Savings whilst resident outside UK

hazeleyes

Hi,

I wondered if anyone could point me in the direction of where I could open a Regular Savings and/or lump sum fixed interest account in the UK, without me having to trawl through every single financial institution's T&C's? I am a British citizen who has lived in the Republic of Ireland since 2007 and with the current uncertainty surrounding the euro I am thinking of moving what savings I have over here (not a vast amount!!) into sterling. We intend moving back to the UK once the house is sold and I want to protect my money.
I hold a UK bank current account and have been advised by that bank that I can proceed with a Regular Saver there but the bank limits the amount I can save so I need to find other homes for the remainder of my euros and obviously those other homes would need to be in banks/building societies etc which don't require that you have a current account before you can open the saver account.

Can anyone offer any help or suggestions?

Margey

Hi,

i have attached to links to two sites which offer comparisons on accounts, which could help quicken your search. Heres one and heres the other.

I did see something about HSBC having an overseas account.

Hope this helped

Margey

hanwellmike

You will probably find it difficult to open a new savings accounts with many UK high street banks / building societies if you do not have a verifiable UK address. A question of proof of identity rather than residency.

xylophone

http://www.nationwideinternational.com/accounts/accounts_sterling_bonus95.htm
might suit?

hazeleyes

Thankyou Margey,Hanwell Mike and Xylophone; I'll check out your suggestions.
Having seen the Saffron B.S.12mth fixed rate Regular Saver on the MSE site, I checked out the T&C's which said, amongst other things that " in exceptional circumstances the Society may consider account opening for individuals resident outside the UK". So I contacted them to ask if I would be able to open an a/c, explaining that I was a British citizen,aged 63,lived in UK from birth up to 2007 since when I had lived in the RoI. Also told them the saving would be financed from a UK bank a/c.
They have responded by saying that I cannot open a Regular Saver a/c and the sole reason given is that I am not resident in the UK, despite their T&C's allowing for the possibility. I am pursuing this with the Society because I consider that the information detailed in the T&C's is misleading; either that or the reason given for not allowing me to apply goes against the T&C's.

Thanks again for helping.

Annisele

I'm afraid I don't think you'll get anywhere with Saffron. Their T&Cs say they'll consider letting non-residents open accounts in exceptional circumstances. I suspect they might have had serving soldiers or diplomats in mind when they wrote that - but whatever they did have in mind, your circumstances don't sound all that out-of-the-ordinary to me. People do move abroad, and living in the UK before moving to Ireland isn't unusual.

Would you consider a sterling account with an Irish bank?