings Tax Directive.

If the interest is taxable or the bank account reportable in the country where one resides then non-reporting is a fraudulent and potentially criminal act. The EUSTD does not change this, whether you live in the UK or overseas or whether or not you choose exchange of information.

That is why the questioner should check in the place they live as to the rules in that jurisdiction.

Whether or not HBOS are a good place to invest I cannot say!

EdInvestor

Ted_Bloke wrote:

...the fact that they're now Halifax-BOS has not led to any interoperability between the two.....

Oh really. :rolleyes:

MissSunshine

We have a HSBC UK current a/c with an overdraft limit that we opened after we'd moved overseas and all correspondence comes to our Middle East address.

Ted_Bloke

EdInvestor wrote:

Oh really. :rolleyes:

Well so they told me when I called in on a Halifax branch, they being thicker on the ground in England than BOS, I have accounts with both.
(Halifax has a style which has been commented on in some posts or threads at this site, and which has been maintained so far as I know. If I'm wrong it'll be because part of that style is that if there is interoperability they might not know about it in the branch.)

Ted_Bloke

Cook_County wrote:

I do not quite understand the inferences of Ted Bloke's comments on the EU Savings Tax Directive.

If the interest is taxable or the bank account reportable in the country where one resides then non-reporting is a fraudulent and potentially criminal act. The EUSTD does not change this, whether you live in the UK or overseas or whether or not you choose exchange of information.

That is why the questioner should check in the place they live as to the rules in that jurisdiction.

I have not said and did not intend to imply anything different from what you do.
Except maybe that there are a few misconceptions about offshore accounts. Another one is that you you have to be resident offshore to have one.

jenniferpa

MissSunshine wrote:

We have a HSBC UK current a/c with an overdraft limit that we opened after we'd moved overseas and all correspondence comes to our Middle East address.

What type of HSBC account? Is it a Premier? The £19.95 per month fee sticks in my craw, and the T & C's of Bank Account Plus say:

You must be at least 18 and a resident of the United
Kingdom (including the Channel Islands and Isle of Man)
to be eligible to apply for Bank Account Plus.

Maybe they've changed it. However, pigs will fly etc. before I'd open an account with HSBC (they hold my mother's account, and they have no idea how to deal with anything slightly out of the ordinary).

Jennifer

EdInvestor

Ted_Bloke wrote:

Well so they told me when I called in on a Halifax branch, they being thicker on the ground in England than BOS, I have accounts with both.
(Halifax has a style which has been commented on in some posts or threads at this site, and which has been maintained so far as I know. If I'm wrong it'll be because part of that style is that if there is interoperability they might not know about it in the branch.)

There have been a lot of reports about total chaos in the melding of BOS and Halifax,indeed IIRC there was a actual demo at the last HBOS AGM about it. Old offshore BOS customers seem particularly miffed as it was indeed a good offshore bank before.

MissSunshine

jenniferpa wrote:

What type of HSBC account? Is it a Premier?

Just a basic current account, cheque book, debit card and no fees except if it goes overdrawn obviously. Only had the account 2 years and been ok so far as we also bank with HSBC here.