Wedding Fund Pot - British to open a Joint Account with Foreign Fiance

AG_222

Hi all! My foreign fiance works and live in Kuala Lumpur while I am a British national living in London, we have plans to marry and decided that we have to save up money for our wedding - basically what we want right now is to open up a "Wedding Fund Pot". We already have our own savings account in our own countries but we just want an account where we can both transfer our wedding savings into one account without having to pay expensive transfer fees so that we can both track our progress - as well as see our wedding savings GROW :cheesy:

Western Union/Paypal can be such a fuss. We want a proper bank account to monitor our savings, for eg: get an international bank account with branches in London and Kuala Lumpur where we both can access and transfer our savings into one account. We just need to sort out this first step. All your help and answers will be greatly appreciated.
:j

Ben8282

It is highly unlikely that you will be able to open a joint account until such time as you are both resident in the UK.
I really don't understand why you need to have all the savings in one account. You seem far more concerned about this point than, for example, how much interest you could earn on the savings.
How much is this wedding going to cost? How much do you actually have to save? Why do you each have to save up equal amounts of money? Are your salaries identical?
For the moment, best to save individually in accounts in your own country.
Why exactly do you need to monitor each others savings? I suppose you could always give each other online access to the account if you trust each other enough. That way you could easily monitor the balances.
Using terms like 'ridiculous transfer fees' really should be avoided as it is not relevant to the question.

agrinnall

HSBC operate in Malaysia so they may offer accounts that can be accessed in both countries (I doubt if it will be possible for it to be a single account). But you really need to address Ben's points before leaping into account opening.

AG_222

Ben8282 wrote: »

It is highly unlikely that you will be able to open a joint account until such time as you are both resident in the UK.
I really don't understand why you need to have all the savings in one account. You seem far more concerned about this point than, for example, how much interest you could earn on the savings.
How much is this wedding going to cost? How much do you actually have to save? Why do you each have to save up equal amounts of money? Are your salaries identical?
For the moment, best to save individually in accounts in your own country.
Why exactly do you need to monitor each others savings? I suppose you could always give each other online access to the account if you trust each other enough. That way you could easily monitor the balances.
Using terms like 'ridiculous transfer fees' really should be avoided as it is not relevant to the question.

Thank you for your thorough response. We just wanted something in one account so that we can see our wedding savings grow, that is all. Yes, we have our own savings in each of our countries, but we want to open up a "wedding pot fund" to see our progress - so that we can both transfer it into that account without paying expensive transfer fees (sorry if using the word "ridiculous" in a sentence seem to be offensive, just needed to really project how expensive it can be) Oh, we are not gonna save equal amounts of money each time - just however much we can save each month goes to our wedding pot fund. Yes, we don't mind giving out our online access to each other - the bottom line is we just wanted a wedding pot fund to see our wedding savings grow

AG_222

agrinnall wrote: »

HSBC operate in Malaysia so they may offer accounts that can be accessed in both countries (I doubt if it will be possible for it to be a single account). But you really need to address Ben's points before leaping into account opening.

Yes, we have made calls to HSBC in both our countries, there is a zero transfer fee globally. I've yet to check what documents they need from us since each branch vary in submissions of documents. They said we could open just one joint account to link HSBC in London to HSBC in Kuala Lumpur. We already have our own account savings in our own countries - we just wanted to open up a wedding pot fund to see our wedding savings grow - that is all
:j

eDicky

AG_222 wrote: »

there is a zero transfer fee globally.

No fee, but don't forget the ~3% cost of their exchange rate margin when the transfer involves currency conversion.

AG_222

eDicky wrote: »

No fee, but don't forget the ~3% cost of their exchange rate margin when the transfer involves currency conversion.

Really? Say I open the account in London, my fiance's exchange rate will be bad?

bigadaj

AG_222 wrote: »

Really? Say I open the account in London, my fiance's exchange rate will be bad?

Yes there a loading in ex ding ringgit to to sterling and vice versa.

Currency brokers are cheaper than banks but obviously you won't be able to Ho,d a joint account, banking has a cost and someone needs to pay for it.

AG_222

bigadaj wrote: »

Yes there a loading in ex ding ringgit to to sterling and vice versa.

Currency brokers are cheaper than banks but obviously you won't be able to Ho,d a joint account, banking has a cost and someone needs to pay for it.

Noted, so what's your best advice on opening up a "wedding fund pot" in one spot?

eDicky

AG_222 wrote: »

Noted, so what's your best advice on opening up a "wedding fund pot" in one spot?

Where are you planning to have the wedding expenses?

AG_222

eDicky wrote: »

Where are you planning to have the wedding expenses?

The solemnization will be in Kuala Lumpur but would like to do a small reception in London with friends and family.