The Lemon Fool

What I don't know is if you can link ii to transferwise.

I tried, but now they say:

Dear Mr Nowell

Thank you for your recent request to add your Transfer Wise bank
details.

Unfortunately, we are unable to add Transfer Wise ac’s as nominated
bank ac’s as they are primarily a money transfer company. Do you have a
personal current ac that could possibly be added instead?

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience that this may
cause.

It's not a great answer. Who cares what TW are primarily? Isn't it enough that I have a GBP account with them, with UK sort code and account number (as well as IBAN)? But my experience is that it is rarely worth arguing, one simply finds another solution. In this case, my next step will be to register one of my two Italian EUR banks with them. Probably ING (operating from Milano, by the way) and not Monte dei Paschi, who are local here but keep on finding new ways to annoy me.

I'm still interested to hear from anyone with no UK address who runs a UK GBP current account.

Rob625 wrote:

What I don't know is if you can link ii to transferwise.

I tried, but now they say:

Dear Mr Nowell

Thank you for your recent request to add your Transfer Wise bank
details.

Unfortunately, we are unable to add Transfer Wise ac’s as nominated
bank ac’s as they are primarily a money transfer company. Do you have a
personal current ac that could possibly be added instead?

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience that this may
cause.

It's not a great answer. Who cares what TW are primarily? Isn't it enough that I have a GBP account with them, with UK sort code and account number (as well as IBAN)? But my experience is that it is rarely worth arguing, one simply finds another solution. In this case, my next step will be to register one of my two Italian EUR banks with them. Probably ING (operating from Milano, by the way) and not Monte dei Paschi, who are local here but keep on finding new ways to annoy me.

I'm still interested to hear from anyone with no UK address who runs a UK GBP current account.

Hi Nowell, I agree that it's a bit strange that they won't accept Transferwise's UK bank account details. Do you really have no brothers or sisters, parents who wouldn't mind you using their address in the UK, just 'for communication'? You could then open a Monzo account which is an 'official' bank and quite easy to open from a phone app. Meantime, open a Revolut and Monese account today, using your italian address, activate a UK account number/sortcode, and see if one of them will be accepted. Revolut has some kind of banking licence, so may just work.

Steve

PS Monte dei Paschi? One of the oldest in the world and required billions to be bailed out. Having just injected a further 1.5 billion, the government currently considering merging it with Unicredit, which ironically, has a reputation just as bad!

Hi All,

I was wondering if there was anyone who checks out this board, even if they don't post on it, that is resident in the EEA, but not the UK, but has their address with their UK bank as in their country of where they reside, but haven't received any notification from their UK bank that their account will be closed as a result of Brexit. I ask as I have an account with Barclays but have resided in Bulgaria for the last 20 years and my address with Barclays is my Bulgarian address. However, I haven't, as yet, received anything to tell me that my UK account will be closed, but the postal system may have something to do with this. Also, I was looking through the Barclays website this morning to see if there was any information that could enlighten me. There was information but the wording was far from definite, with "what could happen if we have to close your account". Also it was stating that if you were affected by this change, your account would be "closed" on the 20th November. I assume that "closed" means not being able to make or receive payments, but since 20 November up to early December I have both made and received payments from the account without any problems or messages from Barclays. I was wondering if there was anyone else in a similar position. I will of course contact Barclays asking for clarification on my situation, using their "secure message" system, which I would have hoped they would use to inform me if I was affected, rather than relying on the postal system to do so.

Cheers!

Brendan

Hi Brendan
My wife doesn’t read this site, but for the rest she fits your description. She has a current account at Halifax, and has heard nothing from them.
Not all UK banks are closing foreign accounts; it’s a commercial decision for each of them, as I explained. Barclays may well be keeping all or some of its overseas clients.

Hi Rob625,

Thanks for the reply, it's encouraging. Presumably you received your letter by "snail mail" rather than an online message? I'll still check with Barclays regarding my situation to be sure, but I'll report back on what they say.

Cheers!

Brendan

bjmarren wrote:Hi Rob625,

Thanks for the reply, it's encouraging. Presumably you received your letter by "snail mail" rather than an online message? I'll still check with Barclays regarding my situation to be sure, but I'll report back on what they say.

Cheers!

Brendan

I'm very interested to hear what they say. I remember Barclays many years ago when the UK was part of the EEC, but there was still none of the closer ties of the EU. I was inter-railing around Europe, friend had to come back earlier than me and and I got back to Calais with about 50p in my pocket. I went to Barclays in Calais to ask if I had any money on my account. This was about 1984. Don't think there was much more than a moldy gobstopper in my account! The very kind woman in Barclays offered to advance me a small amount, but I was young and naive, so refused but managed to get home by swapping my 50p for a few francs and managed to arrive with just a few coins for calling my parents to pick me up from the station.
Four years later, I went to work in France. The Barclays in Grenoble were staffed by snooty plonkers who took great delight in explaining that, despite the name, they weren't really like Barclays in the UK so, as a penniless graduate, I could just go and %@$!! myself!
The big banks have been around for hundreds of years. They will continue to survive, but don't expect them to do you any favours.

