There are many advantages to moving overseas. Spoiler alert! Bank accounts ain’t one of them. Or at least they didn’t used to be. Nowadays rest assured expats have options.
Sure, major high street banks in Britain usually require account holders to be UK resident. Worse still, over the last few years it has become even harder for all so called non residents due to know your customer legislation. But don’t worry, that doesn’t mean you don’t have options though because you do.
In fact, there are some excellent choices available. They include a couple of the bigger UK high street names that offer alternative offshore accounts and a selection of neobanks that provide pretty much everything you’d expect from a current account without actually being a bank.
Not to mention the fact that there are some great expat and non resident investment platforms that can provide compelling savings alternatives.
(Business bank accounts are covered elsewhere)
Here’s a summary:
| Name of bank | Account Type | Pros | Cons | Perfect for somebody who |
HSBC | Expat | Household name Local branch No monthly fee | Strict requirements Limited currencies Poor customer service Higher fees | Earns £100K or equivalent Is paid in £,$ or € Lives in a region with a local branch Needs an offshore account Wants a name you know |
Lloyds International  | Standard Premier | Household name Standard account offers an offshore account with lower requirements than HSBC | Strict requirements Not truly global Limited currencies Poor customer service Higher fees | Earns £50K or £100K (Premier) or equivalent Is paid in £,$ or € Wants everything in one account Needs an offshore account but doesn’t meet HSBC’s requirements Wants a name you know |
Monese | Standard Classic Premium | Offers everything a bank account should First neobank to enter UK market Excellent customer service Savings | Limited to Europe Phone app only Not a real bank | Lives in Europe Wants an excellent alternative to the UK high street offshore options Wants savings |
Suitsme | Standard Essential Premium | No credit check / proof of address needed Excellent customer service Excellent usability | Fees for everything Only offers basic banking services Not a real bank Need to pair with expat investment platform for savings & investments | Doesn’t have proof of address Is willing to pay attention to fees Is willing to pair with investment platform for savings & investments |
Wise  | Multicurrency | Lots of currencies Excellent customer service Excellent usability Low fees | Not a real bank Need to pair with expat investment platform for savings & investments | Prioritizes fees, usability and service Is willing to pair with investment platform for savings & investments |
HSBC – offshore banking with a truly global presence
We’ll start with one of the best offshore banks in terms of global presence. It is provided by a UK high street bank that needs no introduction with a long international history.
HSBC Expat is definitely the best known of the options we are going to take a look at. In fact, if you are lucky you may even have a local branch.
They offer a current account, various savings options, investment products and even expat mortgages.
Current accounts are available in GBP, USD and EUR and you can save in 19 currencies depending on which savings products you choose.
To open an account you will need a salary of at least £100,000 or £50,000 in cash to keep in the bank at all times.
If you can meet those requirements and are paid in pounds, dollars or euros HSBC might be worth a look. You’ll be banking with a recognised name and in all likelihood a branch presence in your country as HSBC is a truly global operation.
On the other hand if you receive income in another currency or need to exchange currencies regularly it may be worth looking elsewhere. HSBC can’t compete with neobanks when it comes to price, usability and service.
HSBC receives 1.8/5 on Trustpilot (poor), but to be fair, the really bad reviews tend to be focused on online communication. I did actually have an account with them previously and the service I received was adequate but at the same time I also had a local branch so did everything more or less in person.
In other words, I think HSBC could be the right option for you if you have a local branch, meet their minimum requirements and aren’t focused on fees.
Lloyds international – the perfect HSBC alternative?
Another big UK high street bank, Lloyds, also offer an offshore option.
Lloyds International Premier account offers something similar to HSBC. The key difference being, you need to maintain a balance of £100,000 if your salary is less than £100,000.
If you don’t meet those requirements they also offer a standard account where the minimum funding requirements are lower. But for this option you’ll need a salary of £50,000 or a minimum balance of £25,000 and there’s a monthly charge of £7.50 per month.
Like HSBC, the Lloyds current account will only suit you if you receive dollars, pounds or euros. Other currencies are going to need exchanging and that’s going to cost money. Lloyds aren’t cheapest either.
Whilst Lloyds do have a presence overseas, its nothing like HSBC.
A Lloyds standard account would probably be best for people who want the security of the name but can’t meet the minimum requirements of HSBC.
Some kind of local presence where you live would also help to justify the higher fees and poorer service. Trustpilot gives them an even worse score than HSBC, 1.6 out of 5 (bad). (I used Halifax in the UK which is part of Lloyds. It wasn’t that bad)!
New Neo Challengers
Without doubt some people won’t be happy banking with a company they are less familiar with.
However, tax law changes mean the advantages you used to get from going offshore aren’t what they once were.
And remember, you don’t usually pay UK tax on savings and investments once you become permanently resident overseas anyway.
Of course, you may be liable for taxes in the country you live in, but then again an offshore account may not shield your wealth in that case anyway.
The fact of the matter is the majority of British expats live in low tax destinations these days.
That’s not to say offshore accounts aren’t suitable for some. It’s just that most people are probably going to get a better lower cost service with a neobank.
Typically, you can open an account within minutes, do everything on your phone and save money all at the same time.
Similarly, if you need savings you can just open an investment account. (We are coming to these shortly).
Here are your neobank options:
Monese – is the oldest the best?
Monese is really popular with foreigners who live in the UK but it could be perfect for UK expats living in Europe too. They operate in 31 European countries
In fact, its a mobile banking app aimed specifically at expats. Both Brits and others. According to the company themselves, their very purpose is to help people and businesses bank like locals, moving with them wherever they choose to be.
They were actually the first neobank to enter the UK market. And offer a wide selection of accounts, including instant savers, joint accounts, and savings.
They have three plans: Free, Classic £5.95/month & Premium £14.95/month.
