Opening a foreign bank account

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jzt83
Posts: 152
Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2011 12:54 pm

Post by jzt83 »

Wow, INGDirect Australia has a savings apy of 4.5% and 1 year CDs with an apy of 5.9%. How can I get in on that as an American?


BW
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2011 7:05 am

Post by BW »

It's probably not very hard to open an australian account but don't forget there's currency risk there. That 1 year CD probably isn't going to give you a 5.9% at the end of the year if you plan converting it back to US dollars.


aussierogue
Posts: 379
Joined: Thu Nov 10, 2011 1:02 pm

Post by aussierogue »

just about every term deposit account here is bewteen 4 and 5 pct for 12 months..
i have 320k earning 4.7 pct as we speak
re currency..
there is also every chqance it could go the other way too. Many are prediciting the aud to grow signiciantly against the usd. Its already up 30 pct over the last 12 months with china and the mining boom showing no signs of dropping and an unemployment rate of 5.3 pct, and the imf just declaring the ozzie ecomony the strongest in the world for all western economies it could be a good bet.
it would actually be terrible for me. I want the aud to weaken because my blog revenue is in euro and usd...
but it does make travelling easier.
as far as getting your hands on some of th action. I could be a conduit i guess - we just need to do it legally...


LonerMatt
Posts: 239
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2011 3:49 am

Post by LonerMatt »

I have so often considered setting up a cheeky method of doing this.


MattF
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Aug 26, 2011 7:48 pm

Post by MattF »

From what I read, we'd have to incorporate an Australian "holding company" with a Tax ID and open the account through that identity. Is anyone familiar with this? Or is there an easier way?
The minimum deposit is 10,000 AUD which is 10,302 USD. 5.9% is pretty nice, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort required. It would be an interesting exercise to increase international business skills, though.
I imagine we could structure the company in a way that would allow multiple people to use it to purchase their own term deposits. Hm, just brainstorming here...


Mo
Posts: 443
Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2010 1:35 pm

Post by Mo »

Everbank offers AUD CDs, and they state "earn interest at local rates for specific currencies", but their AUD CDs seem to offer only 2.25%, not 4-5%.


George the original one
Posts: 5404
Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:28 am
Location: Wettest corner of Orygun

Post by George the original one »

Everbank AUD CDs are shorter term than the 4%-5% CD rate. On the other hand, if a regular savings account is getting >4%, that would be nice!


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