Offshore Accounts - Any ideas?

overseas.com

Hi there,

I work overseas and depending on the location get paid in either Euro or USD. I am looking for to set up a multi currency account. I need a current account where I can have instant access to my money if necessary (one that can give me a debit and credit card) and also a savings account.
Any ideas?

nrsql

Citibank do liked currency accounts. You can swap between them without charges (apart from the exchange rate).
A card has to be linked to one of the acoounts - don't know if you can get multiple cards.
It's handy for moving money between currencies if that's what you want to do and easy to set up.

tradetime

Can only comment on one I used when I worked abroad, Barclays International main branch in the UK is in Knightsbridge, but you can use any branch of Barclays for day to day business when in the UK. There are fees for this bank, so you'll need to look around and compare other majors, but all in all I found them quite good.

Voyager2002

Citibank (London) does what you ask for, since they can hold accounts in dollars, euro and sterling and you can instantly move funds between them.

overseas.com

Thanks for all the info folks. I checked out the Citi bank accounts but unfortunately one needs to keep a minimum balance of 100k (as far as I can see anyway) - little above my ambitions at the moments. However, the Barcleys´s international looks good as they have a variety of options with a range of entry requirements. I´ll give them a call and check out the finer points.

Thanks again!

Jonbvn

I used HSBC International when working as an expat.

Minimum balance requirement is GBP25k.

Voyager2002

overseas.com wrote: »

Thanks for all the info folks. I checked out the Citi bank accounts but unfortunately one needs to keep a minimum balance of 100k (as far as I can see anyway) - little above my ambitions at the moments. However, the Barcleys´s international looks good as they have a variety of options with a range of entry requirements. I´ll give them a call and check out the finer points.

Thanks again!

Not true! I have accounts with Citibank (UK) in US dollars and sterling, and my balance is barely into three figures. I have not explored their Euro account, but I doubt whether it is any different.

Wabiloo

Well, I had a related question.
For exactly the same reason (wanting to transfer EUR money from Europe into my UK GBP account), and having read the same information, I opened a EUR and GBP accounts with Citibank UK, hoping to be able to do the following transfer without incurring feed:

non-Citibank EUR > Citibank EUR > Citibank GBP > non-Citibank GBP.

However, I still don't know how I'm supposed to do the first step of the operation... I need to get some EUR monies paid from a Belgian EUR account into my EUR Citibank account (which is held in the UK)... How do I do that? I can't find any information on how to do that... And if it's with IBAN/SWIFT, will I not incur costs (thereby negating the whole point of the system?)

Loughton_Monkey

I had both Citibank and HSBC Offshore accounts (Jersey) when an Expat. These were no problem whatsoever. Your original post was about Offshore accounts.

You now seem to be talking of UK accounts in Euro denomination, which is a totally different animal. Offshore banks are geared up to deal with a multitude of currencies. National banks seldom are. For example, when I was back in UK and still holding $US accounts with HSBC, I tried putting $US into my $US account and was treated with derision. It was the same abroad. Korean banks love to set you up with a $US account. Try to pay in (or withdraw) $US notes into (out of) them and they will go into 15 minutes of confusion before coming back with "Computer says No".

This is why you set up Offshore accounts. Not 'National' accounts demoninated in Foreign Currency.