This morning I received notification that the savings interest rate will increase on my Revolut bank account. The interest rate for funds up to £120K was around 3.8% and funds over that amount were around 3%. The latest change sees the £120K amount increase to £200K and funds over that amount will receive a 3.51% APR. 4% compounded daily is actually closer to a 4.1% APR as interest is then paid on the earnings as well.
Generally bank accounts offer very little when it come to interest rates so these small increases are definite added bonusses.
Revolut was not my first choice when my UK bank account was closed, but to be honest they are pretty damn good with their services and have no complaints. They have blocked payments they felt were dodgy and they were actually granny spending which was rather humorous and it is assuring they are monitoring and looking out.
These rates are actually very good when you start shopping around with other off shore accounts as they have special conditions attached like locking up the deposit for 12 months.
Lloyds International based on the Isle Of man requires a minimum £50K with a maximum 3.2% APR. Santander International offers 3.75% and 3% and depending on which one you choose is tax free. Most offshore accounts like to have a notice period for you to withdraw your funds with the common 32 day or 90 day applying to most accounts.
The 4% with no lock in time periods and is just an instant access account earning more than most is rather a good offer which the difference is this being standard and not a special.
To give you an idea the NatWest offshore banking was what I have been looking at and to be honest is not great. This was just serving a purpose of protecting my offshore funds and not having them in South Africa which would be very stupid. The future is uncertain in South Africa and the Rand is volatile and is expected to depreciate so holding Rands in SA is not the smart play.
Ranging from locking periods of up to 24 months and only offering 4.35% makes no sense for the extra .35% and the instant offering savings account varies between 1.06% and 1.46% so this is more than 2 x less and is not worth looking at. This all depends what you require and if it is just another bank account offshore at least this service is available. I mentioned Perigon hedge fund in a recent post and funding the hedge fund from offshore is the plan which avoids local taxes on the returns.
Having an off shore account is a two fold importance besides having another currency offshore it also provides the option for a crypto off ramp in a tax haven. I have been mulling over a bank account in Dubai that can then send funds on to wherever there is another bank account. The crypto off ramp has been carefully planned and fine tuned over the last 18 months and these days at least have various options available. These can obviously change and why the having more than one option is rather important.