My G/F and I are planning to visit Scotland next year and I'm trying to figure out how I can set up an accoun in a bank over there to save for it in, since the dollar continues to free-fall. Has anyone ever set up an account overseas and do you have any advice? TIA
start sending me money Cthippo, ill look after it honest... not sure on the specifics but i remember that a friend of mine in his first year at uni had to wait for ages to get a bank account sorted (he's american). + i dont know how you'd do it from abroad rather than doing it in person either... if youre that worried about the dollar you could always start buying into Gold
can you not just start changing your dollars into sterling now, not exactly that safe tho i guess.. you'd have to get a good safe and hide it.
I'd recommend buying gold. The Euro would be a good investment in the long run, I suppose... I only have bank accounts in places where I have family, and visit regularly... This might help: http://www.foreign-currency-uk.com/articles/foreign-currency-opening-436.aspx
I doubt it would be possible to do it from the states TBH. I'm wanting to set up an account in the US, but every bank I have called have told me that I need to come into the bank to do it, so I'm going to have to wait till my next trip to get it sorted. I know where your coming from though - I would rather be able to deposit funds into an account as opposed to taking wads of cash and relying on my credit card.
You need to provide 3 years of uk adress history in order to sign up for a uk bank account online, the sign up forms dont accept foreign adresses (they can enter other them in the branch, but you cant do that online (i've tried it, since when i arrived in the uk i started working immediately and the banks have stupid opening hours)). On top of that, you dont have a positive uk credit history (you basically need to work your way up) so you are limited to basic accounts without overdraws, debit card, credit card and so on. Also since you are not on the electoral register many banks will not accept you since not being on it means you will automatically fail the credit check depending on which credit check criteria the bank uses. To get on the electoral register you need to be a citizen of the uk, eu or one of the commonwealth countries and living in the uk (proof of adress required (aka utility bill). To make things a tad more complicated you would have to send around proof of identity (passport, driving license (stuff like that)) as required by anti money laundering laws. Can it get worse? yep, some banks even require written recommendations from your current bank, some also from your employer, on top of that many wont accept you if you dont have your salary paid in the newly created account all the time. I've lived in more than one country and trust me, banks are really terrible in the uk compared to elsewhere if it comes to opening accounts. Best way to imagine it is two stupid girls working in a supermarket chatting wih each other and ignoring the customer as a corporate strategy, thats about how bad it is. Of course, there are ways around the whole mess with having to acquire documents and going to the bank in person, but those cost lots of money since they are usually semi legal solutions aimed at people with something to hide.
Don't buy gold for christ sake. Listen to someone in the industry not random people who don't know about it. Several things have forced the gold price up not just general economic worry. The chinese being a large producer now has forced the price up as they can fix prices and many more other reasons beside. Gold will not be moving much for a while now. As you can see if you have monitored it for the last 3 weeks. It has stayed pretty static after its latest surge. What you should have done was buy gold when brown sold all of englands gold reserves as it has tripled since! Isn't hind sight great. Lots of jewellers are taking heavy gold chain items to be scrapped as they are getting more for scrap value then they paid for it a few years ago. We made thousands doing this.
Thanks for the info, naokaji. I can "order" (they literally ship it to you) GBP through my bank, but then it just goes into a safety deposit box and gains no interest. I can save the money in my savings, but the low interest rate coupled with the dollar's depriciation means I'll actually be losing money. Sounds like opening an account in a UK bank isn't a good option either. Any other ideas?
could try and get yourself an offshore account in a country that dosnt really care about tax. But then you are still limited to the usual currancy. Im in the process of opening up an offshore account in the Isle of Mann. Handy that its got its own government, but i have to go your way. US dollar account as im paied in US thanks to Halliburton. Tax free tho which is nice.
Don't invest in foreign banks based in the Caribbean. A lot of people have lost all their principle investing in high-yield money market accounts in the tropics. One day the bank just takes it all and their is nothing you can do to get your money back. It does not matter if they offer amazing interest rates, don't get tricked in to opening an account.
