It’s very easy, here’s how:

• Open your Raisin Account. Register online from your device and access your online banking to verify your identity and address. Once verified, we will open your Raisin Account at Raisin Bank, free of charge. Your Raisin Account will allow you to order and manage all the products you want.
• Choose a product. Choose the products that best suit your plans, set the amount you wish to invest and submit your application, all completely online.
• Transfer funds. Transfer the funds you want to invest to your Raisin Account and we will take care of the rest.

At Raisin Bank, we work with banks located exclusively in the European Union, which means that they are members of their respective national Deposit Guarantee Schemes. As a result, your savings are protected by the Deposit Guarantee Scheme of the country in which you are contracting the product, up to a maximum amount of €100,000 per depositor and bank.

Following European regulations, the Deposit Guarantee Schemes have been harmonised in order to offer the same standards within the EU in the event of a bank’s insolvency.

The main advantage is that you can access deposit accounts with a wider range of returns without having to change banks or open multiple current accounts, and thus benefit from more competitive rates offered by European banks. This is a common practice for savers from other European countries, who are used to investing outside their own country to get more out of their savings.

Not all EU countries and not all banks are in the same situation, so there are several reasons why a bank may offer higher rates. For example, the bank may be in a period of expansion and need to raise liquidity to finance this growth, or it may have an interest in diversifying the sources of its liquidity. On the other hand, competition is not equal in all countries – as a general rule, the more banks in a country, the higher the interest rates they have to pay to be competitive.

As a resident of Ireland, you will have to declare the interest earned on the deposit accounts you order through Raisin Bank when filing your income tax return.

Depending on the product’s country of origin, it is possible this country will apply a withholding tax to the interest generated. However, in most European countries, you will be able to claim back this withholding tax by sending us a certificate of tax residence in Ireland. For countries where the withholding tax cannot be claimed back, you will be able to compensate for the amount when filing your annual tax return in Ireland. You will therefore never be taxed twice on the interest earned through Raisin Bank’s products.

To find out more about how the products you take out with Raisin Bank are taxed, consult our tax guide.

No, the services offered by Raisin Bank are free of charge. This includes opening and maintaining your Raisin Account, managing your international bank transfers (in euros), confirming your balance, sending statements, as well as our Customer Service in English. The opening and maintenance of term deposits with our partner banks are also free of charge.

Raisin Bank receives a commission from its partner banks for the savings intermediated. This income enables Raisin Bank to offer you their services completely free of charge.