When opening an offshore account, often, the money is owned by a corporation, not our own money. However, an individual is often designated as a beneficial owner of the account. There are numerous things that we need to consider when opening and using an offshore account. As an example, we could use ATM cards and the money can be withdrawn from most ATM machines around the world. However, because we withdraw money from an unrelated bank or financial organizations; there would be some fees that we need to pay. In this case, these cards may or may not leave trail to our real bank.
Money can also be withdrawn as needed by wire to other bank accounts if needed. Many companies prefer to use this for covering corporate expenses, like travel, accommodation and others. When creating an ATM card that’s linked to an offshore account we will need a copy of our passport. In order to improve privacy, we shouldn’t link our MasterCard or Visa card to an offshore account. Funds can be loaded to the card by wiring some amount of money from our offshore account. This should be done to eliminate any direct ties with our real offshore bank account. The card should be issued by local banks unrelated to the offshore bank.
With proper method, the offshore bank account can’t be associated with us, no address, no date of birth, not tax ID numbers and others. It means, the subpoena to Visa and MasterCard should produce little and this should be a burdensome process that we need to consider. We should choose a country that has adequate address verification related on specific debit cards. This should help us protect our privacy and this should be a very convenient way to guard us against any attempt related to identity theft; when using the Visa and MasterCard in online retailers, physical stores, gas station and restaurants.
Telephone records are other things that can be used to trace us to an offshore bank account. In this case, we should consider purchasing anonymous cell phone. Someone may try to get copies of our phone bills and look for indications of communications with an offshore bank. With prepaid, disposable SIM card; it will be impossible for someone to trace our communication with an offshore bank. The offshore bank should also be informed that we will change our phone number regularly in order to improve security and anonymity. This should help us to improve our overall protection against identity theft.
Online banking should be a great feature to help us manage our offshore banking account. However, it can also be used as a way to trace our connection with an offshore bank. We should be aware that our ISP doesn’t really support our privacy. It means, it is possible for people to detect our involvement with other banks in the area. In this case, we should look for ISP that offers anonymity through VPN technology. Our outgoing and incoming data transmission should be encrypted properly.