Insurance / Egyptian bank accounts / transferring money

[distant dreamer]

hi - will they change up our sterling into Egyptian Pounds for free and is there a maximum you can change at any one time? thanks

Hi

I'm sure there was no charge - but sorry not sure what the maximum you can change up.

 

[anokayperson]

Thanks for the info!

 

[thompsonsom]

Insuring your apartment

Does anyone know how much you would need to insure your apartment for in case of rebuild.

Should you insure for less than you paid for it as assumably the developer didnt sell it to you at a loss and it would have cost less to build it than what you bought if for, or should you be insuring it for more than you purchased it for.

janice

 

[queenie40something]

Hi its hard to work out the market value. In the UK you would find out what the rebuild cost is per square meter - your estate agent and Insurers in the UK have a table to ork it out for you.
Dont forget it is rebuild cost and doesnt include the cost of the land. In the case of a block of apartments the Insurers would pool together to rebuild. Without looking at my policy I think I have a rebuild cost for my 1 bed for 20K. I recommend Intasure who are specialists. Give them a call and chat through it with them as they are very very good and reasonable. Their policy was the best I could find. Building and contents - both accidental damage including cover for tenants was about £120 for the year.

 

[iain]

;Hi Janice - on Alison's recommendation I just used Intasure to insure mine in Sierra. They go by numer of bedrooms, mine is configured as two so Premium was a total of £153. This includes accidental damage by tenants and contents (which technically does not need to include fitted items like kitchen) - so £ 5-10,000 would be more than enough normally. The buildings are insure up to £1million for rebuild and they don't really value the property as such, just go on the number of beds.

They were most helpful and friendly and you can apply online and they'll call you.

another good bit of advice from Alison

 

[dave99]

Sounds about right

;Hi Janice - on Alison's recommendation I just used Intasure to insure mine in Sierra. They go by numer of bedrooms, mine is configured as two so Premium was a total of £153. This includes accidental damage by tenants and contents (which technically does not need to include fitted items like kitchen) - so £ 5-10,000 would be more than enough normally. The buildings are insure up to £1million for rebuild and they don't really value the property as such, just go on the number of beds.

They were most helpful and friendly and you can apply online and they'll call you.

another good bit of advice from Alison

.
Sounds about right for an INTASURE quote with £1,000,000 of cover.

They include cover for the communal areas (roof / lifts / gardens / pool / corridors / entrance etc) as well which is essential, otherwise there is a possibility that it does not get covered by anyone else.
.
.

 

[dave99]

Easy answer to this one

Hi its hard to work out the market value. In the UK you would find out what the rebuild cost is per square meter - your estate agent and Insurers in the UK have a table to ork it out for you.
Dont forget it is rebuild cost and doesnt include the cost of the land. In the case of a block of apartments the Insurers would pool together to rebuild. Without looking at my policy I think I have a rebuild cost for my 1 bed for 20K. I recommend Intasure who are specialists. Give them a call and chat through it with them as they are very very good and reasonable. Their policy was the best I could find. Building and contents - both accidental damage including cover for tenants was about £120 for the year.

The easy answer to this is not to try to work it out for Egypt - there is no easy way to do it - there is no "body" that will give you any guidelines on building costs.

Intasure have decided to sell a policy that avoids the need to cover for a fixed amount, which is very similar to the UK - this means that there s no possibility of being underinsured.

You also need to factor in other costs that are implied in the rebuild cost, which is not the same as building on a new plot.

Cost of site clearing / digging out the foundation / increased material & labour costs / payments to a joining sites that may be disrupted / damage to public utilities (electric / water / roads etc).

 

[thompsonsom]

;Hi Janice - on Alison's recommendation I just used Intasure to insure mine in Sierra. They go by numer of bedrooms, mine is configured as two so Premium was a total of £153. This includes accidental damage by tenants and contents (which technically does not need to include fitted items like kitchen) - so £ 5-10,000 would be more than enough normally. The buildings are insure up to £1million for rebuild and they don't really value the property as such, just go on the number of beds.

They were most helpful and friendly and you can apply online and they'll call you.

another good bit of advice from Alison

Hi

Trouble with Intasure is that they do not cover communal area's according to our developer, in fact it would seem that unless you have a group policy no body insures the communal areas.

janice

 

[RedSeaInvestor]

Advice please: Is it better to keep funds in Egypt in Sterling or Egyptian pounds?

