Advice for a novice, pls

[tapi]

Hi


I am new to offshore banking but at the moment I would like to open an offshore bakn account. I need


- just basic personal bank account


- together with visa electron/debit card


- initital deposit would be rather modest 1000-2000 USD.


- the bank should be outside of European Union


So could you advice me a good and reliable bank with modest service fees. A couple of banks I have chekced take service fees so high that with initial deposit 1000-2000 USD it is not worth it.

 

[coromandel]

Personal account?


Does your domestic bank account have an offshore branch? (e.g HSBC, Barclays)

 

[tapi]

No they dont. The account would be only for private use.

 

[Zqq]

It's a complicated matter to pick the right bank. Are you looking to open the account remotely or do you wish to visit the bank in person? Since this is a personal account, I assume you're not concerned with hiding the account from authorities.


If you want to visit the bank, I would suggest Hong Kong. Reasonable service fees and low minimum deposit with most banks.


Otherwise, take a look at banks in Mauritius. They usually ask for rather low minimum balance and many of them issue debit cards.


There are a lot of options in the Caribbean. Loyal Bank and Euro Pacific Bank in St. Vincent and The Grenadines are very popular at the moment. You can get away with 1,000 USD and less minimum deposit there. The international banks in Belize rarely require more than a few thousand.

 

[tapi]

I would prefer opening the account remotely. Card + reasonably priced everyday (reliable) banking is everything I need at the moment.

 

[coromandel]

I am not qualified to speak on the countries mentioned above but should you wish to use HK then ->


You can open a domestic account with HSBC and then use their international banking center to open the account in HK. Unlike corporate accounts, you do not need to visit HK and you can do all of this without travel. If you are not a Premier customer they will charge you for this service (around £100/120E).


This is, assuming as ZQQ says, you have no requirements for privacy.

 

[JohnLocke]

You can try Euro Pacific bank, easy to open an account with.

 

[tapi]

Any ideas what would be the best banks in Latvia for offshore banking? I would appreciate


- safety


- privacy


- maybe an anonymous numbered account and possibly nameless card but they are not necessary


- reasonable service fees

 

[clemens]

This Rietumu Banka - for business and private banking. Get more from bank accounts, credit cards, term deposits and investments is a very common bank for people to open offshore bank accounts in Latvia.

 

[JamesCarrew]

Just wondering, as you wrote outside the EU, do you know many EU countries do not allow their citizens to have such account? So you might be braking the law by simply opening this account.

 

[Zqq]

Just wondering, as you wrote outside the EU, do you know many EU countries do not allow their citizens to have such account? So you might be braking the law by simply opening this account.

Can you please name these EU countries?