American Searching for Overseas Savings Account

March 23, 2025 11:46 AM

What are the best options for Americans to hold funds in a savings account in a foreign currency? For example, deposit dollars into a foreign account and hold it in pounds sterling. My goal is to reduce my risk if the dollar loses its value/is no longer a reserve currency. Alternately, what financial professional would advise me how to do this? I asked the accounting firm that does my taxes and they could not help or refer me to someone.

My criteria are- an account in a stable currency, an account that earns interest similar to my high yield US savings, ideally an account I can open from the US without having to travel to another country. I could travel one time, but am not relocating.

This is not about taxes. I will not be using the account to make payments in other countries or for international business.

Here are the options I have found...

HSBC Global Saver- requires a deposit of 75k pounds. Interest unclear.
Barclays- requires a deposit of 100k pounds. Interest unclear.
PNC bank US- allows Americans to deposit in a foreign currency and have the funds held in the US. No interest is earned until you deposit 100k.
Wise- deposits are not insured unless they are held in dollars. Interest unclear.

posted by Geigs to Work & Money (15 answers total)

Most overseas bank options for non-residents have very high minimums. Is that an issue at all?

Are you able to take some time and energy to establish residency in the other country to facilitate this?
posted by ananci at 11:56 AM on March 23 [1 favorite]

There are exchange-traded funds pinned to foreign currency, such as Invesco CurrencyShares ETF which have them for euros, Swiss francs, Australian dollars, Canadian dollars, yen and pounds
posted by Jon_Evil at 12:25 PM on March 23 [5 favorites]

Check ask history. There have been at least 2 well addressed questions in the last few weeks.

Apologies, on mobile and can't figure out the link here.
posted by chasles at 12:33 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]

This is not a good idea, this is market timing geopolitics based on partisan politics.
posted by so fucking future at 12:53 PM on March 23 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: I could deposit up to $100k but would prefer to do more like $50k.

Currency fund EFT's do not appear to have something like FDIC protection. My goal is to preserve my assets in a stable way.

I checked ask history before posting and again after I was directed to in the comments. I didn't find anything but might be using the wrong terms.
posted by Geigs at 1:05 PM on March 23

Money-laundering and tax evasion laws make US persons very expensive for foreign banks to deal with, so most simply won't. The ones that do will require large enough deposits to make it worth the hassle -- I'm actually somewhat surprised you found options below $100K. It's also fairly common to have relatively high quarterly fees (e.g., $100 per quarter).

I personally have non-US accounts for investment purposes, and can recommend a European investment bank if you're interested, but they have a high minimum (above $100K) and mainly deal in investments, not simple deposits. I'm pleased with my returns to date.

Also please note that you will be required to file FBAR every year or risk having your assets seized. It's a reasonably straightforward form; I just pay my tax firm to do it on my behalf since they're already filing my taxes for me and this way I cannot possibly forget to file.

Broadly speaking, if the ETFs don't feel safe enough, I would suggest that the hassle of a foreign bank account may not be worth it to you. Another option could be gold deposits somewhere that feels safe to you, since the appreciation of gold can help you re: inflation.
posted by aramaic at 1:35 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]

What are the best foreign banks for US citizens to put money into?

Contingency savings in Europe as a US Citizen
posted by lemonade at 2:55 PM on March 23

Note that the OP appears to be asking primarily for a US bank account denominated in a foreign currency, which is quite a different ask from the previous questions which were specifically about opening an account outside the US. These are very different things: the OP is asking about long-term currency risk, but previous askers were asking about a much broader risk (maybe collapse of the US financial system or direct political interference with their account).

I don't know the landscape in the US, but I suspect it will be difficult to find an account that pays a good interest rate because this is a somewhat niche product and likely not competitive. If you want a good interest rate, you'll probably want to buy an ETF that holds foreign currency denominated bonds and accept the (incredibly small) risk that your ETF provider goes bust in such a way that you lose your money. If FDIC insurance is the most important thing to you, then you might have to accept a bad interest rate.

