Just under a year ago I received a notice stating my UK bank account was being closed for regulatory reasons. This was a complete shock and curve ball I was not expecting having had my UK bank account since 1994 so a good 30 years up to that point.
Since then I opened a Revolut bank account which up till last week Friday was only online and not a real bank account like we know what bank accounts are. I have mentioned before I have experienced no problems and have been happy with the services provided. Now Revolut is an official regulated bank account based in the UK it offers me the ability to store funds offshore which is important when you are dealing in a depreciating currency like Rands and do not want to hold any value internally in South Africa. the Rand is not going to increase in value so holding Rands locally is not ideal and is actually very stupid. Doing a post on this topic actually helps my clarity on what I need to do putting ideas down on paper or typing it out.
The majority of offshore bank accounts required a minimum deposit of £100K which is approximately $134K and I did not have that amount lying around. Things have changed slightly as granny found a pension fund that the company stopped a few years ago which owes her a substantial amount which we thought was not a thing and turns out it actually is.
Now with the Durban house going to market within the next month and should fingers crossed sell quickly funds need to be moved abroad and I need to look in to this offshore banking again and the £100K is no longer a barrier. There are a couple of other options like NatWest only asking for a £25K minimum balance, bit then the APR being offered will be that much lower so it is a non starter really.
I know here my head is swaying by keeping the Revolut for every day use plus the 3.86% savings option for £120K which is far better than all the others unless you have millions and those offer 4% so only 0.14% more than Revolut. The idea is now to have two other offshore bank accounts with one in Jersey and one other in Dubai.
The arrival of some funds has created a good problem that needs to be sorted as Dubai was going to be solely used as a crypto off ramp. These new funds will allow for Dubai and Jersey to happen ahead of time which means the off ramp will be ready and in place for when it is required and not rushed and done at the last minute.
A Dubai bank account not offering a high APR being only 1% is actually ok as the savings on the tax free crypto makes up and more for that shortfall. Sending crypto money to the Revolut account would only trigger the obvious problems and this needs to be avoided at all costs. I am not certain what questions would be asked by a Jersey offshore account like source of funds so there is also risk sending crypto funds that side as well so pension payouts or a house sale would be ideal for this only as proof of funds can be given.
Over the next few weeks I will spend time researching off shore accounts again cherry picking the ideal account that suits my needs. Dubai the research has already been done and will contact my contact at the branch I visited in October last year. This may require a trip to Dubai in the next 3 or 4 months which is fine as I would like to finalise my crypto off ramp ahead of time.
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