Everbank or Offshore?

[Thailandnotes]

I am betting the dollar will continue to fall. I have money in Thailand, but no longer want to keep it there. I don't believe the Thai Baht can go much lower that 29 B/$. I'm debating whether to move money into an offshore account with Standard Chartered in Singapore or open an account with Everbank.

I have been reading about Everbank, but have found little but cheer leading. I have had little luck getting a prospectus or finding anyone who evaluates the bank and explains what it does with its deposits. Nor do I understand why they are the only one offering US residents a chance to invest in foreign currencies with FDIC insured CD's.

Any help on Everbank? It seems too slick.

[quigleydoor]

Re: Everbank or Offshore?

Any help on Everbank? It seems too slick.

My gut feeling is the same. Sorry, can't offer any more on Everbank.

I'm posting because I just came across a vehicle you might like, PowerShares DB G10 Currency Harvest Fund (DBV). It is a long-short fund. Long: currencies with the highest interest rates, using futures contracts. Short: currencies with the lowest. It's a little more sexy than your typical dollar-bear fund.

I only found this a little while ago. Planning to read the prospectus later. Fees and hidden trading costs might suck too much for this to be a good idea.

[zoog]

Re: Everbank or Offshore?

I recently (just last week, in fact) opened a money market account with them, which is supposed to remain within 5% of the top competitive rates offered by other banks. I am leery of trying out their other offerings, however.

I was curious about their foreign currency CD's, but digging around some forums, I found people warning (what might be obvious to smart iTulipers) that even though it is "FDIC insured", because of changes in the currency exchange rate, you could lose principle, especially since the conversion happens twice. The highest APY currently is 12.28% for the Icelandic krona 3-month CD, but according to this blog post, the krona/dollar currency exchange rate has varied by over 20% within the last year! Doesn't seem worth the risk to me.

Elsewhere there were complaints that while they're happy to add money into your accounts (this was primarily people using them for interest-bearing checking and savings accounts), they seem to really drag their feet when you want to pull money out. As I don't plan to make frequent transactions in or out of this MMA, I'm not overly concerned, but it's something to be aware of. Some people said they haven't had any problems, so who knows.

[friendly_jacek]

Re: Everbank or Offshore?

I started the application process for everbank but never finished because of the terrible epinions.com reviews.