Realistically, you'd probably be better off with a few index funds that cover foreign countries or regions, if you're willing to accept a little more risk.
posted by ssg at 3:04 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]

Is your income, expenses etc USD denominated? If so, 50k in savings in another currency won’t help you meaningfully. Any benefit of such savings would be limited to the exchange rate differential when you bring the money back. That would be a small single digit % of the total by the time you consider the effect of different buy/sell rates etc. 1% of 50k is 500. And you would have to bring it back eventually because you have no non USD denominated use for it…

When Liz Truss crashed the UK economy and tanked GBP, I had about that much left on a £ variable rate mortgage. My income and savings were in CHF so yes, I paid that off. That saved me a small single digit% amount and insulated me from £interest rate hikes on the mortgage in the aftermath.

If my income, expenses, assets and liabilities had all been in GBP, I’d have repaid the mortgage and avoided the mortgage interest rate hikes just the same. In fact, I’d have made many small overpayments of the mortgage over the preceding years instead of building up more savings, resulting in less interest and lower total repayments overall.

So look at long term exchange rate and bond interest rate behaviour. There were plenty of crisis over the last few decades. The fact that you have savings will help you much more than what currency they are in, unless you actually incur non USD denominated expenses.
posted by koahiatamadl at 5:39 PM on March 23 [3 favorites]

I believe RDC (Royal Bank of Canada) and TD offer Canadian bank accounts to Americans living in America. Canadian dollars may not be decoupled enough from US dollars for your purposes. It has the advantage that they both have retail banking locations in the US in addition to online options. Canadian accounts are protected by a similar system to the FDIC. I don't know what their options for high interest accounts are.
posted by Mitheral at 6:18 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for the information.

My accountant was able to fill me in on FBAR and another form but that would have been super important to know if he hadn't.

One comment recommended gold. I do have about 20% of my liquid assets in gold and silver. To me, the price of gold seems historically high while the exchange rate of dollars to other currencies like pounds seems more favorable.

I do not have anything to buy with foreign currency. My thought had been to store x amount in a foreign currency in a high interest savings account indefinitely and hopefully never have to use it.

I looked into TD when I first started but their local office said Americans could not open Canadian accounts.

I will research ETF's more.

Thanks so much! The advice is very impressive!
posted by Geigs at 8:08 PM on March 23

Currency fund EFT's do not appear to have something like FDIC protection. My goal is to preserve my assets in a stable way.

I’m kinda assuming if shit goes so badly that brokerage firms can’t meet their obligations to investors, it’ll be after the FDIC has already been dismantled or gutted.
posted by Jon_Evil at 7:36 AM on March 24

→ My accountant was able to fill me in on FBAR

While your accountant may prepare and file it, make sure you remind them every year in good time, and are able to check before they file. I've had two acquaintances - who'd been having FBARs filed for them for years with no problems - get hit with penalties because one accountant forgot to include the form in their tax filing, and the other missed out important details.
posted by scruss at 9:11 AM on March 24

This is extremely risky if you have no material reason to hold funds in the destination currency as you will be completely exposed to the foreign exchange risk and nothing to hedge it with.
posted by ryanbryan at 1:23 AM on March 25

Response by poster: Thanks again for all of the advice. I am considering doing this to avoid the risk of dollar depreciation and instability.

My perspective is that the US dollar faces significant challenges. Various factors are causing other nations to move their reserves from dollars to gold and perhaps eventually to another reserve currency in the long term. In the short term our President's stated goal is to weaken the dollar and we are also creating instability through trade wars. If the dollar is going to plunge in value, maybe I should buy pounds, euros, etc... while the dollar is still high

About 40% of my wealth is sitting in dollars in high interest bank accounts, 40% in an investment property and 20% in precious metals. I have a generous pension plan and do not have a 401k equivalent.

Real estate seems expensive at the moment and property taxes in my city are being massively increased. Gold and silver seem high and the stock market seems quite unstable.

If I feel overexposed in dollars but don't see other safe options, maybe ETF's as someone suggested? My elderly mom thinks I need to go on vacation and just start spending the money on myself, but I don't have a desire to travel or to buy fancy things.
posted by Geigs at 5:35 PM on March 25