savings accounts for non residents

[Polremy]

i am looking into uk building societies who allow you to open savings accounts with a french address.

we do have accounts already with nationwide and lloydstsb but dont really want all our eggs in two baskets (and lloydstsb aren't really paying enough interest in my opinion so i dont really want to give them any more of our hard earned money.

I found Halifax details but again they dont pay a lot of interest for regular savings accounts.

i then stumbled on bradford and bingley overseas e accounts.

does anyone have any advice on their offers?

in particular, i would like to know of any disadvantages that i might not think of.

thanks.

[woolybanana]

have pm'd you.

[parsnips]

Have a look at Nationwide International I.O.M.

[suein56]

And there's Alliance and Leicester IOM as well.

Sue

[Llantony]

not quite relevant, but with the euro doing so well compared to the pound, would it make sense to have a euro savings account?  I know nothing about French savings accounts but, having just retired and having a bit of money for the first time - which will have to last the rest of our lives as pension v small - I wondered.

[tinabee]

One possible drawback of offshore accounts is that they are not protected by the FSA, so they often have a smaller limit on how much of your money is safe - check the small print. Whereever you keep your money, you will still have to pay tax and social charges.

If you want to save in Euros, Credit Agricole have just launched their Livret A account (tax free for French residents) paying around 5.6%