Offshore savings and investment products most certainly have their place and their value in an overall money management planning strategy - especially if you’re an expatriate who can take advantage of the tax free nature of certain products; however offshore products are not always the most appropriate method of working your money…
Say for example you travel regularly, you have high outgoings and income or you just like to keep a relatively large sum of liquid cash close at hand – well then, an offshore savings account with notice and penalties for withdrawal may very well be inappropriate for your needs. What you need in such a situation is a high interest alternative to an offshore savings account, right? But where will you find one of those? Well, read on my dear reader to find out!
We’re probably quite alike you and me – we have a bank account through which everyday transactions pass (hopefully) unhindered, from which a mortgage is paid, a credit card debt is reduced and with which everyday essentials and the odd little luxury are bought. Aside from this there are various long term savings or investments ticking away that will hopefully look after us when we’re in our retirement, but then there’s just a wee bit left over that we don’t quite know what to do with.
Personally if I have too much money in my every day bank account it gets frittered away on nothing, I suddenly feel too generous and treat people who look on incredulously at my extravagance or maybe I don’t watch what I’m spending for a month or two and then before I know it it’s all gone and I’m left feeling a bit ashamed of myself actually!
Well, it doesn’t have to be like that anymore!
There’s a new high interest alternative to an offshore savings account available in the form of an instant access, high interest account for a lump sum of money between GBP 10,000 and GBP 500,000 with a reputable high street bank that pays up to 5.5% AER…now, this is an onshore savings product so you don’t have to be an expatriate to have access to the higher rates of interest and the better levels of accessibility…and what’s even better is that you can discuss it, ask questions about it and get it all sorted out over the phone!
This particular product is available from Barclays Bank – but if you hunt around and make a concerted effort to find a high interest alternative to an offshore savings account you will be doing yourself and your money a favour. You will be putting that little bit extra just a little bit further out of reach than your debit card, and yet when you need it it’ll be there instantly waiting for you to happily spend it.
To me the Barclays product ticks every box – first of all it’s so simple to set up and manage (and if you fill in the ‘yes I’m interested form’ for it the bank actually calls you back so you save on a phone call!), it’s high interest as mentioned, it’s with a highly reputable bank, it’s instantly accessible, interest is calculated daily so if you whack another lump on top of your initial investment at some point you benefit from the interest increase straight away but of course it is just one of many such products that you should be investigating if you want all of these benefits and advantages.
