Points To Consider While Looking For an Offshore Savings Account

So you have just completed a full times worth of work with your company and are about to retire. You cannot stop imagining all the fun you can have with your free time. but have you ever considered how you are going to spend your time without being financially secure? You need to decide where you are going to park all your retirement benefits without exposing them to risk. 

Offshore savings accounts are a brilliant means to do this. the good thing about offshore accounts are that they are tax free. You need to find out which countries offer tax free investment options and go ahead and invest your savings in those countries. You can withdraw funds from the overseas account as and when you require it. But you need to make sure that it is not taxed as a capital gain or even as a gift tax. 

There are a number of countries where offshore accounts are tax free. These countries are called tax free havens. Some of the tax free havens include Switzerland, Belgium, British Virgin Islands and Bermuda. Other semi tax free havens include Russia and India recently. These semi tax free havens will only provide you tax free incentives if you are retired and are not earning any income through other means. 

There are a number of things that you need to do before you go about investing your money. The first step that you need to take is to get a list of all the banks that offer offshore accounts. 

The second step is to understand the terms and conditions of the banks that are offering these accounts. Talk to the customer representatives of the banks and then decide what you want to do. Always call the customer care once at least before you open the account, this is important to gauge what sort of customer service they provide. A lot of banks will just outsource their customer care and hence the service might not be up to the mark. But even if it is local, you need to find out whether the customer representatives are actually friendly to you. 

Thirdly, find out what the minimum investment requirement is for the account. there are certain banks that will require you to invest a certain amount to be eligible for the higher interest rates that they offer. Lower investments will only hedge you against inflation but will not make any financial sense. Most local accounts just provide a 0.8% interest rate higher than the current worth of your principle amount after factoring inflation. 

Lastly, you need to know whether the bank will charge you membership fees for your account. Most will do this. If you open that account and then find out, you will end up losing a lot. If you then decide to withdraw your money, you will only lose all your interest and end up paying any fees or penalties that the bank might impose for closing your account prematurely. Overseas accounts will not in all cases provide you with the flexibility that a conventional account will provide. Keep all of this in mind before you make a sound investment which will keep you in stead through out the rest of your life.