Steve

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/banks-close-expat-accounts-in-brexit-confusion-jnn9t237s

The Times: Banks close expat accounts in Brexit confusion
...
Lloyds Banking Group, which includes Halifax and Bank of Scotland, has written to 13,000 current account and credit card customers who live in the EEA to tell them that their accounts will be closing on December 31.
...
Barclays says that on December 31 it will close all savings and investment products and current accounts for British expats living in Italy, Estonia, Slovakia and Belgium.
...

I am still interested if anyone is aware of any bank that has indicated it will continue to offer UK accounts to EU residents.

Rob

Rob625 wrote:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/banks-close-expat-accounts-in-brexit-confusion-jnn9t237s

The Times: Banks close expat accounts in Brexit confusion
...
Lloyds Banking Group, which includes Halifax and Bank of Scotland, has written to 13,000 current account and credit card customers who live in the EEA to tell them that their accounts will be closing on December 31.
...
Barclays says that on December 31 it will close all savings and investment products and current accounts for British expats living in Italy, Estonia, Slovakia and Belgium.
...

I am still interested if anyone is aware of any bank that has indicated it will continue to offer UK accounts to EU residents.

Rob

Try https://www.expat.hsbc.com/accounts/pro ... k-account/ - as far as I am aware they will continue. I thought you had excluded them for some reason.

regards, dspp

Hi Rob625

Barclays says that on December 31 it will close all savings and investment products and current accounts for British expats living in Italy, Estonia, Slovakia and Belgium.

This is confirmed by the text below which I copied from Barclays website this afternoon, which also includes 6 other countries where they will close accounts. This information was correct as at 20 October since when it has not been updated

If you live in Belgium, Estonia, Italy or Slovakia, you have two months to close your accounts – specific dates and details of the accounts to be closed are in the letter we’ve sent you.

If you live in Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, or Sweden, you have six months to close your accounts – specific dates and details of the accounts to be closed are in the letter we’ve sent you.
Otherwise, we’ll close your account and move any credit balances you have to a central account for you to reclaim later.

I'll still check with them as regards Bulgaria, but it suggests Barclays aren't applying the policy for all EEA countries, for what reason I do not know!

Brendan

Hi All,

With regards to my previous mail, I received the following "jolly" and prompt reply from Barclays:

Dear Brendan,

Greetings of the day! Hope you're in the pink of health. It's great to see you using secure messaging.

I appreciate your concern and would like to share that we'll close current accounts and any associated features (eg Insurance packs) for customers with an address in Belgium, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden. We'll continue to service all other existing current accounts for customers with an address in the remaining EEA countries. These customers can maintain their existing products but are unable to open any new accounts.

As you're correct in saying. Bulgaria is not in the above list. hence, you can carry on to use the account as usual. If any other countries are impacted by these changes, we?ll contact you directly and explain what they need to do and by when.

If there is anything else I can do to assist, please do not hesitate to get back in touch with me.

Stay happy & healthy!

Kindest regards,
Manish Bisht
Customer Support Manager

Just how and they differentiate between countries is a mystery to me but for now I'm ok. Hope this has been useful for some people.

Cheers!

Brendan

Rob625 wrote:I am still interested if anyone is aware of any bank that has indicated it will continue to offer UK accounts to EU residents.

Rob

There is some more information here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/ ... ed-brexit/

How does one keep a UK address if property in the UK is no longer owned or rented?

MrUnsure wrote:How does one keep a UK address if property in the UK is no longer owned or rented?

I assume you have a c/o address to a family member or friend? Someone you can trust to forward any mail.
Having a postal address isn’t the same as claiming residence, I assume. You wouldn’t have any bills at that address so I would imagine opening new accounts would be tricky.

Chrysalis wrote:

MrUnsure wrote:How does one keep a UK address if property in the UK is no longer owned or rented?

I assume you have a c/o address to a family member or friend? Someone you can trust to forward any mail.

Having a postal address isn’t the same as claiming residence, I assume. You wouldn’t have any bills at that address so I would imagine opening new accounts would be tricky.

From the point of view of a financial institution, an address that is postal only looks identical to an address that is residential. So unless the account holder tells the institution that he/she does not live at the postal address supplied, then it will assume their customer lives there.

Of course if the address says something like "c/o John Smith" or "POB 123" then they might suspect something. But as long as an address looks like it could be a residential address, the institution will assume that it is.

There are not too many cases, in my experience, where the institution asks for an address, and then asks for a residential address if the first supplied address is not where you live. So in practice you can both maintain an existing account and open a new one. And you might well still have bills at that address e.g. mobile phone bills, credit card bills and so on, so everything would sync up. What you would not have is utility bills or council tax bills, but there are substitutes that can be used for identification purposes when opening an account.

