Best buy deposits for USD

J

James5

Registered User
Messages
37
Naturally the excellent AAM best buy threads focus on products with the best interest rates on EUR deposits, but where would be the best place to find an equivalent resource for products covering USD rates that are available to Irish/EU customers?

I have some USD that I don't want to convert to EUR until the FX rate eventually improves (to say 0.92 or better), even if that takes time (I know there's no guarantee it ever will & that I risk the rate worsening), but to meanwhile get the best available USD interest rate, particularly given it is currently higher (5.25%) than the EUR rate (3.75% anticipated).

Lightyear offers 4.25% on USD but 'only' guarantees up to €20k equivalent, irrespective of deposited currency. Are there other banks or brokers offering similar rates on deposits to Irish customers?
 
For USD deposits:

Wise.com pay 3.85% via "cashback" product. 20k protected.

Interactive Brokers say on their website that they expect the USD rate to rise to about 4.83% over the coming days due to the hike but this rate only applies to amounts in excess of 100k. Below 100k you get a scaled lower rate and zero below 10k. 20k protected.

Lightyear rate should change to 4.50% over the coming days. 20k protected.

Freedom24 pay 3.00% instant access. Freedom24 pay 5.315% for a 12 month USD term under 100k and 5.85% over 100k. 20k protected.

PTSB, AIB, BOI and Revolut all offer USD access but the rates are beyond rubbish.

Money market funds that track the FED rate is another option.

There are probably other options too.
 
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I am looking at Wise at the moment. here it says "At the moment, only Interest is available to consumers and businesses that are residents in Austria, France, Germany, Finland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden." and this applies to USD and EUR it seems.

But then as Lightning says above, this page https://wise.com/help/articles/b8sVSdAzytqVamfajSirb/how-does-balance-cashback-work implies they will pay interest for any cash balances held in EUR USD or GBP.
So I am taking it that the Interest item I linked at top is a specific product that Irish citizens don't qualify for, while by just holding cash balances I will get interest paid? Confusing!

Lightning if you read this perhaps you could comment on if I am getting this right. Thanks!
 
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I have a temp 60k USD balance with Wise at the mo and they pay me the 'grand' total of approx 135 pm cashback so yes it does apply to Irish residents but not a lot to write home about.
 

Wise have 3 different products which makes things confusing.

The Wise Money Market "interest" product is not available in Ireland.

The Wise UK-only deposit interest offering.

The Wise "cashback" product. This is available in Ireland.
 
LLB123 said:
I have a temp 60k USD balance with Wise at the mo and they pay me the 'grand' total of approx 135 pm cashback so yes it does apply to Irish residents but not a lot to write home about.
Click to expand...
I’m in same position as @LLB123 , have setup a conversion to trigger when (if!) the rates improve a bit. Cashback is 3.85% which is not bad though it’s then subject to 30% Belgian withholding tax.
I’m not sure if I can avoid that … though since the interest / cashback would be liable to DIRT I’ll just end up paying it in Ireland instead.
… though as I write that … anyone know how or if the Revenue differentiate between ‘interest’ vs ‘cashback’ …?
 
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