Is that only available to UK residents?
Hate to be negative but does anyone remember “It’s an Equitable Life Henry”? And how about the Icelandic Bank? Where, of course all the smart, knowledgeable financial people went.
There’s usually a reason if a financial institution is offering % over the odds.
Sorry everyone.
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Hate Iceland, love France,
Was in a group exhibition at the former’s national art museum in 2000 (unspellable name) one of my three exhibits disappeared and the insurance claim was never resolved, probably lost somewhere in the North Atlantic.
I visited Iceland in 2005 to give a conference paper at a time when the country was booming and was appalled at the price of everything. Back in the UK my university’s finance dept at first refused to refund my expenses because they were so high . Loved the Blue Lagoon. everything else sucked!
Final reason for hating Iceland, a few years later had a paper accepted for the top annual art history conference in the US, got travel funding from the British Academy, got a cheap flight via Schipol, booked a nice hotel in Chicago and then that bloody volcanic eruption led to all flights from W Europe being cancelled. Ended up mailing the conference my PP and text, but then the British Academy wanted me to repay my travel expenses before I would again be eligible for a grant. It took a whole year for my employer’s insurance to reimburse .
OTOH I never lost any money in their banks - just in the art galleries, hotels, bars and restaurants
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So many things to love about Iceland, landscape, geology, and riding icelandic horses across it. And not least of which is the literacy rate, to which one can add their record on gender rights and equality. But the kicker - they got rid of McDonalds. How can you not love the country?
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Here in the Aveyron locals famously burnt down the McDo at Millau.
Hate Iceland, love Aveyron
Will reluctantly admit to having a couple of fine Icelandic sheepskins, but OTOH liquorice flavoured chocolate is a gastro-abomination…
To be fair it’s hardly Iceland fault a volcano blew up, blame mother nature, but to blame a country 
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It is their volcano! 
Both LEP and Livret A are tax free on any gains. You can put up to €10,000 per person into a LEP at 6% interest rate. You can put up to €22,950 into a Livret A at 3% interest. In both cases, the pots can rise above the limit from accrued interest. I looked at all this a few months ago and all UK investment products I looked at had a disclaimer saying that they were only available for UK residents.
Edit: Just looked at National Savings, and they do accept accounts for non UK residents, but you must have a UK bank account. That’s interesting.
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Skipton BS regular saver
I think as hairbear mentioned it is only for Uk residents.
This reason is to reward loyal customers - you have to have been a member since a certain date and also the sum is restricted - you can only put in say 250 / month for a year - so one gets the rate on 250 x 12 divided by 2, so 1500.
Not much, however lots of banks and building societies do them - e.g. nationwide’s is 8% - so get them as they come along and they can build up.
PS I had an Icelandic bank ISA I recall - got all the money back, it was moved to some other bank by the government, I do remember though some local government authorities lost a lot?
The 6.2% 1 year fixed rate was popular and all sold out - the national savings rates will be weak now as they have achieved their treasury set fund target.
6.2% is about 5% after paying France taxes on the interest (assuming a S1) and so 2% more than the Livret A ! Perhaps in a year the pound might have gone up another 2% … but if it’s down by 2% one has ‘broken even’.
Hope you not doing any traveling near Iceland just now Mark 
Iceland volcano: Pollution warning for capital after eruption
Never again!
The Blue Lagoon only re-opened a couple of days aga and I suppose they’ve had to close again.
Actually I was a bit harsh on Iceland a while back - Reykjavik’s not known for its architecture, which may be why it’s lovely C20th ‘cathedral’ (actually a 'church) was an unexpected surprise.
Icelandic turf houses are a vernacular architectural delight.
They had to use turves 'cos they’d chopped down all the trees a few centuries back and virtually the only wood available was driftwood that got washed up. As far as I’m aware, that situation was the only reason Iceland became inhabited all the year round. Consequently I’m suspicious of the historical authenticity of these picturesque Cumbrian examples.
Iceland’s history is so weird, its centuries long isolation and incredible poverty stopped it developing virtually anything cultural that wasn’t based on the spoken word, but as I’m sure you know, has also has led to it becoming a uniquely important genetic research site.
Your post reminded me (old man, fading brain) that after the Vikings were kicked out of Ireland (like from M. Scully?!) Many washed up in Cumbria and built turf longhouses, whose name I can’t remember. They used an inverted timber V frame at each end and the whole village would build a turf house in between in a day. The turves were the covered in a lime mixture.
I had a pg student who was researching them and it’s possible that there are quite a lot around the Lakes, but everyone assumes that such buildings are based on single storey Scottish border cottages, rather than something much older.
Wish I could remember the bloody name! Will probably remember about 4am tomorrow morning and then not get back to sleep 'cos I’m feeling so smug at having recalled a simple bit of info. It’s not Alzheimers, just age, honest…
Just joined and noticed this thread.
We too had quite a bit of sterling festering in a UK current account (Nationwide) because we were unable to open any more accounts, being non-resident.
Then I discovered NS&I and was lucky to be able to open a couple of bonds at 6.2%.
Any excess sterling now goes in the Direct Saver.
Obviously we’ll be taxed on this in France but it’s better than nothing.
The only piece of advice I would offer re NS&I is this: if you’re in a couple, do NOT open a joint account. The security checks regarding the second named account holder had to be done by snail mail and it took months to get the account up and running.
Far easier to open separate accounts.
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Just in case it’s of interest to anyone: NS&I have released new 3-year savings bonds that pay over 4%.
Available to non-UK residents as long as you have a UK current account with a bank (not Wise).
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FYI: for Wise users like myself, you can get around 4-5% interest from Wise themselves - technically “your capital is at risk”, but that would only happen if governments default on their debt or bank rates go below zero.
Not somewhere to put your life savings, but convenient if like me you keep a few hundred quid / euros etc in a Wise account and want it to earn some dosh.
Hi Chris
I have Wise too. It’s great.
I keep NS&I for larger sums though because there’s no limit on the protection for savings (unlike the £85 000 cap for money in ordinary bank accounts).
Is the interest taxable in France, do you know?
Yes, it is. We pay the 30% flat tax (PFU).
So by the time you factor in inflation and French tax/prélèvements sociaux, you’re not talking about huge gains. But as non-UK residents wanting to keep substantial savings in sterling, we don’t have a lot of options when it comes to opening new savings accounts in the UK. So for us it’s better than the zero interest we would get from our UK current account.
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