10 Comments

  1. Yea with all this talk of that Mitt Romney character on tv all the time even here on Canadian tubes even I am intrigued by the very notion of just having an offshore account even if it will remain empty.

    Can you imagine the chicks when you tell them you have an international account. Of course, you hide away your $0 account balance the moment they reach for it :mrgreen:

  2. Interesting article. I like the idea of having accounts in multiple currencies but thankfully some banks and brokers are getting with the times and allowing residents to carry subaccounts of varying currencies.

    The choices are slim though — it’s always CAD + USD. But for the most of us that is all we need. I believe IB and Questrade are the only two discount brokers to allow one to carry multiple. Of course one can also do so through Forex trading.

  3. It fails to point out the downsides to opening an international account. Such as:

    1. Administration fees (ongoing), including hidden and setup fees.

    2. Bank reputation is critical. Opening up any international account like with some frugal online merchant is a horrible idea. One must do careful research.

    3. Currency fluctuations. We are not living in a bubble and so international events and crisis will fluctate your asset holdings if you place them indiscriminately with whoever has the prettiest or best english speaking online presense.

    Buyer beware should always be the best advice.

  4. Yea so the other site’s comment section doesnt seem to be working so i thought i’d just post my thoughts on the matter here directed to a person in the comment section over there.

    To @Jason: And rightly so you should be concerned over the US dollar.

    Although i’m Canadian I was watching a special recently pulling the curtain back on that tax-cheat Mitt Romney and how even he is betting against your currency by placing bets against it in other currencies like the Kronor and Pound.

    Maybe opening an international isn’t a bad idea at all.
    Tin foil hat alert, i know! But better to be safe than sorry.

  5. Still not convinced i would (or should) after reading the entire post. The risk and the amount of time it takes to transfer the funds back (i guess its via Wired Transfer since EFTs probably dont work internationally??)

  6. Sadly, it isn’t so easy opening such an account :$ due to the fact that the tax man will ding you with taxes, at least here in this country. The full blog article makes brief mention of this but it should be put in bold because one can get into serious tax issues if you are not careful (from experience).

  7. For most people the BIG FEAR is the idea that because it is outside their home country that their money is now not secured by Federal funds. For example here we have the CDIR which insures up to $100,000 per account if a bank goes under.

    Would you want to risk putting your money into a foreign account with a foreign accented staff who gives you relaxing words of “your money is safe with us”? 😯 No chance!

  8. I tried looking into this several years back and found that there were crazy amount of restrictions on internationals opening accounts in Europe 😐 And there were also issues with delinquent accounts. 👿

    So if i were to open an account in France and had it dormant for i believe it was 9-months straight they would automatically close it. That’s F’ed up! :s I can’t remember the exact time frame but that was a big put off for me back then.

  9. Thank you! I’ve always wondered about this. I’m starting to save now (19) and my grandfather left me some money when he passed away earlier this year and it kinda would be cool to have an account like that. Don’t know yet. Would have to put more thought into it.

  10. Higher interest rates are the best part of it all. Granted most of the world is experiencing some austerity issues and so rates of returns are not as high as they use to be but they are still competitive if you are willing to sop around the world market.

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