All accounts come with contactless payment cards, multi-currency accounts and built in currency exchange.
As you might expect a lot of functionality is free with the Premium account, but you have to pay for it with the other plans. For example, international transfers are free with Premium but start at 0.5% otherwise.
Wordwide ATM withdrawals are free in the currency of your account up to an allowance in the paid plans but you pay £1.5 for the Free subscription option. FYI the allowances are £500 for Classic & £1500 for premium.
Monese is regulated by the FCA in the UK and by the equivalent in each country it operates in.
They get 4.3 on Trustpilot (Excellent).
In short, Iit is a great alternative for expats living in Europe.
Suits Me – suits you if you don’t have proof of address
Suits Me offers banking services to those who may have a hard time opening a regular bank account.
In other words, they could be perfect for expats.
The keys being no credit check or proof of address required.
There are three types of account: Standard, Premium and Premium Plus.
The Essential account has no monthly fee, Premium has a monthly management fee of £4.97, and Premium Plus is £9.97 per month.
All come with a free debit card and lots of cash back offers and promotions available for online and in-store shopping.
But, and it’s a big BUT, Suits Me does charge you for many services that are free with traditional bank accounts.
The good news is, a lot of these charges are low and many of them become free if you upgrade your account.
The key thing is knowing what they are because as long as you know what they are you can work around them.
An example being ATM withdrawals. These are £1.50 with the Essential account, so you wouldn’t want to be withdrawing small amounts of money three times a day. Instead, you’d withdraw a large amount say once a month or if you need more withdrawals you may be better with a Premium Plus account where you get 4 free a month.
And though they don’t offer savings or investment options, you could quite easily pair Suits Me with an investment platform. (We’ve looked at some suitable for expats here).
As long as you know what the fees are for the services you are going to use, you’ll more than likely have a great experience with Suits Me. They get 4.1 on Trustpilot (Great).
Wise – the lowest cost global option
Most people think of Wise as a money transfer app. And who can blame them. It used to be called Transfer Wise and their main service was transferring money!
However, what less people know is that Wise also offers a lot of the same banking services as the other neobanks. In fact, if you value costs and coverage, it is definitely one of the best banks for expats in the UK.
Wise is one of the UK’s original fintech unicorns and it really has advantages where expatriate banking is concerned. Most importantly, you can have multiple account details simultaneously.
This means you can have actual account details (including UK account number and sort code) in more than 30 countries, hold 50+ currencies and convert and send nearly every currency on the planet at very low prices and that’s without any monthly fees.
Independent comparison site Monito’s research suggests Wise is on average 83% cheaper than the big four UK banks (HSBC, Lloyds, Barclays & Natwest) on major currency “routes”, but can be up to 90% cheaper in some cases.
And according to independent research agency Alderson Consulting, Wise is 19x cheaper than receiving and sending money overseas through PayPal. They offer debit cards, dedicated business accounts, have a great app and online platform and offer really good customer service. Wise scores 4.3 on Trustpilot (excellent)
Like with Suits Me, Wise will probably work best with an expat investment platform to handle your savings and investments.
Safety and security
The first thing to say here is that non of these banks are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the UK. That includes HSBC and Lloyds. Remember, these are separate to their main banking and located offshore.
That said they all do have protections in place. HSBC opened its doors in 1865 and Lloyds origins date back to 1688. Though neither get the best reviews on Trustpilot, I don’t think anybody is complaining about their money going walk about. Though I’d never say never, I do think that if our money goes missing with either of them, we can think of ourselves as being very unlucky indeed.
Whilst the very meaning of ‘neo’ being new suggests we haven’t the reassuring history of the UK banks, we can take reasurance from the fact that both our neobanks are regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as Electric Money Institutions.
The key being whilst your money is not backed by FSCS it is protected through safeguarding instead.
Safeguarding involves segregating 100% of client funds from operations. In other words it is kept at another bank. This means that in the event any one of these companies ran into financial trouble your money would be safe because it is kept elsewhere.
Expat savings
What if you are interested in savings rather than current account style services? Or what if you need both?
Whilst HSBC, Lloyds and Monese do offer savings. The other two don’t, but that doesn’t need to be a showstopper.
Enter stage left investment accounts. Anybody who is looking to grow their wealth over the long term should really be using a brokerage account to invest in shares anyway.
No matter whether you are looking at US, UK or Global, the historic average has been around 10%. And even in this higher rate environment, you’ll be unlikely to get that with a savings account.
But of course, many people use savings accounts for more near term goals. But here’s the thing. Brokerage accounts can provide an excellent alternative to savings accounts in this respect too.
Not only do many of them pay high rates of interest on uninvested cash, they all give you access to money market funds which are usually a really safe way of getting better interest rates than you would on a savings account.
As an example, sterling money market funds tend to follow the Bank of England base rate. That’s over 5% at the time of writing. Much higher than you’ll get with a standard savings account (particularly one open to expats!).
(We’ve covered money market funds in more detail here if you are interested)
And then there’s always the option to just let your cash sit in a brokerage account. Many of them are paying decent levels of interest right now, but Lightyear is probably the best at the time of writing.
They give you the following rates on uninvested cash:
USD 4.5%
GBP 4.5%
EUR 3%
The bottom line
If you are looking for a name you know, get paid in pounds, dollars or euros, aren’t focused on customer service and have a large salary HSBC and Lloyds could be a good choices for you. They are definitely two of the best located offshore that come from the UK originally. HSBC is a lot more global but Lloyds has lower account requirements.
Anybody else should probably take a look at one of the neobanks.
Monese offers an excellent alternative overall. Wise offers truly global coverage and unbeatable low costs and then SuitsMe is one of the best banks in UK for expats that have a hard time opening a regular bank account.