[Cardiff Irons]

Hope someone can help me with this. I'm hoping to keep a UK bank account to maintain direct debits and also to keep a savings account. However, to prevent any taxation on savings, I will need to send the bank a form advising that I'm not UK resident.

So, based on advice from other threads, I thought it would be prudent to simply advise UK banks of my imminent move. Having just spoken to Alliance & Leicester they somewhat tersely advised that I will now need to close my accounts with them within 30 days. :mad:

What have others done about this? Did you just move to NZ and then contact the Banks once you were out there? I know some people get bank statements sent by UK Banks to their NZ addresses - how did you do that?

I do have accounts with HSBC and IF, so want to make sure I get this right before I contact them.

Many thanks for any help.


Steve :nice1

[Trigirl]

We’ve opened an account with Nationwide. They know we are going to NZ and are happy for us to maintain our account from there. We’ve got a joint current account plus a savings account – all internet based. Our statements will be delivered by email.

[Cardiff Irons]

Many thanks Trigirl. That's really useful as a fall back.

Has anyone had experience with HSBC or IF?

Cheers


Steve

[jubjub]

We gor a Royal bank of Scotland and a Nationwide a/c neither seem remotely bothered we are here. Something to bear in mind, with Nationwide they dont accept the forms that mean you dont pay tax on interest, you have to claim it back from the IR at the end of the year, but thats pretty simple, and does not take that long

[Tinman]

We have a bank account with HSBC and went into see them about our move to NZ and they said it was no problem. The nice lady did say that we had to keep it active but if you have direct debts coming out every month then that was no ok. Also we did a fax indemnity which ment we did not have to come back to the UK if we wanted to transfer a large amount of money.But u need to check with your bank on that one.

[willsken]

Abbey National are happy for us to keep the account open but they were the same about the interest. They tax it and it's up to us to claim it back...what a pain! :roll

[Trigirl]

...

[westies]

We have kept our bank accounts open with HSBC, also our insurance policies, well worth looking into, as can be quite costly over here, no problems at all with either, the insurance policies need to be paid for from a sterling bank account, which works quite well for us, so glad we didn't cancel them!!

[Brijan]

We have an account with Lloyds TSB and all we had to do was fill in a change of address, we get a statement every month showing our direct debits, no problem at all :)

[Babette & Andy]

Hi Steve

We initially changed the address to Andy's parents (still in the UK) but as they have since sold their house and are moving at the end of the month up to York, we needed to advise our bank - Barclays.

Did this over the weekend - Simply advised them by phone (Barclaycall - 24hr banking) of our new address in NZ which they were happy to take. Only a relatively small amount left though - around £500, which I use for Interflora deliveries etc in the UK.

Also - called Barclaycard to close our Visa / Mastercard creditcard accounts. Customer Service agent was very friendly and suggested that as we had built up a very good credit rating over the past 12years it would be a shame to loose this and close things down - just incase we ever decide to return to the UK or wished to use it when visiting the UK / Europe in the future (free of charge to keep it open). She also suggested simply changing the account to our NZ address and she would send a leaflet explaining ways / ease of making any payments when living abroad.

Hope this info helps.

Babette

[Cardiff Irons]

Thanks all for the helpful replies. :nice1

Seems the main problem then could be the non-taxation of savings - it does seem a bit of a pain claiming it back at the end of the year, particularly as we were going to put the house proceeds into a savings account.

Might need to take a look at an offshore account after all. :uhoh

[richard]

Many thanks Trigirl. That's really useful as a fall back.

Has anyone had experience with HSBC or IF?

Cheers


Steve

I have an IF account and one with the Royal Bank of Scotland. Before I left the UK I filled out a tax form obtained from the IF website that allowed me to get my interest tax free. I now just pay the tax on it in NZ.

Our mail redirection just ran out so we wrote to the banks to inform them of our change of address. RBS were ok and now send the statements to NZ.

IF send the statements to NZ but no longer allow me on-line access to my account. Not very helpful for an on-line bank!

[ruthyroo]

FInancial institutions don't seem to be very consistent on this!

Nationwide - have been absoutely fine with us being in NZ, have even let us take out mortgage insurance with them since we moved here, all online accounts working fine. We could keep TESSA and ISA open but could only deposit money in them when in the UK.

Northern Rock - allowed us to open an online savings account, knowing that we were moving to NZ, then when I logged on to change our address to the NZ one, sent an email saying that we had to close the account as we were no longer UK residents!! Argh! Then recently sent a change of address form...

Make sure all mortgage / life / other insurance you might need is arranged before you leave - it's definitely easier to continue with an existing policy than arrange a new one.

[spudulike]

We also have a Nationwide account which still has all our savings in (house deposit for when we get back) - I also have a smile internet account and hubby still has a credit card (although I think that is registered to a UK address).

