Open an offshore bank account online

Opening an Offshore Bank Account Online is Possible

The world has become quite a scary place to live over the last few decades. Wars break out, civil unrest takes place, national governments go bankrupt, extremist groups come to power, pandemics occur¦ We hate to say it but you never know what's going to happen tomorrow wherever you live. Psychologists recommend that you should remain optimistic at all times and try to stay in a good mood. Well, they are probably right but we believe it's more reasonable to rely on the following old saying: hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Reasons to open a foreign bank account

If you have some wealth to protect, you have to take some extra measures to protect it in today's world. Do you keep all your money in one bank account in your home country? If so, do you think it's perfectly safe? You'd better think again because the most powerful economies break down on a regular basis. If the Government of your country finds itself in dire straits, your account may well be frozen or the amount of money that you can withdraw may be limited severely. This is exactly what happened in Cyprus “ an EU member state, by the way “ only a few years ago.

At this point, we would like to remind you about one more well-known saying: don't put all your eggs in one basket. If you open an account with another bank located in a foreign country, you will feel much safer. It would be an even better idea to set up two foreign bank accounts: one in Europe, for example, and one in an offshore jurisdiction. This is the first compelling reason to open a foreign bank account: for the sake of your asset security because whatever happened in Cyprus is a long story. Still, it doesn't mean Europeans don't value others' hard-earned money. For instance, bummelwelt is one site that tells how to save money with codes and discounts. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe, and www.bummelwelt.de is a German-based company that deals with big brands and allow its customer to spend less and save more. This article is all about securing your money.

Another reason why you should open an offshore bank account is the opportunity to extend your entrepreneurial horizons greatly. When you have a bank account in a foreign country (or two) and keep part of your money in a foreign currency (or two), your business possibilities will become much wider. For one thing, you will be protected from exchange rate fluctuations and you won't have to lose money when visiting a foreign country and exchanging one currency into another. More importantly, however, you will have a much larger choice of investment options.

Suppose, you'd like to invest in real property in Portugal. This investment opportunity can be especially attractive because the Portuguese authorities grant legal residence permits to foreign investors bringing in sufficient sums of money. This is called ˜a golden visa program' but it requires that the payment for the property should be made from a Portuguese bank account. If you want to diversify your assets by making investments at home, then a bank account in your home country will suffice. If you'd like to diversify your assets geographically too, you need a foreign bank account to make foreign investments.

One more attractive option to consider (if you are a wealthy individual) is setting up an investment account with a Swiss bank. Swiss banks are best known for their security and the top quality of banking services that they provide. However, they can also be good at growing your wealth. Or better still, put some money (like a million francs or more) in a Swiss bank, hire an external asset manager and they will bring you a substantial and stable passive income year after year. All in all, foreign bank accounts will make you much more flexible if you are after making investments.

Open a foreign bank account online

You might be thinking ˜The advantages of having a foreign bank account are quite evident but setting one up is so difficult¦' No, it is not! Things have changed immensely over the last decade when online business banking has become widely available. If you are a grown-up person, you must remember the days when you had to go to the bank or at least make a telephone call if you wanted to make a transaction. You don't have to do so anymore, you don't even have to talk to anybody to perform a financial operation! Turn on your computer, log on to your bank's website, make a few clicks and there you go. Or simply use your smartphone that has a mobile banking application.

What is more, you can set up a new bank account from the comfort of your ¦ office chair. All banks have websites these days and it is quite possible to open an account online. If you'd like to open a bank account in the country of your citizenship and residence, you could do it without anybody's assistance in all likelihood. Well, the bank managers can help you if they have to.

When it comes to opening a bank account in a foreign country, however, things work a bit differently. Certainly, foreign banks will have their websites and a vast majority of banks will have English-language pages even if they are located in non-English-speaking countries. All large Swiss banks, for example, provide services in English as well as a number of other national languages. But there are still some potential obstacles that you probably would not be able to overcome without some professional assistance.

First, some banks that do provide for the opportunity to open accounts with them online choose not to make the opportunity publicly known. If you log on to their websites, you simply won't find any links to online account opening pages. Second, even if the online account opening service is advertised on the webpage, there is often not enough information about it. The instructions may be unclear or incomplete and your attempts to open an account online by yourself are likely to bring you nothing else but frustration. Third, some banks like to have their new customers introduced to them by somebody they know. Thus, if you introduce yourself to a reliable intermediary company, its staff can introduce you to the foreign bank(s) they have been working with.

Best countries to open foreign bank accounts

What are the best countries to open offshore bank accounts? This depends on what you are looking for, on the sort of benefits that you would like to reap from banking abroad. If you'd like to minimize the chances of service denial, you should look at such jurisdictions as Belize, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and some other island states in the Caribbean. The banking services provided in the region are of good quality and the bank administrators are not too choosy when it comes to taking new clients aboard. You might have some trouble transferring money from some offshore banks to certain jurisdictions but there exist some smart ways to overcome such problems.

It may also be a good idea to consider some Caribbean jurisdictions that are not exactly independent countries but autonomous regions of European countries. Curacao, for example, is officially a Dutch territory but the local legislation is quite different from that in the Netherlands and the island is well known for the offshore banking services that you can find there. The Cayman Islands is a British overseas territory but again, it enjoys a high level of autonomy from the UK. Some experts refer to the Caymans as a tax haven and they have reasons to make such a claim. A large number of American and British citizens have bank accounts there.

If you are looking for a jurisdiction that is a bit more reputable than the ones mentioned above, give an eye to Panama or Costa Rica, for example. Panama has close economic and political ties with the USA: a great number of American retirees relocate to Panama to spend their golden years there and the US dollar is an official currency in the country. As far as Costa Rica is concerned, it is even more closely associated with the United States and its banking system is actually integrated with the US banking system. That is to say, setting up an account in a Costa Rican bank is very much like setting one up in a US bank.

We would also like to bring to your attention such Asian jurisdictions as Singapore and Hong Kong. Both places are thriving and both of them are extremely popular with foreign entrepreneurs who register companies and set up bank accounts in the countries to gain access to the attractive tax incentives that are available there. (Hong Kong is not an independent country but it is largely autonomous from mainland China. Business works by pretty much the same principles as it did when Hong Kong was a British colony.) We would like to note, however, that opening an offshore bank account in Hong Kong or Singapore is going to be a much more challenging task in terms of due diligence procedures.

Speaking about European countries where you can bank, Switzerland is probably the first country to consider if you want to have a bank account in a highly reputable jurisdiction. Besides, countries such as Liechtenstein, Germany, and Portugal, among others, are also worth paying attention to.