But, that bank's advertised savings accounts say they're only for UK residents.
Anyone know of any good savings option for a Swiss resident with money already in the UK ?
I'm a UK citizen and have a current account in the UK with one of the big banks as I rent out my house in the UK. It would make sense to move some of money into a savings account given that they're paying 5% interest.
I would just ask them to open a savings account. I bet they don’t bother the check.
When I opened online banking with my UK bank 20 years ago, the first stipulation was that you were a UK resident. Part of the approval system was to phone me in Switzerland, which they did. No mention was made of residency and I’ve been happily banking online since...
Interactive Brokers pays 4.45% on cash over 8k, and it is not even a savings account, i.e. it is fully liquid: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/e…rest-rates.php
The problem with doing that kind of thing is that it could get flagged for potential money laundering and if it gets frozen you are missing one of the most basic it’s an address verifiable by a police call to the the address. And that means it could take a considerable time to get your hands on your funds again.
Twenty years ago was a very different world when there was little concern about MLA and funding terrorists.
I think the Skipton Building Society offers savings accounts for non UK residents in GBP. I don’t have one myself but just came across them a while ago.
https://www.skiptoninternational.com…ings-accounts/
As mentioned in the previous posts, I’d be wary of giving a false address or using a UK address to open an account. Best look for a dedicated expat savings account for non residents.
In Australia I had a "Term deposit account" but the interest went down to 0.5%. So I closed it. Now they offer 5% but they wont open a new account for me because I am not an Aussie resident. Stupid of me to have closed the account. I already have a savings account with the same bank. I think they regard ex-aussies as some kind of undesirables
Not just Aussies. UK banking customers being hit as well.
You can have a savings account if not resident, but not a Building Society one.
Yeah, I’m not gonna just wing it and try to open something I ‘shouldnt’. I’m a bit involved in how ML is being used to spot ‘things’ and that would stand out.
Being a good EFer I have kept looking around. It seems one simple path would be to open a Revolut account in GBP, transfer into it from my UK current account and then open a Revolut ‘vault’. But… they’re really fluffy on the details about where the money goes and how much interest gets paid.
https://www.revolut.com/savings-account-vault/
Anyone have ‘Vault’ feedback ? Is a Vault country specific ?
btw the Skipton savings products are through their ‘international’ subsidiary and you need to put in at least 25k gbp(other banks have similar subsidiaries) which is a bit higher than I was thinking about
I've been opening and using UK accounts for years with no problems at all. Opened another one just last week with 5%. I own a house in the UK. It depends on your attitude to 'doing the right thing'. What I don't do is open or add to ISAs. I believe the issue is the banks are required to provide account info to your countries of tax residency.
Just because you managed to get around the rules, does not mean it is a good idea and as for "doing the right thing", I'd be more concerned about trying to convince the investigators (not the bank) that I was not in breech of MLA and please can I have my money back in a reasonable amount of time (say two years....)
The issue for the banks is that since BREXIT they are not longer entitled to offer you financial services. And since the sanctions are high for doing so, they will toss you under the bus if it comes down to it.
There are lots of opportunities to have a Sterling account if you want with taking on any risks to so.
Exactly, we own property in the UK too, but it was made very clear to us that Higher interest Building Society accounts were for UK residents only.
National Savings and Investments are offering some good interest rate investments for non resident non domiciled savers
(with existing UK bank accounts)
The good thing about ns&i, if you're so wealthy, is that *all* of your savings are protected.
They offered great rates a number of years ago, got loads of money in (for the government) then reduced the rates to near 0.
[QUOTE=Jim2007;3497870]Just because you managed to get around the rules, does not mean it is a good idea and as for "doing the right thing", I'd be more concerned about trying to convince the investigators (not the bank) that I was not in breech of MLA and please can I have my money back in a reasonable amount of time (say two years....)
The issue for the banks is that since BREXIT they are not longer entitled to offer you financial services.
Except I suppose the ones who do offer such services.
Charter Bank has a one year fix at 6%. It seems you don't need to be solely UK resident. They ask for tax ID numbers for the countries you are tax resident in and seem to allow you to continue to open an account. Same with NS&I.
Thanks for all the feedback. Seems the UK National Savings is the answer. They only need you to have a UK bank account to save money, and they have 'competitive' rates.
This was the recent advice from my financial advisor when I was asking for somewhere to shelter moderate amounts but with a good interest rate. My current RBS account gives me 0% because "you live abroad"" ...
But have been more proactive than many other banks in raising their interest rates recently .. as with everything, you need to keep it under review
There appear to be a few banks that explicitly offer GBP savings accounts (or fixed term deposits) to non-residents. HSBC International, Lloyds International, Skipton, amongst others.
Anyone have any experience with them?