GBP Inheritance - Irish Sterling bank account or UK bank account?

[BusinessFailure]

My fiancee (who has a UK passport, but has been resident in Ireland for years) is going to receive inheritance after the death of her father. All his assets were in the UK, so she'll be getting the inheritance in GBP (perhaps about £20,000).

It seems like a terrible time to convert sterling to euro, so we're keen to keep it as sterling.

Is there much difference between opening a bank account in the UK, and a sterling account here in Ireland? Opening an account here certainly seems easier than opening one in the UK - is there much difference between the 2 options (or perhaps there are other, better options that we are not aware of?)

 

[money_man]

You should try a "borderless" account from Transferwise. They will give you account numbers for a GBP account and a EUR account. You can set it up online very easily. You will also be able to convert it to Euro when ever you want at a very good exchange rate (a lot better than what you would get at a traditional bank anyway!)

 

[BusinessFailure]

Thanks looks interesting money_man. It doesn't seem like the borderless account is covered by the deposit guarantee scheme though.

 

[Lightning]

Is there much difference between opening a bank account in the UK, and a sterling account here in Ireland? Opening an account here certainly seems easier than opening one in the UK

Without recent UK resident documents, a lot, but not all, UK banks will not let you open an account.

Best opening the GBP account here. KBC, PTSB and Investec pay a small amount of interest with some of their GBP products.

 

[Lightning]

It doesn't seem like the borderless account is covered by the deposit guarantee scheme though.

Yeah, correct. More here.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

It seems like a terrible time to convert sterling to euro, so we're keen to keep it as sterling.

Unless you expect to spend the £20,000 in sterling in the short term, then should convert it into euro.

You should not engage in currency speculation. Sure, Sterling could strengthen over the coming years. But it could also drop.

If you have borrowings, you could use the money to pay down those borrowings.
If you haven't maxed your pension contributions, you could use the money to do that.

If you have maxed your pension and paid off your mortgage and you have a portfolio of investments denominated in euro, then by all means seek diversification by buying shares denominated in sterling.

Brendan