Lootman wrote:... in practice you can both maintain an existing account and open a new one.

Not volunteering notification to financial institutions and credit providers (inc mobile phone contracts and so on) of changes to one's principal residential address might generally be considered to be of no great significance in itself (provided that one isn't trying to hide from them). Indeed, if having relocated to certain countries which have an 'uncertain' postal system, correspondence such as Consolidated Tax Certificates posted to the UK address (where a trusted person opens and scans for onward transmission by email) will, at least, reach their customer - and do so in a timely manner.

Perhaps some may regard a new deposit account as totally unlike a new bank account with overdraft facility (a product involving credit) and draw a line between them when it comes to applications for new accounts but an overseas resident completing an application for any new account when the TnCs stipulate that applicants must be UK resident is surely crossing the line regardless. Does that not cross the line - or is the line defined more by what one thinks one can get away with in practice such that it could even be vaguely located somewhere beyond, say, applying for an ISA account?

Someone reading your post may be in receipt of a UK State Pension and wish to continue receiving it in the established UK bank account but is emigrating to live in, say, Australia so would you also suggest to them that DWP need not, in practice, be told provided that a UK correspondence address is available?

Cheers!

JonE wrote:

Lootman wrote:... in practice you can both maintain an existing account and open a new one.

an overseas resident completing an application for any new account when the TnCs stipulate that applicants must be UK resident is surely crossing the line regardless. Does that not cross the line - or is the line defined more by what one thinks one can get away with in practice such that it could even be vaguely located somewhere beyond, say, applying for an ISA account?

Personally I see a distinction between breaking the law and technically infringing a bank's TnCs. The former is illegal whereas the latter is more a variation of a contract between two parties. The former is a criminal matter whereas the liability for the latter, if any, would be civil and administrative.

Opening an ISA whilst being non-resident in the UK is completely different in my view, since that rule is set by HMRC and not by a private business. It is a crime and an attempt at fraud. Not mentioning to your UK bank that you are residing overseas for some period is more an omission designed solely for administrative convenience and not financial gain.

Also, I'd imagine most of the time if someone is permanently emigrating then they would close their UK accounts anyway as they would have no further use for them. The case here is someone who went overseas temporarily and is now returning. Keeping a UK bank open in that case seems reasonable to me.

JonE wrote:Someone reading your post may be in receipt of a UK State Pension and wish to continue receiving it in the established UK bank account but is emigrating to live in, say, Australia so would you also suggest to them that DWP need not, in practice, be told provided that a UK correspondence address is available?

I am not sufficiently familiar with the DWP rules to answer that question. But as noted above I see a distinction between the government and private businesses, and between living overseas temporarily and permanently.

If you wish to enjoy being non-resident for tax purposes, then you would surely provide HMRC and DWP with your foreign address.

It is clearly fraud to misrepresent where you live to the DWP in order to obtain higher benefits. However as Lootman says, breaking the T&Cs of a bank is a civil matter and the most they could do is seek from you restitution of any losses they have incurred as a result of your misrepresentation. It seems very unlikely they will have incurred any losses so would have no recourse from you other than to close your account.

I would stress I am not encouraging any form of illegal behaviour, whether criminal or civil, but merely pointing out the difference.

scrumpyjack wrote:It is clearly fraud to misrepresent where you live to the DWP in order to obtain higher benefits. However as Lootman says, breaking the T&Cs of a bank is a civil matter and the most they could do is seek from you restitution of any losses they have incurred as a result of your misrepresentation. It seems very unlikely they will have incurred any losses so would have no recourse from you other than to close your account.

I would stress I am not encouraging any form of illegal behaviour, whether criminal or civil, but merely pointing out the difference.

.... and when the Ts & Cs of the service provider are there to enable the service provider to comply with the law ....

.... it seems to me that some folk are treading very delicately whilst arguing about how many angels live on a pinhead as a way of hoping that everyone will ignore the elephant behind them ....

... if it looks wrong, it probably is wrong ....

regards, dspp

dspp wrote:

scrumpyjack wrote: .... and when the Ts & Cs of the service provider are there to enable the service provider to comply with the law ....

or even EU law or US law

stockton wrote:

dspp wrote:

scrumpyjack wrote: .... and when the Ts & Cs of the service provider are there to enable the service provider to comply with the law ....

or even EU law or US law

Oh well, here in Italy, I can proudly claim to have received my very first 'Close your account' letter today. An internet savings account with Egg, who were taken over by Yorkshire Building Society in 2012, and which I had forgotten about, since it has very little in it. The weird thing is, I also have another old savings account with YBS, also with peanuts in, but that has my UK address.

I can wait for a cheque or send a form to have the 50 quid transferred to another account. I'm toying with the idea of transferring it to my other YBS account just for the hell of it. I have visions of their computer with smoke belching out "does not compute...out of control.." etc.

As dspp said, ...' if it looks wrong, it probably is wrong ....' But when have banks ever not been wrong?

Steve