foreign currency accounts

mr j tayto

i recently recieved a redundancy payoff from my employer and with the recent debate over the euro and what might happen to it as a currency,i was wondering if it is possible to open a foreign currency account in ireland or would one have to be resident in another country in order to open a bank account there? i was thinking of converting my money to canadian dollars or swiss franks, any advice would be appreciated.

UpAgainToday

mr j tayto wrote: »

i recently recieved a redundancy payoff from my employer and with the recent debate over the euro and what might happen to it as a currency,i was wondering if it is possible to open a foreign currency account in ireland or would one have to be resident in another country in order to open a bank account there? i was thinking of converting my money to canadian dollars or swiss franks, any advice would be appreciated.

You do not have to be resident in a foreign country to have a bank account there - swiss franks in comparison to the euro is pretty stable plus you gotta love the fact no names are attached to swiss bank accounts :P

Jim2007

UpAgainToday wrote: »

You do not have to be resident in a foreign country to have a bank account there - swiss franks in comparison to the euro is pretty stable plus you gotta love the fact no names are attached to swiss bank accounts :P

wrong!!!

The Swiss franc is no longer backed by gold and contrary to popular opinion one must provide full personal details when opening an account, even a numbered account. Details are recorded and will be handed over to the Irish authorities upon request :mad:

Oh yes and another real kicker, Americans who are not resident over here are no longer welcome! Since about mid last year Swiss banks have started closing down the accounts of US citizens and green card holders who are not resident here.

EU citizens are welcome, but you now pay a withholding tax of 35% and the Swiss authorities will provide full cooperation with the EU authorities, if they feel there is a good reason to believe you are involved in something illegal.

Of course if you've got millions and lots of lawyers you'll find a way, but it is no longer the free for all that it used to be.

Jim

UpAgainToday

Jim2007 wrote: »

wrong!!!

The Swiss franc is no longer backed by gold and contrary to popular opinion one must provide full personal details when opening an account, even a numbered account. Details are recorded and will be handed over to the Irish authorities upon request :mad:

Oh yes and another real kicker, Americans who are not resident over here are no longer welcome! Since about mid last year Swiss banks have started closing down the accounts of US citizens and green card holders who are not resident here.

EU citizens are welcome, but you now pay a withholding tax of 35% and the Swiss authorities will provide full cooperation with the EU authorities, if they feel there is a good reason to believe you are involved in something illegal.

Of course if you've got millions and lots of lawyers you'll find a way, but it is no longer the free for all that it used to be.

Jim

The swiss franc is less volatile with the euro compared to a currency such as the us dollar - presumed posters would realise thats what I meant.

Wrong, one must provide 'details' to open a numbered account - this only came in after the germans visited switzerland lol

Details would not be handed over to the Irish authorities - the Swiss have zero motive to co-operate with the Irish authorities

The banks sort all this out anyway - you could be living in Ireland but to the bank you could be a 50 yr old woman living in Japan

So they are kicking out all their american customers? Unlikely....if you read this in the media its probably a lie - if your a current insider you clearly know more than the rest of us but then you wouldnt be on boards.ie

Jim2007

UpAgainToday wrote: »

The swiss franc is less volatile with the euro compared to a currency such as the us dollar - presumed posters would realise thats what I meant.

Wrong, one must provide 'details' to open a numbered account - this only came in after the germans visited switzerland lol

Details would not be handed over to the Irish authorities - the Swiss have zero motive to co-operate with the Irish authorities

The banks sort all this out anyway - you could be living in Ireland but to the bank you could be a 50 yr old woman living in Japan

So they are kicking out all their american customers? Unlikely....if you read this in the media its probably a lie - if your a current insider you clearly know more than the rest of us but then you wouldnt be on boards.ie

I've been working in the Swiss banking sector for almost 20 years now and I know the reality from the stories..... of course there is always the odd rogue banker, but they are few and far between...

Jim.

UpAgainToday

Jim2007 wrote: »

I've been working in the Swiss banking sector for almost 20 years now and I know the reality from the stories..... of course there is always the odd rogue banker, but they are few and far between...

Jim.

Let me get this straight we have a CURRENT Swiss banker with almost 20 years experience in Swiss banking posting on boards.ie?

When you say your in Swiss banking working in the bank where the public can see you doesnt count btw....

However if infact you are a proper Swiss banker then of course I would like to know the reason the US are getting kicked out of the Swiss banks? Was this some private deal struck up or whats the reason since im sure they provided a large deposit % for the bank

Jim2007

UpAgainToday wrote: »

However if infact you are a proper Swiss banker then of course I would like to know the reason the US are getting kicked out of the Swiss banks? Was this some private deal struck up or whats the reason since im sure they provided a large deposit % for the bank

This has been discussed in the papers for some time now, so it is nothing new! US reporting restrictions have become so difficult to meet that is simply is not worth the risk! Failure to correctly report the opening of an account and the balances there on, for an American citizen outside of the states can result in the bank being barred from operating in the USA, some European banks have decided to try and meet the requirements, while Swiss banks have simply decided to avoid the risk altogether! It started with the two big banks CS and UBS, but quickly spread to the others and now the final one has called a stop as well - The Post office bank!!!

