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

Christopher Farrell

9:10 AM, 9th December 2020, About 3 years ago

Hi Everyone,
Just as an afterthought, has anyone found a definitive solution to the expat problem? Has anyone found a solution with Transferwise and/or HSBC or another alternative. Thanks for your comments.

Beaver

9:36 AM, 9th December 2020, About 3 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Christopher Farrell at 09/12/2020 - 09:10
I haven't but then I don't need to because I'm not an expat. Transferwise sounded good to me. But on the other hand my Stripe business account is managed by the Stripe entity that looks after payments to the UK and Switzerland. There's another Stripe entity that can deal with payments from Dublin. So I'm guessing that the solution for you if you are an expat will depend upon the country you are in and the willingness of any of the financial institutions to help you.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

9:37 AM, 9th December 2020, About 3 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Christopher Farrell at 09/12/2020 - 09:10
I solved mine by changing my address for banking to my holiday home in the USA, which isn't affected by Brexit. I do appreciate this is not an option for most though.

The other solutions discussed on this thread do seem workable but I went for the easier option. Changing banks would have been a logistical nightmare for me.

Beaver

9:53 AM, 9th December 2020, About 3 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Mark Alexander at 09/12/2020 - 09:37
Somebody somewhere will be able to help.

My property is in the North West so from time to time when the tenants are out I get roofers in to check my roof and my favourite roofers happen to come from Liverpool. I used to live in Liverpool and I like giving them work because I enjoy the accent and the sense of humour; I also like the idea of giving work to people who actually want to work.

The last time my Liverpool roofers came in they were telling me that they were doing work renovating properties for someone with money that came from the IRA. They said that when the IRA stopped bombing people they still had all that money from Noraid. So they invested in property. I don't know whether that's true or not but that's what they said.

So if that's true that's money laundering and I'm not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand I think that the cash would be providing work for people who would otherwise be unemployed in Liverpool, a city I'm very fond of, and of course it's bring housing stock back into use that might otherwise be destroyed. On the other hand you think, "...what are they going to do with the rental money?"

So I'm fairly sure there will be a way to take money via Ireland and my first port of call there would be Stripe.

On the other hand, depending upon which country you are taking money to it might be better to take it via another bank if your current providers won't play ball, or can't because of the money laundering regulations. My first port of call would again be Stripe or Transferwise. I believe Transferwise are based in London so I would have thought they could find a way for you to do it that is legitimate, if it can be done.

Alternatively, I have pension funds with a bank called Cater Allen which is a division of Santander. Santander is Spanish so you might try contacting either Santander or Cater Allen.

Whichever way you do it, we are all interested in hearing about your solution!

Christopher Farrell

17:25 PM, 9th December 2020, About 3 years ago

I am in Spain at the moment but still have my u.k. address registered. I will probably try transferwise as this is the best to transfer income to Spain. Just curious to what other expats have done or are doing. There must be so many in the same predicament.

Beaver

18:04 PM, 9th December 2020, About 3 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Christopher Farrell at 09/12/2020 - 17:25
I think there will be even more in the same predicament and not just because of property; I think many people will be worrying about the pensions lifetime allowance in the wake of the enormous deficit.

Whiteskifreak Surrey

18:30 PM, 9th December 2020, About 3 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 09/12/2020 - 18:04
I have just read a very disturbing article about an enormous wealth tax planned
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tax/news/tax-property-pensions-1pc-raise-260bn-commission-tells-government/
Might be behind a paywall, but even reading the comments will give you a flavour what is to come.
Definitely time to sell everything up and leave this country for good. Brexit of course made it horribly difficult, but the will of people must prevail...

Christopher Farrell

18:36 PM, 9th December 2020, About 3 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 09/12/2020 - 18:04
I became of pensionable age last month. The U.K. pension office have been very helpful and I have my money transferred direct to my account in Spain.

Christopher Farrell

18:43 PM, 9th December 2020, About 3 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Whiteskifreak Surrey at 09/12/2020 - 18:30I have to agree to some extent. I trade crypto, and providing GBP margin lending (at no risk) can return up to 40% APR per year, USD 20% APR plus (without compounding).... Bitcoin $6%APR plus the increase in value (if you believe in it)….there are alternative investments out there to diversify....or a lump sum, on automatic compounding and re-investing to cover future mortgage payments.

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