Savings Account for £100.000

dathigrimmur

I will be immigrating to Serbia on 1st November 2005 with my wife and want to put £100.000 from the sale of our house into savings account and keep it there for 1-2 years.
I have been looking around the web for information on what the best thing is to do, but would appreciate advice from the good people on MSE.com.

1. Do I have to pay tax on the interest of my savings if I keep them here in the UK, even if I don't live in the UK? If I do can I claim the tax back?

2. Would it be better to split the £100.000 into 4 x £25000 saving accounts for higher interest?

3. Does anyone know about any good overseas savings accounts?

blinko

1.im not sure but i think you can claim the tax back using an R85 form if your not living in the UK

2.it would be better to split it up but not to gain more interest, but to prevent any problems with a bank rendering your entire life savings obselete, plus the best savings account is 5.35% and its max is 25k i think so you would have to split it up

3. when you say overseas are you talking offshore ?

dathigrimmur

Cheers for the reply,

3, Yes I ment offshore.

Reaper

dathigrimmur wrote:

would appreciate advice from the good people on Fool.co.uk.

So you don't want an answer from people on MSE then? :rolleyes:

dathigrimmur

Alright, alright, just a minor spelling mistake. Thanks for highlighting it though.

ED

5.50% gross is offered by Nottingham Bdg Society for their 90-days withdrawal notice account Post It.

Various Bdg Society's periodically offer existing customers (typically of 1-2 yrs standing) to deposit up to £5,000 in a "loyalty bond" paying about 6% gross. (Coventry Bdg Soc + Nationwide BS are eg's.) Some allow withdrawal or closure after 1 yr or 2 yrs, or even via 60 days notice.

Re splitting £100,000 into 4, you could just make that 3 lots of about £33,000 or so, as up to £35,000 per institution is covered under the scheme protecting against banks and bdg societies going belly-up.

As you're going abroad, perhaps someone here on MSE with experience of overseas employment can enlighten us about banking facilities such as those offered by HSBC Offshore. I was interested in their 6% e-Savings account (£1,000-£2,500 must be deposited monthly for 12 months), but then I found the customer must also hold another HSBC account with a minimum balance of £5,000 (or 5,000 US$, or 5,000 EUR).

System

I think i read on here, that your only protected for the first 30k if your bank goes bust. So i would split it.

Guys, tell me if i dreamt it!!

blinko

offshore is pretty risky from what i read and i have no knowledge of it but i believe allied irish and gurensey (if thats how you spell it) northern rock offshore do decent deals

Reaper

Judi wrote:

I think i read on here, that your only protected for the first 30k if your bank goes bust. So i would split it.

Guys, tell me if i dreamt it!!

No, you didn't dream it. The protection is 100% of the first £2000 back and 90% of the next £33,000. So keeping savings below £35,000 is safe.

However I've no idea if this protection applies to offshore accounts. I doubt it.