I kind of have the opposite experience to some... tried to close an account before ending UK residency via branch visit, but they messed it up and kept mailing me for half a decade. Periodically tried to resolve; then their rules tightened and was happy for the account to become automatically culled (think for reasons of non-use rather than residency; they still had my UK address on file because I never switched it over to Japan; indeed, it wouldn't have been possible). Reason for attempted closure: would no longer have fulfilled the eligibility criteria for the account.
@MoneyMatters, a suggestion for a small portion of the unexpected free time would be to Wikify anything useful from your Wise experience
cvtm wrote: ↑Mon May 01, 2023 2:07 pm
Hang on a minute!. Japan is not on Barclay's list of countries!!!
----------------- Current accounts and savings accounts
If your address is in the European Economic Area or in one of the following countries, we’ll contact you to let you know that your savings or current account is going to close:
Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Aruba, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canton and Enderbury Islands, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Curaçao, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Indonesia, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Macao, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Myanmar, Mozambique, Nauru, Nepal, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Republic of Moldova, Russia, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sint Maarten, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Tajikistan, Thailand, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
This will only affect your current or savings accounts listed in the letter we’ve sent you and not any account, product or service provided by another part of the Barclays Group. If you have any other Barclays UK accounts or banking services that are affected by these changes, like a mortgage, loan or credit card, we’ll contact you separately about them.
Source: https://www.barclays.co.uk/important-in ... de-the-uk/
--------
Do you think they picked these countries our of hat??
Got my message from Barclays today. And they sent me a new debit card only a few weeks ago!
Wise supplies an IBAN number for their GBP a/c so that's no problem for transferring money. I only need the account for one more thing. I planned to cash in a pension in a few years time, like I did a few years ago. I ended up getting a cheque from the Inland Revenue which I posted back to Barclays asking them to pay it in to my a/c. So I can either cash that in now and hope the cheque arrives in time for me to send it to Barclays (and lose the interest), or just wait anyway and deal with the cheque in the future.
So before I sacrifice that interest, does anyone know how to cash in GBP cheques without a UK bank a/c?
Answering my own question, I saw this on the gov.uk website:
HMRC will usually send refunds by cheque. If you want HMRC to send a refund straight to your bank account, include your bank account number and sort code on your tax return. You need to include this information each time you complete a tax return.
So looks like it won't be a problem after all. I think it's been established here - and Wise.com confirm it on their blog -that State Pensions can be paid to Wise, so tax refunds should be OK, too.
My wife opened a HSBC UK account a few years ago, from their HK branch. But Wise seems good enough for most purposes? Although it’s non covered by FSCS so maybe not one to store much money in.
Hmm. My to-do list for this week included contacting Barclays to update the old UK address to my Japanese one.
So it sounds like that might be tricky.
I haven't had any contact from them yet, but I heard my uk IF account might be getting closed in a few months too.
Since it seems to be basically impossible to open a UK account if you aren't a resident, this is getting tricky.
I do have a Wise account, although I haven't really used it so far, but they seem like the *only* option, and they aren't a real bank.
If I open a Revolut account, is that going to be based in Japan?
I have a bunch of savings in several legacy UK bank accounts that are earning naff-all interest anyway. Would it be better to bring it all to Japan, or stick it in something like IKBR mutual funds? Then just keep limited amounts in Wise (which has a 1M yen holding limit)
RetroNewbie wrote: ↑Mon Jun 05, 2023 2:17 pm
Hmm. My to-do list for this week included contacting Barclays to update the old UK address to my Japanese one.
So it sounds like that might be tricky.
..
I do have a Wise account, although I haven't really used it so far, but they seem like the *only* option, and they aren't a real bank.
Good luck on the first one. I’d love to hear how you get on.
I only use my account to pay Class 2 pension by direct debit. The thought of contacting HRMC to change that makes my heart race. (And not in a romantic way.).
What banking service do you need that WISE can’t provide? I have an account and it provides a UK sort code and account number to receive (and make) domestic transfers in the UK. They also claim to handle direct debits.
And you can get a physical debit card.
The main issues with WISE for Japan residents are that the maximum balance of all currencies can not exceed 1 million yen. So if you have more than 6000 pounds in the UK, putting it in Wise would more than max you out.
Also, it might be a sticking point for some that Wise's UK bank accounts are not covered by the FSCS (which guarentees all deposits up to 85,000 GBP). But since your losses are limited to 1 million yen, maybe it is not something to worry about.
