British Ex-Pat Bank Accounts to be CLOSED

British Ex-Pat Bank Accounts to be CLOSED

11:40 AM, 16th October 2020, About 4 years ago 59

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Hundreds of thousands of British Ex-Pats living in the EU will have received a shock letter in the last few days.

Customers of Nat-West, Coutts, RBS, Barclays, Bank of Scotland and Halifax are among the list of those affected. Their bank accounts will be closed by the end of this year, in some case much earlier. Cheques and credit/debit cards will be cancelled, payments into the accounts will be returned “account closed” and Direct Debits and all other payment requests will be treated in the same way. Customers of these Banks will receive a cheque for any money in their accounts, and it’s their problem what to do next.

Many of the affected Ex-Pats are retired and are now left wondering how they will receive their pension income.

Ex-Pat landlords are left wondering what they are to do too. Will their tenants pay the International Bank Transfer fees to pay their rent into an offshore bank account? Will landlords be able to set up Direct Debits from an overseas bank account to make their mortgage payments?

Are you affected by this? If so, please share your thoughts below and solutions you have looked into.


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Comments

Whiteskifreak Surrey

10:28 AM, 19th October 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Neil Patterson at 16/10/2020 - 12:17
But of course everyone who voted for Brexit knew what they were voting for! I really do not understand any complains here!
there is another Brexit news, undoubtedly carefully considered before voting (that is if anyone bothered to read 'Project Fear'): https://www.abpi.org.uk/media-centre/news/2020/september/last-ditch-attempt-to-secure-bare-minimum-deal-on-medicines-mps-told/
And a large number of EU tenants are giving notice and move out of this country... this is what I hear from fellow landlords....

CazT

10:36 AM, 19th October 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Chris Bradley at 16/10/2020 - 17:22
Hi, I live in Spain and have been told that the banks are requiring undisputed proof that you are actually living at the address.....

CazT

10:38 AM, 19th October 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by angel2steel at 18/10/2020 - 13:39
I’ve just opened a TransferWise account and I’m hoping this will solve the problem too. I will only have one rental left soon and I am loathe to sell it out from under the long term tenants. What a pain in the ....

CazT

10:39 AM, 19th October 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Richard Adams at 17/10/2020 - 12:20
Unfortunately as ex-pats, we are not allowed to open new bank accounts in the UK ....

angel2steel

12:16 PM, 19th October 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by CazT at 19/10/2020 - 10:38
Hi CazT - I spoke to Transferwise recently and they said that having a Transferwise GB£ account should be OK. Let's hope they're right.

Question Everything

13:03 PM, 19th October 2020, About 4 years ago

What is the bigger picture in this action? Why would the banks want to lose our custom? Your bank balances are their collateral. Why, when money is supposedly so tight, would they want to drop that collateral? Why would the banks care whether you are ex-pat or not? To them it is just money. They also extort high rates from you on FX.

Is it so that a very high number of ex-pats actually own property in the UK that they are renting out? Therefore is it just another attack on the PRS? To make you sell up in to the extortionate 45% CGT?

What gain would the government have on preventing you to have a UK account while living abroad? I smell a rat.

We know that the EU are bringing in the CBDC next year (look it up). The UK will probably bring theirs in sometime later. The US has already said they are getting it close. The Chinese are already using it.

Once you are locked out of transacting in the usual manner, you will be forced into adopting the CBDC.

Has anyone heard the words "economic reset" yet. The WEF and IMF are all up for it. Prince Charles is trying to make it look "charitable" (pathetic).

There are tons of videos on Central Bank Digital Currencies on YT. I suggest you start doing some research, and consider your options.

If you can not transact independently of the state, they make you their "host".

Are you getting used to those masks now?

CazT

13:24 PM, 19th October 2020, About 4 years ago

CazT

13:27 PM, 19th October 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Question Everything at 19/10/2020 - 13:03
There are many expat landlords, some like me who invested to create a ‘works pension’ for myself and loads who have rented out their own homes as a safety net. They are all getting very rattled , especially here in Spain. Add that to all the many other worldwide expats and you have a huge group of people who will be affected both by the banking changes and trying to keep up with all the new ‘rules’......

Beaver

13:30 PM, 19th October 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Question Everything at 19/10/2020 - 13:03
It's not just a question of banks losing collateral. It's also about tax.

I'm not actually aware of any law that would prevent you from renting through a UK-based agent and having your rental money paid into a Paypal account or Stripe account; in the end you then just transfer that money into an account wherever you happen to be based and declare the revenues there for tax purposes.

If the UK government does not encourage revenues from activities in UK to be booked in UK banks then all that will happen is that UK tax revenues will haemorrhage into countries like Ireland (where Stripe is based). From memory Paypal is based in Singapore. But typically if the UK government makes it harder to book revenues in UK it's likely that UK tax revenues will be lost and end up in Ireland.

angel2steel

13:40 PM, 19th October 2020, About 4 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Question Everything at 19/10/2020 - 13:03
If there's 'no deal' at the end of the year, and also no agreement on passporting rights for financial services, then presumably this adds to the problem of bank accounts.

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