If you go for a while abroad for work or other reasons, I advice you to keep your local bank account open. This helps you to manage your money and other expenses at home. You are also able to send money that you earn abroad to your local bank account, to save up for a car purchase or any other things you might need or want in the future. By keeping your local bank account open, you’re keeping your credit history and this is very important if you ever plan to settle down in your home country. By keeping your local bank account active, you always can return home and then apply for a loan, mortgage or Visa card easily without any hindrance as you can provide a track record of credibility.
The best way to proceed is to open an account with an offshore bank. Every offshore bank account will allow you to access your money wherever in the world you’re currently staying. You can have access to your money from ATM machines worldwide, you can have access to your account, from anywhere you are, using the Internet or the phone and most banks allow you to have multiple currency accounts however this depends again which offshore bank you will choose. With any offshore account you can easily transfer funds to any location around the world - it’s like a one stop do it all with one and the same bank account. This helps you to manage all your financial transactions within minutes from and to any location.
Withdrawing money from ATM machines can be costly, to reduce credit card and other additional fees it is recommended to open an account with one of the top 5 financial institutions that have ATM machines available all over the world and who are popular around the world. The benefit of going with a more popular card is that it is globally accepted. Popular cards like Visa or Master Card partner with many local banks on an international level. The customer benefits this way of lower charges when withdrawing money from ATM machines. Do not forget to check out the charge structure for the card you’re applying for or discuss this first with your bank consultant and ask which possibilities they offer and make sure that there are no hidden fees in the package.
If you’re an Expat like me, you can take full advantage of the offshore banks to save and manage your money in an offshore bank account and get even better interest rates this way.