hi there
ok , i can give a few pointers as regards openning a bank account in northern ireland
i opened one in the past three days via HSBC in thier branch in portadown
they are one of the few banks who allow uk non residents to open accounts
upside = they allow you to open accounts in euro , american dollar and of course sterling , thier offshore department ( entirely seperete ) allows up to a dozen currency accounts
on the downside , thier managment fees and currency transaction charges are very steep , 8 pound per month just to keep an account open an 17 pound for every tranaction made beit online or otherwise but where they really screw you is on the exchange rate they provide you on currency exchange and transactions
foolishly , i didnt make a transaction from my bank of ireland account in sterling , i transfered in euro and left it up to hsbc to make the changeover into sterling , i transfered a sum of just shy of 50 k euro and ended up loosing a few hundred quid by not allowing bank of ireland to change into sterling 1st , put it this way , the market rate today for euro v sterling today was one euro buys 85 pence , now the banks never give that good a deal so bank of ireland were offering 83 pence to the euro , guess what hsbc were offering , 79 pence to the euro
seriously , be absolutley sure when you make a transfer , you change your money into sterling ( or dollars if its a dollar account you open ) on the irish side , that is houw hsbc make thier real money
p.s
interest rates on savings with hsbc saver are as follows
sums under 50 k = one year = 2.9 %
sums over 50 k = one year = 3.1%
sums over 50 k = two year = 3.5% ( i think )
pps , i think a better idea might be to open a dollar account in hsbc as if ireland goes down , the british pound will undoubtabley suffer