Living abroad but saving for a UK mortgage

nealios

Hi all.

Currently living and working in Australia but have future plans to return to blighty to purchase a house.

As I am out of the country I know that ISAs and The Help To Buy savings account are not available to me at this time.

With the Australian dollar taking a month on month dive i'm looking for ways to protect my savings.

Does anyone have any advice on savings accounts in the UK that operate for Expats or what offshore accounts are available if you don't have a vast sum to start with.

Any advice appreciated. Currently have an AU savings account which is not awful but would prefer savings to be in sterling! :money:

Thanks!

Voyager2002

Why not ask Australian banks if they offer sterling accounts? Each time you send money out of the country you pay fees, and these add up...

Holmesy999

I have large savings pot in Australia, and I'm returning to the uk in the next month. In regards to the exchange rate, the opposite is occurring- the Aussie dollar is gaining quite well on the pound and has done very well just in the last two months (this probably won't continue, but who knows. It seems to do this every summer)

Also it is dead easy to get a decent interest rate in Australia with large sums. I'm looking where to park the money when I get to the uk, and it looks like I have to open lots of accounts with small amounts, or get !!!!!! all interest on my larger amounts.

I have a hsbc account, and it sucks operating it from overseas- they are always sending forms to complete or risk closing the account, it has weird log in systems with digital keys, and now they are asking for my tax status to be updated. Forms get sent asking the, to competed within two weeks, but take that time just to get here. We needed up changing the addresses to her parents house in the uk.

My wife opened some virgin accounts with some ease(by having our hsbc statements sent to her uk parents address, and using passport as proof of id), but they are paying low interest rates.

Sending money to the uk will eat into your savings- even using the better transfer companies (do not use banks), so I would say you are better off saving a pot of money here and only transferring a ,argue sum.

nealios

Thanks Holmesy999, sounds like you're in the same position.

I also have an HSBC UK account and it hasn't been the easiest to deal with and its a farce that they call themselves the world's local bank.

When transferring anything back to the UK recommend Ozforex, which has served us well when needing to send money home.

With student loan repayments it means we have to keep our UK accouns in check. Just opened the Westpac eSaver which seems to have good introductory rates as a good stop gap.

mummytummy

I'm in a similar position, currently in Australia but plan to move back in the future, trying to save as much as I can so I have a large deposit on future house buy. I've also just joined the MFiT-T4 challenge to keep me focussed




https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5375506

Holmesy999

Yep we went through the student loan repayment issues too- glad to get rid of that. I think we sent 6 month chunks back at a time (using ozforex as well)