Swiss Bank Account Questions

Arteta

meer53 wrote: »

What a strange post !

After going through a divorce and all the financial trauma that this entails, i detest people who try to conceal their assets. If you don't agree with your financial settlements then discuss it in a civilised manner, you'll be found out anyway, it's not worth it. And what sort of person thinks about this scenario BEFORE they get married ? I wouldn't trust you as far as i could throw you !

Quite frankly I detest people with your attitude. Who are you to judge what I do with my money? First of all, deciding what to do with your money before getting married is much smarter than afterwards.
I'm just being prepared.
Why should all finance/assets be disclosed with a partner? If I earned them then I can share what I wish with whom I wish. Why should a woman care about me not sharing all of my money with her? So long as we pay for most things equally then what I have on the side is not her concern.
Let's get this straight, it's normal for the court to give at least half of the communal money to the woman regardless of who earned it, I understand this, but it does not make it morally correct. If the woman is earning more than the man then it would go against her in a court settlement, however this often isn't the case.
I've seen two of my friends now have this problem, both of their wives left them (I think cheated also) and then took them for half of their money when my friends had earned most of it. Is this fair? They're both currently financially stuck, they are struggling to survive and they are all alone and unhappy. This is not an unusual situation. If it was so strange then why are pre-nuptials in existence?
If both people pay for a house with a joint account then it's too hard to determine who gets what so the house might be split, but if I buy something else with my own money then I expect to keep it, not for the law to take it away from me on the basis of some woman leaving me.
Also do not mistake me for a sexist, you'd be wrong.

I don't care if you don't trust me. When I eventually get married I will give everything I can to my wife, but if things go wrong then she's not claiming things I had before I met her. Get off your high horse.

Arteta

ses6jwg wrote: »

You've been watching too many James Bond films.

datostar wrote: »

If the OP's Frederick Forsyth/Ian Fleming lifestyle was to result in his untimely demise by assassination, circular saw, laser beam or whatever no-one would know about his stash unless he set up some complex arrangement with secret codes, sealed letters etc. if no-one heard from him for a certain time. Swiss Banks do seem have benefited greatly from this kind of thing in the past when no-one ever turns up to claim the money. Same with safe deposit boxes.

Would you both care to back this up?
You can laugh all you want and pass me off as a Jason Bourne wannabe, but you try telling those who lost money in Iceland that they're being over-cautious. Iceland was a stable country, the UK almost had much worse problems also.

As already posted, Switzerland is safe. If you two know the answers then maybe you should expose them to all of the thousands that currently thing Swiss banking is a good idea.

Ironically ignorant people make me laugh.

As for my secrecy; not only have I mentioned a part of that in my previous post, but to have money in Switzerland and use it for purchases over here it's is going to create problems and the banks will want to know why things aren't adding up. So if I used only an English account for transparency's sake then i'll end up ignoring some of the key points for keeping money in Switzerland in the first place!!!

Arteta

Thankyou to the people who posted some sort of constructive advice.

I appreciate it.

gfplux wrote: »

Hello Arteta.
Even if you were able to open a Swiss bank account without a paper trail you then have other issues to consider.
What currency you keep the money in.
privacy might mean no interest being paid.
There will be high bank charges.

Why not open a private safety Box in a UK bank and just pay the rent on the box and keep your money in cash in the box.

As you will earn no interest you will not need to pay UK tax.
You will be the only person who will know about the cash.

I would probably keep the money in Euro's just because it's more widely used.
I don't actually want to live in the UK, I will only be here a few more years, but I want to pay tax as long as i'm living here. Once I leave I won't be paying tax and I would consider operating entirely from a Swiss account.
I don't trust the idea of safety deposit boxes, i'm fairly certain i've read of many breaches to them, one of which happened in Wolverhampton, i'm sure of it. What's to stop the banks opening clients boxes if they get into financial trouble?
Also keeping cash may not be useful for me. If I kept money in a Swiss deposit box for 10 years and then wanted to buy a flat with it they'll treat me as a criminal, because I couldn't prove where I'd suddenly got that money from. I'd rather keep money electronically where I can.

No interest rates might be a problem though. I could open a saver account for interest? Then if I wanted to actively use a Swiss account I could open a second one for every day use and transfer money from the saver account.
Do you think that'd work?

Arteta

powerone wrote: »

Ahh a good old James Bond story, love it!!

Dont take too much cash out of the country. The dogs at the airpots and other exit routes are now trained to smell money! Much like the wife.

Swiis Franc is one of the safest currencies in the world. Well was until I wrote this.

You might want to look at this group

**Link removed**

Thanks for the advice. It might sound like a silly question but what exactly is it they do?
I can't find a decent description. I assume by your post it's like a Western Union, but nothing on the website is clear.

Also what's the point in a dog being able to smell money? Everybody's carrying it.
How much is too much money? When I went to South-East Asia last year I took about £1,000 on me in cash with no problems.

Olipro

the limit on is €10,000 or currency equivalent and is only applicable when travelling to a country outside the EU (such as Switzerland) - above this amount, you may take it with you providing you declare it.

there is no limit when travelling between EU countries.

Hazzanet

Arteta wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. It might sound like a silly question but what exactly is it they do?

They're a bank owned by the Swiss Post office. Similar to the old Girobank offering.

NoobySaver

Arteta, I don't think you need to worry about sheltering your money from a potential future wife. Judging from your posts I can't see it ever happening. You would therefore be "sheltering" money for no purpose.

Arteta

NoobySaver wrote: »

Arteta, I don't think you need to worry about sheltering your money from a potential future wife. Judging from your posts I can't see it ever happening. You would therefore be "sheltering" money for no purpose.

Would you care to explain?

Quite clearly some of you feel that my feelings on an isolated incident encompass my whole personality and/or feelings towards women.

I mean assuming that I lived in some crazy world where I were to voice my opinions on this subject upon meeting all prospective girlfriends, I would only deter gold diggers.

Considering that the majority of you on here are older than me I'm a little astounded by the general naïvety.
I might come across as a ****, but i'm also having to defend myself from pointless criticisms, all because I want to do things a little differently.

c-m

I think you need to be looking into asset protection, possibly through the use of discretionary trusts. These are useful if you want to divorce (no pun intended) yourself from your finances/assets but still earn an income from them.

meer53

Arteta wrote: »

Would you care to explain?

Quite clearly some of you feel that my feelings on an isolated incident encompass my whole personality and/or feelings towards women.

I mean assuming that I lived in some crazy world where I were to voice my opinions on this subject upon meeting all prospective girlfriends, I would only deter gold diggers.

Considering that the majority of you on here are older than me I'm a little astounded by the general naïvety.
I might come across as a ****, but i'm also having to defend myself from pointless criticisms, all because I want to do things a little differently.

Spot on Arteta, you do come across as an ****.

How do you come to the conclusion that we're all old fogeys and that you're a young, rich person who could potentially have a "Swiss Bank Account" to add to your bragging list ? You're quite defensive aren't you ?

Noobysaver is right, there needs to be honesty and trust in a relationship, apparently, you don't feel this way, good luck. Some poor woman is going to be living with someone who keeps secrets, rather her than me.

I hope if you do make a Prenup you don't try to hide anything, the courts won't look very kindly on you, they have the power to force disclosure of all assets.