Financial Advice

[Christeve]

Hi, can anyone tell me is it best to talk to an independant financial adviser here in the UK before coming out to Dubai or wait until we get out there to discuss our best banking options? Will people local to Dubai be able to give better advice?
Thanks,
Christine

[crazymazy1980]

Originally Posted by Christeve

Hi, can anyone tell me is it best to talk to an independant financial adviser here in the UK before coming out to Dubai or wait until we get out there to discuss our best banking options? Will people local to Dubai be able to give better advice?
Thanks,
Christine

Caveat this with I am not a financial advisor, this is just what I have picked up myself from various bits of research. One of the Mods on here is though so she may be able to offer some more concrete advice.

It depends what you intend on doing with your money. Do you have commitments in the UK that are tied to a UK account? Will you need to transfer part of your Dubai earned salary back to the UK. Are you being paid locally by a company out here or are you being paid by a company back in the UK for coming to work out here? Do you have savings and investments already linked to UK bank accounts? insert further questions here...

...ask the questions you want to know on here because

1. You'll get some free advice
2. I may have not thought about that question and may want to know the answer too

It seems though that for the most part you can leave everything UK based as it is and open a UAE account that has the facility to make international transfers. HSBC are a bank that operate in both the UAE and the UK who offer this service.

HTH

[ayemax]

Originally Posted by crazymazy1980

Caveat this with I am not a financial advisor, this is just what I have picked up myself from various bits of research. One of the Mods on here is though so she may be able to offer some more concrete advice.

It depends what you intend on doing with your money. Do you have commitments in the UK that are tied to a UK account? Will you need to transfer part of your Dubai earned salary back to the UK. Are you being paid locally by a company out here or are you being paid by a company back in the UK for coming to work out here? Do you have savings and investments already linked to UK bank accounts? insert further questions here...

...ask the questions you want to know on here because

1. You'll get some free advice
2. I may have not thought about that question and may want to know the answer too

It seems though that for the most part you can leave everything UK based as it is and open a UAE account that has the facility to make international transfers. HSBC are a bank that operate in both the UAE and the UK who offer this service.

HTH

Let's hope the Mod is looking at these posts because I could do with some advice too.
We are moving out this month, leaving our UK house in the capable hands of our daughter, and with sufficient funds to maintain the place/council tax/utilities/insurance etc. We wanted to avoid the hassle involved, in opening an account in the UAE, and looked at opening an off-shore account with HSBC or similar but was advised that we wouldn't then be able to transfer this account to a local branch in Dubai - in other words, we would still have the hassle with documentation, visas, passports etc. So we decided to leave it all till we arrived.

The problem is trying to decide the following:
[1] As I will be paid in AED, should we open a Dirham account? Or have it paid into, and converted to Euros/US$?
[2] Hopefully I will have some spare every now and then to transfer into a sterling account where we can access it once the blessed retirement date arrives [3+ years, inshallah] - does this mean it makes sense to open an account with a "global" bank with branches in the UAE, like HSBC or even LloydsTSB?
[3] Within 3 weeks of arriving we need to find somewhere to live, probably rented - do we need to bring a pile of the folding stuff with us, in Dirhams, to pay the deposit/agents commission, or will a cheque drawn in sterling on our UK bank be accepted?
[4] Would US$ travellers cheques make more sense?
[5] Our UK banking is all on-line so we could arrange fund transfers to a UAE branch/bank very quickly, accepting the fact that we will be hit by a currency conversion charge, a foreign inter-bank transfer charge, a how-dare-you-ask-us-to-do-something-for-you charge etc. -- or is there a better way?

Lots of questions, I know, and if anyone out there has the answer to any/all of them, we would appreciate the advice.

[crazymazy1980]

Originally Posted by ayemax

Let's hope the Mod is looking at these posts because I could do with some advice too.
We are moving out this month, leaving our UK house in the capable hands of our daughter, and with sufficient funds to maintain the place/council tax/utilities/insurance etc. We wanted to avoid the hassle involved, in opening an account in the UAE, and looked at opening an off-shore account with HSBC or similar but was advised that we wouldn't then be able to transfer this account to a local branch in Dubai - in other words, we would still have the hassle with documentation, visas, passports etc. So we decided to leave it all till we arrived.