Is it better to keep money in Egypt in Sterling or Egyptian pounds?

I know that the banks pay 6-8% on funds kept in Egyptian pounds and they only pay 0.5-0.75 on funds kept in Sterling.

The confusion is I have been told that the Egyptian inflation rises at anywhere from 8-22% yearly wiping out any gains in Egyptian pounds. Sterling is so shaky I am not sure that is any better.

Any help would be lovely!

 

[iain]

Is it better to keep money in Egypt in Sterling or Egyptian pounds?

I know that the banks pay 6-8% on funds kept in Egyptian pounds and they only pay 0.5-0.75 on funds kept in Sterling.

The confusion is I have been told that the Egyptian inflation rises at anywhere from 8-22% yearly wiping out any gains in Egyptian pounds. Sterling is so shaky I am not sure that is any better.

Any help would be lovely!

Well it's a bit of an informed gamble I think.

Egyptian Pounds get you a good rate of interest so if the exchange rate with the Pound Sterling stays unchnged then you are better in Egyptian Pounds and inflation is not relevant as you just have to pay higher prices whatever currency you start with.

On the other hand, you could argue that as Sterling bought you ten Egyptian Pounds last summer, then you could expect the exchange rate to creep back to that.

If you put 100 sterling in the bank now you will have £100.75 in one year. (And lets say 1 sterling = about 8 EG£

If you put 800 Egyptian £ in the bank you will have 864 after a year (at 8%)

If Sterling goes half way back to last summer's level you would have 100.75 X 9 = 906.75 Egyptian pounds

On balance one might expect Sterling to improve against the EG£ but will it?

If you get currency right you can make a lot of money, but it's not that simple.

Anyway we keep a reasonable amount in Eg£ say, costs for one holiday and running costs and then transfer Sterling in when we thnk it's a decent rate. i think long term you would be better to keep most of the money in Sterling as hopefully it's over the worst. - Just my personal opinion.

At least it's fun telling my friends that I get 8% interest (before I confess it's in EG£,)

Hope this helps a little.

Iain

 

[spider]

House Insurance etc

Hi. Our apartment in Hurghada should be completed in September this year. I would appreiate any tips from those of you who have already been there and done it as to which Insurance company to use for buildings/contents? I have a quote from Intasure, but are there any other companies worth trying?

Thanks

 

[queenie40something]

Hi Spider and welcome. I have merged your thread with this existing one - please read through as you willl get answers to your question.

I have taken insurance with Intasure - as an Insurance Underwriter I found them the best.

Regards

 

[mtrtnik]

Opening bank account

Hey,

I am planning to open a bank account (non-residental) in Hurghada and I wonder if you can tell me which banks is the best by your opinion and offer me e-banking and maybe also some kind of card so I can withdraw money or pay with card over the world?
Purpose of account is that I'd receive rents from letting apartments.
Also what are costs of having such account?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Matjaz

 

[danny]

I personally use HSBC, you need a minimum of 10000le to avoid any charges, you can have internet banking and you get a cash card which is accepted at most cash machines worldwide, however you cannot use it for normal online or store shopping as it does not have a chip or a security code on the back. They do have a prepaid credit card that you can use for online and store shopping.
I have accounts in LE, Sterling and US dollars, you can also have an Euro account, as long as all accounts combined amount to 10000le there is no bank charges and they are all serviced by the same cashcard, you do not need a seperate card for each account.
So, for example, you could have £600 in your sterling account ,$500 in your dollar account and 4000Le in your Egyptian account and you will not incur charges on any account because they amount to over 10000le in total. They also have a 3 or 5 year bond that paid interest of around 9% last time I looked, much better than any rate that you will get in Europe, if you have the 3 year bond the interest is paid quarterly and if you have the 5 year the interest is paid monthly into your normal account. There is a penalty for withdrawals from the bond but it is minimal.
All you need is your passport, a deposit and to answer a few simple questions to open an account, you can pick up your cashcard and pin number from the bank about 4-7 days after application.

 

[nubianqueen]

hi queenie how are you, coming to hurghada soon??

queenie i have forgotten how to set up a new post can you help me.

nubianqueen