Moving to EU (Savings Options)

Harmonica89

I’ve recently moved to the EU and with interest rates rising I’m looking to move money (pounds) into more competitive savings accounts. The problem is to open savings accounts and hold them you need to be resident / tax resident of the UK. Have anyone experienced similar challenges and know of any savings accounts that would suit me or other options?

dunstonh

Have anyone experienced similar challenges and know of any savings accounts that would suit me or other options?

Lots. The EU decided not to offer the UK virtually any permissions to operate financial services within the EU.   So, unless the bank has a proper branch within the country you are resident (or full EU passporting permissions - which most don't) then they are not allowed to offer financial services products to EU residents unless you travel to the UK in person.

Daliah

dunstonh said:

. The EU decided not to offer the UK virtually any permissions to operate financial services within the EU.   

How absolutely terrible of them. Every other club I have been in let me continue to use all their facilities after I stopped my membership out of my own free will. Don't they realise they need me more than I need them etc etc 

dunstonh

Daliah said:

dunstonh said:

. The EU decided not to offer the UK virtually any permissions to operate financial services within the EU.   

How absolutely terrible of them. Every other club I have been in let me continue to use all their facilities after I stopped my membership out of my own free will. Don't they realise they need me more than I need them etc etc 

How do you explain the likes of China and Brazil having greater access?
Indeed, the UK has the least access of any developed nation in the world.

This isn't about being part of the club.   The level of access granted to the UK is one of the punishments for having the gall to leave. 

bostonerimus

You are experiencing one of the consequences of Brexit. If you are no longer a UK tax resident I would move my money to the EU and use EU based accounts and investment services.

bostonerimus

dunstonh said:

Daliah said:

dunstonh said:

. The EU decided not to offer the UK virtually any permissions to operate financial services within the EU.   

How absolutely terrible of them. Every other club I have been in let me continue to use all their facilities after I stopped my membership out of my own free will. Don't they realise they need me more than I need them etc etc 

How do you explain the likes of China and Brazil having greater access?
Indeed, the UK has the least access of any developed nation in the world.

This isn't about being part of the club.   The level of access granted to the UK is one of the punishments for having the gall to leave. 

By leaving the EU on the terms that it did, the UK no longer has a say in this. The ship has sailed and now the UK has to deal with the consequences, both good and bad. Gall, punishments etc. are meaningless, people just have to deal with the reality of Brexit.

masonic

It was the expressed intention to diverge from EU standards that sealed the fate of UK financial services. There are some regulations that many did not want to keep, and which have caused a headache in the industry. Anyway, one has to look at the deal on the whole, as there was always going to be some give and take. On the whole it was hailed as a fantastic deal for the UK. There doesn't seem to be much appetite for closer alignment at this time. I can't see it being in either main party's manifesto for the next general election.

Section62

masonic said:

It was the expressed intention to diverge from EU standards that sealed the fate of UK financial services.

Referencing dunstonh's post, are China and Brazil following EU standards? I'd be surprised if they were in any meaningful way.

Moving on, Harmonica89 is living in the EU, therefore is 'in the club'.  Hence the logical thing to do - as bostonerimus suggests - would be to move the money and use EU based accounts and investment services.

Thus taking advantage of the greater benefits of being 'in the club' - assuming of course those benefits exist and are sufficient to offset the cost of transferring the money into Euros.

masonic

Section62 said:

masonic said:

It was the expressed intention to diverge from EU standards that sealed the fate of UK financial services.

Referencing dunstonh's post, are China and Brazil following EU standards? I'd be surprised if they were in any meaningful way.

I suspect they probably are compliant with those standards in any financial services they are marketing to EU citizens. Just as banks in India, Egypt, Qatar etc market financial services to UK citizens through UK subsidiaries under UK regulatory standards. In the face of any kind of friction, there is little incentive for any bank, based anywhere in the world, to market GBP savings accounts within the EU, any more than there would be for any bank to market USD or EUR savings accounts within the UK. Very few savers want to hold their savings in anything other than home currency.