# Safest and Easiest Northern Ireland Bank?



## joeryan (18 Nov 2010)

Hi,
  I want to put 50k Euro into a Northern Ireland bank - because I feel it will be safe there.

I don't care about savings/interest, I only care about safety and ease of access. 

Given the above criteria can someone suggest a safe bank in NI with the above criteria that will let me open an account and take my money?

Does it matter a if Euro or Sterling account? I'm not sure.

Thanks.


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## Lightning (18 Nov 2010)

Does Santander fufill your criteria?


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## joeryan (18 Nov 2010)

CiaranT said:


> Does Santander fufill your criteria?



I don't know but I'm going to check now...

If I can walk in with some ID and open an account it does

Thanks for replying


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## Kev (18 Nov 2010)

CiaranT said:


> Does Santander fufill your criteria?



Is there a Santander in Ireland and where are the branches.


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## Godfather (18 Nov 2010)

Pls let me know if Santander in NI can allow opening of non-resident accounts and I will update the foreign savings accounts best buys for all of us. Thank you!


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## Lightning (18 Nov 2010)

Kev said:


> Is there a Santander in Ireland and where are the branches.



Yes. See [broken link removed]


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## farmerette (18 Nov 2010)

hi there 

ok , i can give a few pointers as regards openning a bank account in northern ireland

i opened one in the past three days via HSBC in thier branch in portadown 

they are one of the few banks who allow uk non residents to open accounts 

upside = they allow you to open accounts in euro , american dollar and of course sterling , thier offshore department ( entirely seperete ) allows up to a dozen currency accounts

on the downside , thier managment fees and currency transaction charges are very steep , 8 pound per month just to keep an account open an 17 pound for every tranaction made beit online or otherwise but where they really screw you is on the exchange rate they provide you on currency exchange and transactions 

foolishly , i didnt make a transaction from my bank of ireland account in sterling , i transfered in euro and left it up to hsbc to make the changeover into sterling , i transfered a sum of just shy of 50 k euro and ended up loosing a few hundred quid by not allowing bank of ireland to change into sterling 1st , put it this way , the market rate today for euro v sterling today was one euro buys 85 pence , now the banks never give that good a deal so bank of ireland were offering 83 pence to the euro , guess what hsbc were offering , 79 pence to the euro 

seriously , be absolutley sure when you make a transfer , you change your money into sterling ( or dollars if its a dollar account you open ) on the irish side , that is houw hsbc make thier real money 

p.s 

interest rates on savings with hsbc saver are as follows

sums under 50 k = one year = 2.9 %
sums over 50 k = one year = 3.1%
sums over 50 k = two year = 3.5% ( i think ) 


pps , i think a better idea might be to open a dollar account in hsbc as if ireland goes down , the british pound will undoubtabley suffer


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## Puesyo (18 Nov 2010)

Personally, I am not taking the currency risk and I absolutely would not pay such a steep fee just to keep an account open neither would I pay such a horrendously steep fee for a transaction. As for Santander, they are actually a Spanish bank. Is it smart to transfer money to a Spanish bank given their current situ? I don't know if they are much better (or ANY better) than us at all.

Has anybody tried to open an account online with Barclays wealth?


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## mmclo (18 Nov 2010)

Putting money in Portadown might be risky...and I'm not talking finance here!


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## farmerette (18 Nov 2010)

mmclo said:


> Putting money in Portadown might be risky...and I'm not talking finance here!


 
yeah you might just die of boredom while passing through , pretty dull drab place


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## Greta (19 Nov 2010)

Santander is a Spanish bank but their UK deposits are covered by the British government's guarantee of £50K per customer.

However, offshore accounts may well not be covered by this guarantee, but by much smaller ones operated in whatever offshore jurisdiction they are based. A lot of British offshore depositors lost their money when Icelandic banks went under a few years ago - they thought they were covered by UK government's guarantee and they were not.

So I really would advise anyone considering moving money into an offshore account to study small print carefully.


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## twofor1 (19 Nov 2010)

I don’t think Santander is an option, from page 3;

*2 To qualify for an account*
Summary: there are a number of requirements you
must meet before you can open an account.
2.1 You must permanently reside in the UK (excluding Channel
Islands and Isle of Man)

http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/StaticBS?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1223407860329&cachecontrol=immediate&ssbinary=true&maxage=3600


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## Godfather (19 Nov 2010)

farmerette said:


> hi there
> 
> ok , i can give a few pointers as regards openning a bank account in northern ireland
> 
> ...



