Opening offshore account from UK
"I think your best bet here would be HSBC.  They will provide the required currencies, credit/debit cards, and very easy to use online banking transfers.  This includes an online ""Global Account View"" which features all of your accounts on a single screen and allows you to ""drag and drop"" money between accounts. Regarding fees, I suspect you will need to be a ""Premier Account"" holder in order to avoid any fees imposed on transactions such as money transfers and exchanging money between currencies.  In my experience HSBC offers extremely good exchange rates when exchanging ""large"" amounts of money ( greater than $10,000 / GBP 5,000 ).  Exchanging small amounts will carry a larger spread but still much better than most banks offer. In my experience, exchanging GBP 5000 will have a spread of about 0.50-to-0.75 percent, while exchanging more than GBP10,000 will have a spread of as little as 0.10-to-0.20 percent. In order to qualify for a ""Premier Account"", if my memory of HSBC UK serves me correctly, you will need to have at least GBP 50,000 net across all of your HSBC managed accounts, including stockbroking and other investment accounts. In order to open a banking Swiss account, you will need to travel to Switzerland and apply in person.  You cannot open a foreign bank account remotely.  With a foreign investment account, I believe you can open accounts remotely.  For example, I opened an account with Fidelity Switzerland using my Fidelity UK account directly from the UK, however obviously Fidelity does not provide banking services so this is not of interest to you. The simplest thing to do is to visit your local HSBC branch and discuss it with them in person. Other UK banks, such as Barclays, will also provide such services, but in my experience they are not as competitive on fees."
"It's generally not possible to open a business account in the UK remotely.  It's even difficult (near impossible) for a non-resident (even if a citizen) to open a business or personal bank account while visiting the UK. A recent report says that it may be possible to open an account via Barclays Offshore in the Isle of Man.  This requires a large deposit, and probably lots of paperwork and fees (most offshore locations have stricter ""know your customer"" rules than major countries). Note that while the Isle of Man is inside the UK banking system (for sort codes, account numbers), it is a separate territory that doesn't have the same deposit guarantees as the UK. There is no legal reason why a UK company has to bank within the UK banking system, although many companies paying the company would expect it or require it, and an account in anything other than sterling would complicate the accounts. It could have an account in your home country.   It's not even a legal requirement that the company has an account in its own name at all.  Some people use a (separate) personal account for this purpose.  There are plenty of reasons why this is a bad idea (for example it's unclear who/what owns the money in the account, and can give the appearance of director's loans), but it's a work-around.  Most inbound electronic payments only require a sort code and account number, the account owner name is not checked. The UK does have a much simpler and cheaper company registry than most European countries, but the near-impossibility of opening a bank account for a business in the UK as a non-resident has made it an unsuitable place to register a small international company." "I think you will find it hard to do. There are money laundering regulations which require you to provide proof of address when opening an account. I don't know for certain if they require an UK address, but even if they don't, it's very likely that individual banks etc will require that. I doubt that they will view you as a profitable customer for them, since you would not be using the account as your ""main"" account. Although having a job isn't a legal requirement, in practice I think it's the only way you can get an account without having been resident in the country for a while. My company employs a significant number of people from abroad and they typically need support from the company to open an account when they first move. One thing you could investigate is opening an account with some international bank with branches both in Hungary and the UK, and asking them to arrange the UK account for you. One example of such a bank is HSBC. However such banks will typically charge you a significant amount for the privilege - for example with HSBC you need a ""premier account"" to get this kind of service." As the offshore planning world turns, the limited liability company (“LLC”) is starting to appear with greater frequency as an alternative to the conventional offshore asset protection trust.  It is desirable because unlike the offshore trust, which requires an independent trustee, the LLC permits the client to remain in full control as the Manager of the entity.  While the typical offshore trust provides the highest form of asset protection, the asset protection afforded by the LLC is significant, and with retained control, provides a powerful combination.  Recently, St. Vincent and the Grenadines as well as Nevis, have sought to improve their legislation by offering superior LLC statutes.  Each is progressive and will be desirable for planners and clients alike. No you will have no problems. It's been fourteen years since I've lived in the UK and I've had no trouble with my UK bank accounts in that time. They have happily mailed me statements and new cards abroad for all that time, and I've deposited cheques by mailing them to the branch. Online banking takes care of almost everything else.  The only thing I wasn't able to do from abroad was open a new account, because of anti money-laundering regulations. Even that may be possible if you presented the right kind of ID when you opened the original account - mine predated the regulations. Most UK banks will also offer 'offshore' banking for non-residents in which interest is not deducted at source. You need a proof of address and also they ask you for a letter from employer. But usually you dont need any of that... there are always correct answers to all the questions, but you still need an address where they will send you your papers along with debit card etc. So need to rent a place or have some mail forwarding service would help. Here is what people usually do in London: Go to a branch of lets say Lloyds TSB that is not in the center of London, use some far away branch, Like Morden or so. Say that you arrived a month/week ago and looking for a job.(not laborer) Say that need your account to send money from abroad to support your living during the Job search. hand in your passport and your account will be ready the same day, while you can wait for your card 1week. Your pin number for the card +2/3days Hope that helps. You could use paypal to transfer money. You can pay with paypal and your UK contact could transfer the money to his bank account through paypal. I just received money this way from the US and paid 9 EUR for this. Receiving the funds is as quickly as clicking a button on the paypal site. Transfering it (without costs) took 1-3 days). It is by far the easiest way. If you are uncomfortable using paypal, the other option would be through your own bank account, where you would transfer using IBAN/SWIFT. The SWIFT bank account is usually the IBAN code plus a branch code. Often it is difficult to find the branch code, in that case you can use the IBAN+XXX. In the latter things might be delayed, but I actually haven't noticed the delay yet, since international transfer always seem to take between 1 and 10 days. The international transfering of money costs, except if it is within the EU region. The way to transfer money through Internet banking differs, from bank to bank. They keywords you need to look for are: SEPA, SWIFT, IBAN or international transfer. Part of the purpose of a tax haven is retaining more capital for reinvestment.  Then you have more control over how, when and where you pay taxes.  Once the capital has been retained in your haven you can strategically deploy it to other favorable locations on the globe.  Should you ever want part of it to hit a personal account in the US you'd have a tax liability.  But at this level you could just put your ownership of that account up as collateral on a loan and buy your boat that way instead. If your parents were resident but not domiciled in the UK and were using the Remittance Basis in the year when they got the income or gains from which they're now lending you this money that could trigger UK income tax and or capital gains tax on the money the transfer to the UK whether to an account of their own or directly to your account. If they were non resident or using Arising Basis or it was UK income then this is not an issue.