I know there are a few others here who also have money in a U.S. Citibank account so I thought I'd pass this on since I just read about in an NY Times article (though it's apparently been available since March). Citibank now offers something called an e-Savings account with a 4.5% interest rate and no minimum balance. Since my Citibank money market account was only earning 1.7%, this interested me right away and I immediately went online to my accounts, opened up an e-Savings one, and moved all my money to it, all rather impulsively. So much so that right afterward I called Citibank on their international collect number to verify I didn't get myself into trouble and/or there are no drawbacks to what I just did. After a number of assurances in response to a bunch of my questions, it looks like this is a pure gainer, so you might want to check it out.

Edited May 5, 200620 yr by Michael W

As a reminder to those Nationwide customers who handle their account online you can open an esavings account connected to your Flexaccount which pays 4.5% (4.6% if there's more than £20K in it).

It looked good so I started to sign up until I got to the part about you must be a US resident with a US address.

I know there are a few others here who also have money in a U.S. Citibank account so I thought I'd pass this on since I just read about in an NY Times article (though it's apparently been available since March). Citibank now offers something called an e-Savings account with a 4.5% interest rate and no minimum balance. Since my Citibank money market account was only earning 1.7%, this interested me right away and I immediately went online to my accounts, opened up an e-Savings one, and moved all my money to it, all rather impulsively. So much so that right afterward I called Citibank on their international collect number to verify I didn't get myself into trouble and/or there are no drawbacks to what I just did. After a number of assurances in response to a bunch of my questions, it looks like this is a pure gainer, so you might want to check it out.

It looked good so I started to sign up until I got to the part about you must be a US resident with a US address.

I didn't read the part requiring residency as actual physical presence but only as sort of a default location. So as far as a U.S. address, I just used the one they already have which is simply a private P.O. box (rather than a U.S.P.S. one). And the business that gives me that box allows (even encourages) you to format the box address as if it were an apartment residence. All my U.S. mail goes there and I simply call in every few months to have a clerk go through it all, the vast majority of which is immediately tossed as junk mail. The few pieces that remain are either opened and read to me on the phone and then disposed of, or if obviously personal or something I need to look at myself, forwarded on to me. Operating in this manner allows me to remain a kind of virtual U.S. resident.

I don't keep a lot of money in my accounts anyways and since they are now offering six and nine month CDs that pay more than 4.5% it's really not too important. It did mention that if you do not reside in the US you could call them. It may be available to US citizens residing elsewhere but the offer is not available online.

It looked good so I started to sign up until I got to the part about you must be a US resident with a US address.

I didn't read the part requiring residency as actual physical presence but only as sort of a default location. So as far as a U.S. address, I just used the one they already have which is simply a private P.O. box (rather than a U.S.P.S. one). And the business that gives me that box allows (even encourages) you to format the box address as if it were an apartment residence.

I hope you are doing this in a state without an income tax. Some of the states, like Calif., are very aggressive at claiming tax liabilities.

I didn't read the part requiring residency as actual physical presence but only as sort of a default location. So as far as a U.S. address, I just used the one they already have which is simply a private P.O. box (rather than a U.S.P.S. one). And the business that gives me that box allows (even encourages) you to format the box address as if it were an apartment residence.

I hope you are doing this in a state without an income tax. Some of the states, like Calif., are very aggressive at claiming tax liabilities.

I'm not sure I follow. If you mean paying state income tax on the interest income, yes I do that.