Louise :)

[colindp]

Same here Trigirl, I have an active Nationwide Current and savings account which I opened several years ago when immigration was tucked way back in a dark corner of my mind.
I notified them of our move to NZ and it has made no difference. I log on to check things out every now & then but cancelled the paper statements.
As I will be returning to the UK I am glad I left the acoount active.....

[Avalon]

Fisrt Direct (part of HSBC) also have no problems with allowing overseas use. In fact - you get a special number to ring which means you jump a queue and get your call answered straight away at busy times (though becasue they are open 24hrs its usually quite quiet when I ring at 3am in the morning UK time). Also, its dead nice to hear a northern british accent now and again! I mostly use internet banking - but every so often I need to speak to someone.

Thay also accept the tax forms (NORD - Not Ordinarily Resident Declaration), which do have to be renewed each year.

This did make a big difference for us with House sale money which was sitting in our FD savings account.

And totally aggree with everyone about keeping your life insurances! Premiums here go up with age once you take them out - whereas in the UK the premium stays the same for the life of the policy - it gets very expensive!

[NannyOgg]

Hi,

Ditto the Nationwide stories - they were fab and asked if we wanted to open any other accounts before we went!

Just a thought on savings - and I am no finance whizz - if you got a good exchnage rate - say 1-3 - would it not be owrth your while transfering over here then as that can really make all the difference. We ended up about $ND18,000down on the deal as we had worked it all out on 1 - 3 and got 1 - 2,8 :wah

Also, on our NZ$330,000 from our UK - when it sat in the bank for a brief period of time we were making $77 a day interest on it. As I said no financial wizard but I thought it was a good deal.

Nanny xxx

[Cardiff Irons]

Thanks again for all the responses. Avalon, we closed our FD account down about a month ago :mad:.

Have initated Nationwide account, so hope that goes OK. Also have an HSBC so that might be useful as well.

Nanny, I think when the exchange tips over $3 to the £ we'll transfer it all over, although given the higher rates in NZ, maybe I should switch it sooner :uhoh. Hmmm, an Excel spreadhseet moment could be looming.

By the way, quick update on A&L, they said they'd give me 30 days to close the account and when I tried to access the account today online I couldn't. I have lodged a complaint. :mad:

That's more Mad icons tonight than I've used in the last 12 months!

[seagulls]

Hi Cardiff Irons,

Your spreadsheet will only work if you can guarantee that the fx rate won't move or you able to forecast what the fx rate and interest rate will be in the future.

I would imagine that your spreadsheet will show that the 7% in NZ will be much more favourable than the 5.5% you can get here. However, there are more underlying factors.

My advice is that if you need the money in NZD then do it now if not then hold off. Alternatively, do half now and half another day. The current 2.86 is still a very good rate compared to the 2.50 of a year ago.

[Smiler]

I have posted a thread about this but thought I could pop it here too.

First Direct are to start charging http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6148776.stm

[Avalon]

I have posted a thread about this but thought I could pop it here too.

First Direct are to start charging http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6148776.stm
So for the timebeing - please would everyone ignore everything ive said about FD being wonderful. They are pretty much up there with NZ banks in my estimation right now.

[GeordieLass]

If you have a current account with First Direct, you can avoid the charges by opening a savings account as well with £1 as they don't charge customers who have more than one account with them. This article from moneysavingexpert.com (http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1163615939,30407,) explains it all. A VERY useful website by the way.

Intelligent Finance have just told me I can't keep my ISA with them so am on the lookout for somewhere else for my emergency flight home fund. However, from their website I think I can keep my Natwest account. Just need to keep an eye on it and make sure they don't "upgrade" me to their extortionate fee paying Advantage Gold account as they seem quite desparate to do!

[NeilV]

Anyone have experience with Natwest?
I have several accounts with them, and would find it very usefull to get email statements and keep open some of our accounts here since all my family live here.

[GeordieLass]

I phoned Natwest and they said it's fine to keep the current account. I'm not sure about email statements but I've used their online banking and that's fine for me.

[jubjub]

A couple of things to be wary of that have happened to us recently.

Using the switch card on an account, cos we had not used the a/c for a couple of months the transaction got denied, and we had to jump through hoops for the company we were trying to pay to prove who we were, cos the UK bank had flagged it up as fraud. (which while a good thing in a way, caused us a bit of grief this end!)

Credit cards, check if there is an annual fee for low usage, we just got stung with that one too! We had totally forgot that our Amex card requires a minimum spend or you have to pay £20 a year. we always used to spend a fortune on it! Only kept it as an emergency card too.

[keeweescot]

I second GeordieLass's post - NatWest gave me the same info via e-mail (fine to keep accounts open). I also use their online banking with no probs.

Sal

[GeordieLass]

I also opened an online saver account with Natwest after trailing round all the banks and building societies who wanted me to open current accounts before I could get a decent savings rate!

Here in NZ I've got a Westpac Elect Account which has no fees if you don't want statements and do most things online. They do sting you for paying in cash and cheques at the teller though I don't expect to do too much of that.