For many people, the concept of saving money ‘offshore’ or abroad is that it's purely for the upper class and wealthy or those seeking to evade taxation. In reality, offshore savings is in fact available to everybody. Saving money 'offshore' as a financial concept simply means placing money, wealth or assets in a country other than the one in which you live.

It is of course common for the wealthy to place their money offshore to take advantage of the favourable taxation regimes available in so called 'tax havens'.

Offshore savings accounts are just another form of savings account that allow any of us to save regular monthly amounts or a lump sum in order to earn higher rates of interest.

There are many banks offering offshore savings as a way of saving money and earning higher interest than you would from a normal high street bank – and what’s more, we can earn our interest gross and only pay tax on it once annually which allows for extra compound growth in the interim which can give our savings a little extra boost.

A number of leading international banking providers offer offshore savings accounts that are easily accessible and secure.Here are just a few offshore banks:

• Anglo Irish Bank
• Alliance and Leicester
• Bradford and Bingley
• Halifax International
  
• HSBC
• Lloyds TSB
  
• Nationwide
  

With any of these offshore savings banks, you can oppen an account either from a high street branch, over the telephone or increasingly most popular is online.

Once you offshore savings account is open, you will have full access to your account online and be able to view growth statistics whenever you want making it very simple to keep an eye on it.

Gone are the days when saving and investing offshore was complicated and for the super rich...or the super criminal!

Best rate at the time of writing for sterling balances in offshore banks comes from Halifax International, paying 3% for £2,500 or more deposited, with instant access.

If you have £10,000 to salt away for five years and make no withdrawals, Clydesdale Bank International offers 5.1% a year.

Anglo Irish Bank has the best rates for euros and dollars. 5,000 euros deposited pays 2.25%, with instant access; $5,000 on 90 days' notice pays 1.6%

The rates shown (c) are gross, i.e. with no tax deducted at source, and are ranked by the amount of notice of withdrawal (A) one has to give the bank without applying an interest penalty (or for the length of term, for fixed-rate accounts), and by the minimum ammount (B) left on deposit to qualify for that level of interest. Rates collated on 2 Agust are are subject to change. Rates on the no-notice and notice accounts are variable; those on fixed rate accoutns apply throughout the term shown.

Source: Moneyfacts

Of course most of us still have to pay tax on any income or gain that we derive even from investments or savings that are placed offshore

We are under an obligation to tell our local tax authority about any offshore savings accounts we have when we make our annual declaration to the IRS or HM Revenue and Customs.

However, tax is not deducted at source on the majority of offshore savings accounts. Therefore you have up to a whole twelve months of compound interest giving yr savings even greater growth power which makes saving offshore advantageous even when we ultimately do have to pay tax on gains from offshore savings.

The offshore savings accounts that offer the highest rates of interest are available to those in a position to regularly save large amounts monthly.

The more you can afford to save, the higher the rate of interest you will be given, the higher the rate of interest the greater the compound growth you can earn and the harder your money will work for you.