Fixed term bonds for expats

Geraniums

I am a UK citizen living in France. I would like to invest in a fixed term bond but most banks require a permanent UK address. I would be grateful for any thoughts.

wmb194

Geraniums said:

I am a UK citizen living in France. I would like to invest in a fixed term bond but most banks require a permanent UK address. I would be grateful for any thoughts.

Do you still have a UK current account? If so, NS&I might offer you something but likely not great rates. 

https://www.nsandi.com/help/join-nsandi/using-nsandi-outside-uk

Otherwise you're a bit stuck but possibly there are options with banks in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man e.g., Skipton International, Lloyds International, Conister Bank. Note these are covered by local deposit insurance schemes, not the UK's FSCS.

More esoteric would be to buy gilts listed on the LSE via a stockbroker. If you don't still have a UK stockbroker I'm guessing you could find one in France that'll accept sterling deposits* and offers gilts.

*I'm assuming this is all because you don't want to convert your savings into euros.

dunstonh

Geraniums said:

I am a UK citizen living in France. I would like to invest in a fixed term bond but most banks require a permanent UK address. I would be grateful for any thoughts.

Actually, most of them require you not be resident in the EU as the EU does not allow the sale of UK financial products to EU residents unless they have a branch in France (in your case)

poseidon1

Geraniums said:

I am a UK citizen living in France. I would like to invest in a fixed term bond but most banks require a permanent UK address. I would be grateful for any thoughts.

As previously advised to another OP ( living in Portugal), you may need to widen your investment knowledge and consider investing in UK Government gilts.

However depending on how much you have to invest, you will need to source a UK stockbroker to facilitate this for you.

As mentioned by dunstonh, accessing common or garden sterling retail bank products will be a challenge given your non  UK resident status. 

chiang_mai

The residency issue is tricky but not always clear cut. If you have an address in the UK, especially a home that you own (but not necessarily live in full time), you can still be regarded as UK resident, especially if you file a UK tax return.

I have homes and active bank accounts in the UK and Thailand and file tax returns in both countries, I usually live year round in Thailand. I'm currently trying to sell UK shares in Aviva and Computershares Investors has now accepted that I can be UK resident for that purpose. I am also selling my UK home and will want to deposit the proceeds in the UK or offshore, which HSBC UK is happy for me to do. Ditto, Skipton International and others of its type will happily open offshore accounts for me, for the purposes of depositing funds such as mentioned. You may want to trawl through the lists of offshore UK banks to see which ones suit, there are quite a few on the web..