Having more than £85k savings in one bank account

bluefukurou

I’m a British expat and I’m considering buying a house in England in the near future. Until I have enough to buy, I’m sending all my savings into my UK bank account. However, I’m close to having £85k in my account and am aware that it’s not wise to have more than the FSCS protects in one financial institution. I can’t open another high street account because of my non-UK resident status. I know Barclays offer an expat account requiring a minimum balance of £25k, but are their better options available? I plan to save until I have around £140k, then purchase a house. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

soulsaver

What time period are you talking about?

What is your local currency?

Are you ignoring exchange rates? Or taking a view that over the period in which you'd be saving, £UK will strengthen against $US &/or !!!8364*(euros)

Have you researched off-shore sterling accounts?


*Is MSE ever going to sort out this bug, !!!!!!?

xylophone

https://www.nsandi.com/i-live-outside-uk-can-i-invest-with-nsi
might be of interest.

Reed_Richards

You can get FSCS coverage for more than £85,000 if the money is in the account temporarily: https://www.fscs.org.uk/what-we-cover/questions-and-answers/qas-about-temporary-high-balances/

bluefukurou

soulsaver wrote: »

What time period are you talking about?

What is your local currency?

Are you ignoring exchange rates? Or taking a view that over the period in which you'd be saving, £UK will strengthen against $US &/or !!!8364*(euros)

Have you researched off-shore sterling accounts?

I’m in the Middle East, but my local currency is not an issue because whatever the exchange rate, I get the same amount in sterling if I send it to the UK within a specified period each month. My salary in local currency fluctuates, but I’m effectively paid in sterling, even though I have to do a currency transfer each month. The exchange rate is only an issue for me when I make large purchases where I live, which I rarely do.

I’ve had a brief look at offshore accounts, but I don’t know enough to be confident going that route. It would not be for a long time (12-18 months) and so the Barclays account is the most appealing I’ve seen.

bluefukurou

Reed_Richards wrote: »

You can get FSCS coverage for more than £85,000 if the money is in the account temporarily: https://www.fscs.org.uk/what-we-cover/questions-and-answers/qas-about-temporary-high-balances/

Unfortunately I don’t appear to meet the criteria, but thanks anyway.

patientperson

I found this site but I have no knowledge of them .. care needed.

https://www.dnsassociates.co.uk/blog/open-bank-account-for-uk-non-residents

londoninvestor

bluefukurou wrote: »

I’ve had a brief look at offshore accounts, but I don’t know enough to be confident going that route. It would not be for a long time (12-18 months) and so the Barclays account is the most appealing I’ve seen.

Check carefully on their deposit protection schemes. Many offshore jurisdictions (Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man etc) have them, but would they in practice have the capacity to absorb a default of your chosen bank?

You need to make your own risk judgement of course, but if a default of Barclays in the UK is a risk you care about, the strength of protection of offshore deposits might well be at least as much of a concern.

The NS&I income bonds are guaranteed by the UK government, up to the £1m maximum balance, and pay 1% interest - which is probably better than a Barclays current account! Worth a look.

bluefukurou

xylophone wrote: »

https://www.nsandi.com/i-live-outside-uk-can-i-invest-with-nsi
might be of interest.

londoninvestor wrote: »

The NS&I income bonds are guaranteed by the UK government, up to the £1m maximum balance, and pay 1% interest - which is probably better than a Barclays current account! Worth a look.

I’ve just had a look at the NS&I website and the income bond you mentioned looks suitable for me. The guaranteed growth bond and guaranteed income bonds also seem an option for me because of the better rates. I could spread my money around the different bonds as suggested in the article below. Thanks for the information.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/banking/2018/06/nsi-slashes-savings-limit-on-bonds-to-just-10000