An American citizen wanting to open an account now, is required to supply a passport plus a Swiss residents permit, if they produce these documents, they will be allowed to open what is called a "salary account" - an account where the person's salary can be paid into, bills can be paid and so on. On top of this they may be offered a credit card and a savings account as well. Investment products are normally limited to a list approved by the IRS (US Tax Authorities) and that is about it!

Non resident Americans are advised to open accounts bank in the good old USA....

It will be very interesting to see what other European banks do....

Jim.

PS - Here a banker => a partner in a private bank, an owner in other words, the rest of us are just workers

mr j tayto

Thanks for the replies guys,sorry for the delay in getting back to ye,but was'nt too good for a couple of days. i dont have much of a clue about finance but from whats been going on over the past couple of years it seems to me that the banks are at as much of a loss as i am. What in your opinion would be the best thing to do with 20k,my mortgage is paid but at the moment i dont have a job.Having looked various "offers" from the irish institutions i am leaning towards an post bonds over 3 years.All advice much appreciated.

turbobaby

if you've lost ur job would you not need to keep the funds liquid or are you happy to lock them away for a while?

why not put 5k into four ETFs?

mr j tayto

Im comfortable with putting that much away because the mortgage is paid and my outgoings are small plus i've alredy made some provisions, as the old job was'nt too healthy for the past couple of years making redundancy inevitable.But as i said at the start im pretty clueless at investments.:)My biggest fear would be to invest 20k and see it dwindle over the next few years,i've nearly lost all faith in the Irish financial institutions and again thats why i was asking about foreign currency.

turbobaby

mr j tayto wrote: »

Im comfortable with putting that much away because the mortgage is paid and my outgoings are small plus i've alredy made some provisions, as the old job was'nt too healthy for the past couple of years making redundancy inevitable.But as i said at the start im pretty clueless at investments.:)My biggest fear would be to invest 20k and see it dwindle over the next few years,i've nearly lost all faith in the Irish financial institutions and again thats why i was asking about foreign currency.

you can open up foreign currency accounts with ,any of the irish banks. Personally I'd go for norwegian krowns but you''d prob want to diversify with a mix of diff accounts. U won't get paid interest afaik

Jim2007

mr j tayto wrote: »

Im comfortable with putting that much away because the mortgage is paid and my outgoings are small plus i've alredy made some provisions, as the old job was'nt too healthy for the past couple of years making redundancy inevitable.But as i said at the start im pretty clueless at investments.:)My biggest fear would be to invest 20k and see it dwindle over the next few years,i've nearly lost all faith in the Irish financial institutions and again thats why i was asking about foreign currency.

Before you can decide what to do with 20K, there is a few things you need to think about:

- Your investing/savings objective, what is it you want to achieve?

- The time line, over what time period do you want to achieve it?

- Your profile, how comfortable are you with accepting financial risks? Many people lose money when investing because they do not have the nerves to stick with it and as a result keep jumping in and out of the market at the wrong time...

No matter what you do it will involve some financial risks, but the key is to only take on the risks necessary to achieve your investing/savings objectives.

At the end of the day you earn and spend in Euros, so why would you want to expose yourself to FX risks, when what you really want to do is achieve a reasonable return on your investment without taking too many risks.

On your comment about Irish financial institutions, I would point out the institutions in other countries are no better: Swiss banks have been hit hard, with UBS alone had to write off $40b in the same time period.

None of this of course answers your question, but hopefully it will get you in a frame of mind where you can make the decision that is right for you.

One thing I will say is that if you are happy with a return of about 4% over 10 years, then I would take a look at some of the state saving offerings as they achieve this at very low risk on your part.

Good luck with that,

Jim.

mr j tayto

Thanks Jim and Turbobaby and all the other posters. I will decide over the next week or so which way to go with the investment.

spankmemunkey

If ive got this right i think the original poster is worried that the 20,000euro that hes got wont be worth 20,000 euro say this time next year if the euro fails and we go back to Irish Punts.

Financial advisors Eddie Hobbs and the like are saying if you win the lotto to put your money in Luxembourg as the euro seems like its doomed to fail in the near future putting us back to a seriously devalued Irish Pound.

I dont think the original poster is looking to invest somewhere rather where to put his money that its safe and doesnt devalue in the event of a collapse of the euro.

I too am in a similar situation a smaller amount however I am also worried about the collapse of the euro and wonder how much it will devalue sitting in my credit union. I am also of the opinion however of that if the Eurozone fails then surely everybody's Currency will devalue bar the Germans, so i think at the end of the day ill leave it where it is, I do hope that it will be safe and be there when i go to get it in the future even if there is a euro collapse.