Guide to Essential Money Tools

Banking Tools

Money tool - expatriate private bank account

Standard Bank Offshore

If you are working abroad or planning to retire to the sun, an appropriate bank account is an important ‘tool’ to have packed along with the luggage.

However, our advice is to shop around before choosing a bank for your offshore banking needs, or you may miss out on specially tailored services that will more helpfully suit your lifestyle abroad.

At Standard Bank Offshore, we have designed a flexible range of bank accounts to hold your cash in any major currency.

As an expatriate, it’s likely you will have a need for typical day-to-day banking, but you may also want to build up your savings while abroad, and we have created a combination of accounts to meet both objectives.

Our Expatriate Savings Account pays a high-interest savings rate but still permits one withdrawal of up to one quarter of the account balance, without notice or penalty in any given quarter.

Further withdrawals are permitted, but 90 days’ notice has to be given. If notice is not provided, 90 days’ interest on the amount withdrawn is forfeited. The account requires a minimum opening balance of £10,000, US$25,000 or 25,000 Euros and is available as an online banking service.

An extra feature of the account is the optional ability to defer receiving interest until the time the account is closed, which can be helpful if an expatriate is planning to move to a more favourable tax jurisdiction. For those that need to make regular transactions, we recommend that the Expatriate Savings Account is combined with the Optimum Account, a flexible interest bearing demand account, also available online, which has the optional benefit of a debit card.

If the account is in sterling, it’s also possible to have a personalised chequebook. Interest is paid quarterly and an opening balance of only £3,000, US$5,000 or 5,000 Euros is required to open the account.