Opening an account in the UK offshore islands

This is a brief introduction to the main options that are available to you if you would like to open an account in one of the UK offshore islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man and Guernsey).

The usual options for opening a non-resident account in most countries involves opening a brokerage account with a linked bank account but such accounts do not exist in the UK at present. Therefore if you want a UK account it is simplest to approach the banks operating in the offshore islands as they are more accustomed to dealing with foreigners.

These accounts all operate within the UK clearing system ie cheques written from them are accepted as normal UK cheques would be and likewise for electronic payments.

There are basically four main offshore banks that cater for non-residents:

The Co-Operative Bank operates from Guernsey. This is similar to a savings & loan type bank. Not one of the largest banks in the UK by any means but they do offer a fairly complete range of services. If you do not need a chequebook, the Pathfinder account works pretty much as a checking account. It comes with a Visa debit card and you can do automated payments to & from it. Minimum opening balance is £1000 but you don't need to keep it at that level. The downside with the co-op for you is that they only do sterling (pound) accounts.

Very popular is the Santander International Gold account. This is widely used by expats and offers accounts in pounds, dollars and euro. Minimum balance is £5000/$7500/EUR7500 though. Below those balances they will charge you £10/month to maintain the account. Santander are a high street bank in the UK.

Equally popular is Singer & Friedlander. Popular with expats and also offering similar facilities to the Santander account and with the £5000 minimum. They are a little hazy on their charges if you drop below the £5000: there does not appear to be a charge but it also does not specifically say that there is no charge either. This is an investment bank and does not have normal branches in the UK.

Not so popular but possibly more useful is HSBC Offshore. This has a £5000 minumum balance and charges £25/month if you do not have over £25,000 on deposit with them. The big plus point with this one is that they operate in a large number of countries around the world and are very much into international transfers. If you qualify for their Premier service in your own country this is the one to go for as you will be able to do free transfers between your accounts in different countries.

Finally there is Investec. However, that has a £20,000 minimum which is a little high for most people.