The problem is trying to decide the following:
[1] As I will be paid in AED, should we open a Dirham account? Or have it paid into, and converted to Euros/US$?
[2] Hopefully I will have some spare every now and then to transfer into a sterling account where we can access it once the blessed retirement date arrives [3+ years, inshallah] - does this mean it makes sense to open an account with a "global" bank with branches in the UAE, like HSBC or even LloydsTSB?
[3] Within 3 weeks of arriving we need to find somewhere to live, probably rented - do we need to bring a pile of the folding stuff with us, in Dirhams, to pay the deposit/agents commission, or will a cheque drawn in sterling on our UK bank be accepted?
[4] Would US$ travellers cheques make more sense?
[5] Our UK banking is all on-line so we could arrange fund transfers to a UAE branch/bank very quickly, accepting the fact that we will be hit by a currency conversion charge, a foreign inter-bank transfer charge, a how-dare-you-ask-us-to-do-something-for-you charge etc. -- or is there a better way?

Lots of questions, I know, and if anyone out there has the answer to any/all of them, we would appreciate the advice.

Here are the answers to the questions I do know.

[1] You will have to open a local bank account to get paid, HSBC will allow you to do this before all your Visas are sorted but you won't get a cheque book until you do.
[2] If you open an account with HSBC you will be able to access your banking online and you will also be able to transfer funds internationally to any bank account provided you have the necessary account details. It might be worth finding out exactly what your bank require before you go out. And if you use HSBC asking what information is needed to tranfer money to one of their UAE branches.
[3] Not sure about this as you may have to pay your whole annual rent up front and a cheque gives you a papertrail over a briefcase of hard currency. I don't know how your company deals with this but they may be able to organise a loan of some sort - they will know more I guess...?
[4] No idea
[5] See answer to question [2] Additionally it's a flat fee for the amount tranferred so better to send out a little more than you think you'll need for any unforseen expenses.

HTH

[ayemax]

Originally Posted by crazymazy1980

Here are the answers to the questions I do know.

[1] You will have to open a local bank account to get paid, HSBC will allow you to do this before all your Visas are sorted but you won't get a cheque book until you do.
[2] If you open an account with HSBC you will be able to access your banking online and you will also be able to transfer funds internationally to any bank account provided you have the necessary account details. It might be worth finding out exactly what your bank require before you go out. And if you use HSBC asking what information is needed to tranfer money to one of their UAE branches.
[3] Not sure about this as you may have to pay your whole annual rent up front and a cheque gives you a papertrail over a briefcase of hard currency. I don't know how your company deals with this but they may be able to organise a loan of some sort - they will know more I guess...?
[4] No idea
[5] See answer to question [2] Additionally it's a flat fee for the amount tranferred so better to send out a little more than you think you'll need for any unforseen expenses.

HTH

Cheers sir
[1] will probably follow your advice on this
[2] good point - will raise this with both HSBC and our bank
[3] I had actually just mentioned to my better half, wouldn't it be great if the company said they would cover the initial downpayment and we paid it off out of the salary, or at a future date when we organised the transfer of funds. Problem here is trying to get any sort of comment out of the Dubai HR Dept, who claim they are inundated because of the number of folk they have arriving - but surely this means they should be expecting this sort of query - ho hum!
[4] I think you're like me - conversions between 2 currencies is OK, but factoring in a third and still trying to work out if you are getting value ....!!
[5] Yes - I think we just accept we are going to bite the bullet on fees and charges.

Thanks for the input . Hope the move goes OK for you - is it the 14th you are due to fly out? It's going to be a tad warmer than Bolton.

[Elphaba]

Good morning folks. I think you need me!

I am an independent financial adviser and perhaps uniquely I am authorised to provide advice in both the UK and the UAE. Highly qualified and experienced in both markets too. I mention this as there are too many so-called advisers out here who are neither.

To Brits I would urge you to retain your UK bank accounts, even if they are relatively dormant. You will require a local account to receive your salary ( in most cases) and you should also have an offshore bank account,

Please PM me if you'd like any information/advice.

-