Sterling Accounts?

[Mollie the cat]

I am about to transfer sterling from the UK to the TRNC. When I last contacted my bank about two weeks ago they were offering 5.5 percent if I locked the cash in for a year, they now tell me its gone down to 4 percent, are there better rates out there please?

[sophie]

We got 9 percent about a month ago, but tied in for one year. However we just slid across from a monthly and agreed a yearly in order to receive the 9 percent, What they would have charged if we had been new customers opening a brand new account with them I have no idea.

[Mollie the cat]

Hi, Thanks for that do you mind sharing which bank that was please?

[EnjoyingTheSun]

9% on lire? Must be one hell of an amount deposited

[Stevechips]

I've just transferred a sum over here (inGBP) I'm with C.w. they charged £45 in Ankara then £38.55 (transfer to account charge) no forewarning of charges, I was spitting feathers, sent off a strong e-mail , still no response after a week.
They are paying 3.5 % on a monthly GBP deposit.
Will now shop around for better

[Mollie the cat]

Thanks, CW are offering 4 percent if I lock in for a year. If you find better please let me know, I will do the same.

[Walesforever]

Best rate for Stirling atm is 5.5 from capital bank on a monthly or yearly lock in

Best rate for TL is 17.5 for one year lock in via credit West Bank.

Two banks offered me more than 17.5 but when I went to do it they both dropped to 17.

[Mollie the cat]

Thank you will look at that.

[Mollie the cat]

Can somebody please point me in the right direction of the nearest Capital Bank, I live near China Bazaar.

[tomsteel]

Can somebody please point me in the right direction of the nearest Capital Bank, I live near China Bazaar.

If that is the Chinese Bazaar in Çatalköy. Turn east, pass Erderers garage/supermarket after about 200 metres on the right you'll find Capital Bank- under the gym. If you do a search via Google, all Capital Bank branches are listed with full contact details.

[Mollie the cat]

Thank you very much, very helpful.

[susiesusie]

remember that you will pay 18percent tax on the gains made in sterling. think tl is much less.

[tomsteel]

[quote="susiesusie"]remember that you will pay 18percent tax on the gains made in sterling. think tl is much less.[/quote.

TL interest tax is currently 10% at Capital Bank.

[PortisheadScouser]

Is it not better and safer to keep your sterling in a UK bank account and then use someone like TransferWise to put money in your TL account over here as and when you need it (providing you bank over here with a Turkish Bank and not a North Cypriot Bank such as Creditwest).

[Keithcaley]

Possibly 'safer' - but who knows?

Better? - it depends on what criteria you are using to judge by...

UK Bank savings account interest is running at 2 - 2.5 per cent, so if you can live on that, fine!

[sophie]

Ooops MollietheCat, am mistaking a hand written note from CW bank. What I thought was a 9 is actually a 4. What a blow!! Oh well, you can't take it with you. If I've read their web site correct just now, it's looking even worse. And here's me thinking Dollars would be nice and they're no better.

[Thomas]

Hi Molly

Try Capital bank

Cheers

Thomas

[MoonageDaydream]

You might b better changing the Sterling into Euros and paying it into a North Cyprus Euro account.
That way you will protect yourself against further drops in the value opf sterling, and if you need to go shopping in the south you can just withdraw some money without worrying about exchange rates!

[Mollie the cat]

Is anyone on here with Capital Bank please? The reason I ask is that they have offered a very good rate for Sterling. Is it one of the safest banks here or are they all much of a muchness?

[helendj]

Years ago when we actually had some money we opened accounts with Near East bank. What they did advise us to do at the time was to open our accounts with a maximum of £20000 per account, which would keep that amount safe.
In other words divide your capital into £20000 accounts ie however many separate accounts you would need for your capital.
Hope this helps

[compass]

We were given the same advice as helendj but............... were told it was 20,000 Euros!!!

So we keep each acc. below approx £17000. Lets hope and pray the day never comes when we have to test this "guarantee"...

I have some in Capital and assume! its about as safe as most Cypriot banks on the island although I think Credit West is possibly the safest, in my humble opinion.... And they have an independent rating of A++ or A+ which I haven't seen any other local banks claiming.

Turkish mainland banks had the reputation of being safer but the way things are going over there I'm not so sure these days.

Compass

[ljarvo]

I think the Turkish Banks are safer for major deposits - particularly Garanti who is partly owned by BBVA.

I did check with Garanti today and the sterling rate isn’t good at all only 0.40 but I have decided to leave my sterling there.

[Chriswright03]

Just to confirm it is 20000 Euros and not GBP.

[justsayin]

We were told that all banks here used to be audited every 6 months to ensure they were not approaching or in financial difficulties. But now it's every 2 months. Allegedly insuring they'd be safer to use. Not sure how reliable this information is.

[johnny1]

hey compass
how can you find out a rating for a particular bank? what do you reckon about universal bank?

[compass]

Johhny1.... Not sure you can find this info out . I may be wrong, and surely someone will say so if that's the case, but this is what I think.

All banks are not rated as a matter of course, they have to apply/submit themselves to go through the rating process. And I guess it would only be attempted by a bank that was confident about the outcome of said process....

Compass

[Mollie the cat]

We have just transferred our first amount from the UK to a bank here Capital Bank, fingers crossed lets see what happens?

[Chriswright03]

There is always risk when investing money. If you recall banks in the UK have gone to the wall in the past leaving many in the lurch so it can and does happen. Protect yourself as best you can by making sure the accounts are limited to 20000 Euros and keep an eye on the exchange rate. If you tie your money in for a year you can take it out but lose all of the interest but if you tie it in for a month at a time if it starts to get out of hand you can take it out without losing the interest you have accrued already. I am in the second year of my investment and realised too late that I should have gone for monthly. That has been rectified.

We are still getting a stupid amount of interest on our accounts here and far more than in the UK so to me it is worth a risk of bringing 'some' of our capital over here. All of your eggs in one basket springs to mind though so keep an eye on exchange rates and move your money if you think you need to. You can always put it back. Putting some in a tl account is a far better (riskier) interest rate so that depends on how safe you want. Same rules apply though and it is possible to make the money work for you but you need to be aware of the risks.