Thank you so much farmarette, excellent infos. Updating my foreign savings thread here


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## joeryan (19 Nov 2010)

*is HSBC in NI covered by UK government's guarantee?*

Would an offshore account (in Dublin) be covered by the UK government's guarantee, in HSBC in Northern Ireland?

edit:

I just called and they said it would be covered by the guarantee

They gave me this number: +44 1534 61600

and this address: offshore.hsbc.com


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## farmerette (19 Nov 2010)

joeryan said:


> Would an offshore account (in Dublin) be covered by the UK government's guarantee, in HSBC in Northern Ireland?


 
offshore account with who in dublin , hsbc in dublin dont provide offshore accounts for sums less than two million quid 

the only option for putting money offshore is with hsbc in jersey and unless you have more than 60 k sterling at all times , they dont treat you that well , also , the interest rates on the various currencys are almost zero , its purely a wealth preservation facility , it is also of course a tax shelter ( although you can declare ) but i imagine tax avoiders will be hunted down in the next few years 

anyway , a bailout is more or less a done deal which means savings are safe , the eurocrats werent going to risk a bank run here spreading like wildfire across the eurozone and too many fat cats are up to thier necks in irish bank loans , pity then that cowen and lennehan dont threaten to pull the pin in the grenade when europe puts the gun to irelands head


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## joeryan (19 Nov 2010)

farmerette said:


> offshore account with who in dublin , hsbc in dublin dont provide offshore accounts for sums less than two million quid


 
Sorry I didn't explain myself very well, I meant that I am in Dublin.



farmerette said:


> a bailout is more or less a done deal which means savings are safe , the eurocrats werent going to risk a bank run here spreading like wildfire across the eurozone and too many fat cats are up to thier necks in irish bank loans , pity then that cowen and lennehan dont threaten to pull the pin in the grenade when europe puts the gun to irelands head



I hope your right, I have over 100k in a fixed term account and I am moving it into my current account, so I can access if and when I need. 
It may not be logical but I just feel safer.

Are our deposits really safe? Even if over 100K are they safe?


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## Slim (19 Nov 2010)

joeryan said:


> Hi,
> I want to put 50k Euro into a Northern Ireland bank - because I feel it will be safe there.
> 
> I don't care about savings/interest, I only care about safety and ease of access.
> ...


 
I have opened accounts in Ulster Bank and Halifax in NI, Derry to be precise. Just made an appointment, turned up with Photo ID(2) and 2 utility bills. Do make sure that if you are lodging a cheque/draft that it is made payable to you.

Slim


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## JohnH (19 Nov 2010)

Was the amount lodged in Euro ?

If you have an amount in Ulster Bank in the republic, does the guarantee cover both the amounts in each individually or as a group.


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## Slim (19 Nov 2010)

JohnH said:


> Was the amount lodged in Euro ?
> 
> If you have an amount in Ulster Bank in the republic, does the guarantee cover both the amounts in each individually or as a group.


 
No, both were opened with cheques made out in sterling. If I had lodged euro cheque, the bank would have applied its exchange rate on the day.

I regard myself as covered by the UK gurantee up to £50k stg in each bank in NI and also up to €100k if I had an account in Ulster in RoI. Slim


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## farmerette (19 Nov 2010)

joeryan said:


> Sorry I didn't explain myself very well, I meant that I am in Dublin.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
personally , if i had more than 100k , id be spreading it around , thier would be very little political flak for letting those with such large deposits go to the wall as the amount of people with that kind of money in ireland in savings is tiny , that said , i think its looking like a bailout is a foregone conclusion , having been stung on a currency transfer with hsbc and having realised ( in the past few days ) the extent to which british and other european banks are dependant on the survival of irish banks , i now regret having moved my 50 k savings , it wasnt nesccessery , as i said earlier , were people to loose thier savings , ireland would turn into iraq over night , law and order would break down , the state could not function and the domino effect would effect the whole of europe , even we had our money moved outside the state , would a country completley broke be worth living in ??? , not much good having money abroad if it results in your home country eventually collapising ,  as someone on another forum said about the phenomenon of nervous deposit holders , once word spreads that people are taking out thier money , the whole thing becomes a self fulfilling prophecy

i now firmly believe that what has brought us to where we now are in the space of less than a fortnight can be atributed to the absolute collapse in trust towards this goverment and thier ability to sort out the mess , had fianna fail stepped down two years ago or even six months ago , a new goverment could be given a fresh mandate and while we would still have faced huge cuts , thier would not have been the same almost hysterical reaction which saw deposits being withdrawn left right and centre , i know this isnt a political forum and i know i may get a warning for this political rant but i feel so sad about what has happened , biffos stuborness and ineptitude and lennehans lies has brought us to the brink , i dont mean to sound like im judging people for withdrawing money , ive done it , i believe that had this goverment had the decency to step aside long ago , the people of ireland would have a more civic minded approach , this goverment with thier cynicism and blatant This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language covering has set an awfull example which has resulted in everyone taking an attitude of every man for himself and to hell with the state


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