How do foreign banks compare?

liamcov

I would be interested in hearing how foreign banks compare with the UK in terms of interest, cash back, perks (cinema vouchers) etc? Currently I think the top current account is 2% on £1,000 and savings accounts around 1-1.5%

Does anyone have any experience of US/European/Asia accounts?

Malkytheheed

UK Banks are among the best for their offering. In lots of countries you have to pay for your bank accounts. 

Credit card facilities however are much better in for example the US where you can easily get 1-5% cashback on purchases and other bonuses, points and incentives.

I have both in both and prefer banking (current accounts) in the UK but prefer my US credit cards. Swings and roundabouts. 

Thrugelmir

In the UK current account banking is generally free. Not a model adopted freely elsewhere around the globe. 

Daliah

I have a Euro current account with DKB, second largest retail bank in Germany with 4.5m customers, wholly owned by the Bayerische Landesbank (Bavarian State Bank).

It is free of charge, comes with €100,000 deposit guarantee, pays 0% interest, overdraft rate is 6.58% (six point five eight), online and app banking, SOs, DDs, and has both, a VISA cash card (similar to debit card) and a free VISA credit card. The credit card gets automatically paid off from the current account each calendar month. General incoming and outgoing transactions (salary, bill payments, one-off payments) are free of charge within the SEPA area. No charge for ATM use worldwide with the credit card but strangely, they charge for using the cash card abroad. Cash deposits incur a fee

There are several optional chargeable add-ons to the current account - ranging from gizmos like personalised credit card to travel insurance to paper statements and so on. They also charge for lost card replacements and forgotten PINs. Their list of charges is as long as your arm and quite confusing but if you just use the account for everyday transactions, it's entirely free. No cashback schemes on credit card or other spending, nor any other reward schemes.

The same bank also offers several savings accounts, ranging from 0.001% (zero point zero zero one) to 0.20% interest. Deposits over €50,000 Euros incur a 0.5% deposit charge. The bank also offers a free investment account, in which you can hold any number of national or international funds or shares. You can DIY your investment, or you can optionally use their chargeable broker service. 

Raisin are offering pan-EU savings accounts to EU residents. Instant access rates seem to be max 0.16% at present. 1 year = 0.82%, 2 years 1.13%, 3 years 1.23%, 4 years 1.31%, 5 years 1.24%, 10 years 1.2%. 

I haven't looked into how loan and mortgage rates, inflation, or cost of living compare but I know that petrol and diesel is cheaper than in the UK, and that there are no queues at petrol stations, or empty shelves in supermarkets, despite a general driver shortage ;-)

Alex9384

Some countries don't even have FasterPayments yet. So you send money to a different bank on Friday and it will arrive on Monday or even Tuesday sometimes. If you want an express payment, you have to pay for it, I think 10 euro or so.
Bank accounts have a monthly fee and the "perk" is when this fee is reduced to half or less, for some minimum debit card spending, etc.

If a won a lottery and wanted to move back to my home country, I would still like to keep all my UK accounts and credit cards. Or maybe I would buy one house here and another one there and don't just live in one place all the time.

Malkytheheed

Alex9384 said:

 Or maybe I would buy one house here and another one there and don't just live in one place all the time.

Now you're thinking!

Sensory

I’ve had experience with current accounts in the UK, US and Hong Kong.

The US is the worst. Domestic wire/bank transfers cost money to send ($20-$30) and even receive ($0-$20), and cash withdrawals cost money as standard (unless it’s from your own bank). There’s a reason why cheques were/are so strong. All the things we take for granted like cycling money to fulfil monthly bonuses and switch offers are non-existent. 

Hong Kong isn’t as bad, but there aren’t many ‘free’ perks. It was also challenging to find a free basic account, with my initial attempts being only shown fee-based accounts with very little benefits. Apparently an ATM card is a perk for paying an account fee! This was HSBC about 20 years ago.

UK current accounts are the best I’ve experienced.