The first route that you should look into is to open an account with the bank that the school are using. They should be able to provide you with an “introduction” which always eases matters when you don’t quite meet the normal account opening criteria.

If that doesn’t work, then you’d be looking towards an offshore bank in the UK. I’ve a rundown of the options there at http://www.wholeearthguide.co.uk/i-weg-zr-er102-en.htm . Of those, the most practical for most people is usually the Co-operative in that the opening balance is a lot lower (max £1000) than for the others (£5000 and up).

Now, the problem with that is that you’re not British and they do state on their FAQ that if you’re outside the UK, you need to be British to open an account. However, I’m guessing that you’re working for a school run by one of the aid organisations and the co-operative are very much into charity work therefore they might waive that condition for you.

Anyway, try the bank that the school uses first but check the charges as the co-operative option is very cheap usually (you could drop them an e-mail to ask).

However when I asked Icesave about paying gross interest since I will become a non-resident when moving to Estonia (another EU country) they said I must close the account.

This leaves me in a bind, as offshore accounts are no good to me, as Estonia has a generous income tax exemption for EU sourced bank interest, which doesn’t apply to offshore banks, which seem to offer a decidedly less generous rate as it is, compared to the better UK accounts.

What would you recommend?

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Many of the Internet/phone banking places are like that. Notably Ing who, although they operate in most European countries, won’t let you have an Ing UK account unless you are resident in the UK, Ing France, unless you’re resident there, etc.

If you’re looking for a high paying account that doesn’t have these hassles, the Co-Operative Bank’s SmartSaver is pretty good. The interest usually isn’t the very highest that you could get but it’s generally close to it and they will let you change the address to anywhere (you need to be UK resident to open it though).

As a US citizen and resident who orders an unusual amount of stuff from the UK and likes to take vacations there, I’d like to lock in pound sterling exchange rates at times of my choosing. But at the moment the only way I know of doing that is traveller’s checks, which are no good for online purchases or indeed many physical purchases.

I found the HSBC and Citibank “international personal banking” services, but they have either very large minimum balance requirements (GBP5000 or US10000 would be tolerable, but GBP25000 is a bit steep) or charge substantial fees (GBP20/month is pretty steep).

There doesn’t seem to be the equivalent of the “brokerage” option for getting GBP-denominated accounts. Regular UK accounts all say “must prove UK residency”. And while UK banks offer domestic dollar-denominated accounts, US banks don’t appear to offer any accounts denominated in any other currencies.

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See Opening a bank account in the UK offshore islands

It might often say “UK resident” but that’s not actually true as they’re required to open accounts for all European residents for a start and, in practice, most banks (not building societies [savings & loans]) will open accounts for anyone anywhere. What you will need is proof of address (ie an electricity bill under 3 months old) and proof of ID (passport).

The article above should get you an account opened from the US (part of our series on opening accounts as a non-resident). However, by far the easiest option for you would be to bring along a proof of address next time you are in the UK and simply walk into a branch and open an account. The downside of that is that they might limit you to a cash card account or savings account. Sadly the perfect account for your purpose is no longer available so the next best is the NatWest First Reserve account which is a savings account that comes with a Maestro debit card (this would be fine if your purchases are largely from UK based websites). For a Visa Electron card (more useable online internationally) I think you’d need to apply for the Co-operative Banks Cash Minder account (www.coopbank.co.uk).