Uk bank account kerfuffle

[KCLenny]

Hi all, so I’ve been living in Japan for a few years now.
And I’ve just today learned that I’m not legally allowed to have kept my uk bank accounts open. What’s that about?
I have a nationwide account and a Monzo account. Technically I also have a NatWest account but never use it.
My Nan puts birthday and Christmas money into the nationwide, I transfer it to the monzo and then take it out in Japan with the monzo card (the withdrawal fee is free under £200 a month which I never hit as just for Christmas and birthdays).
Last year I got a message from monzo to update my tax residency which I did, gave them my mynumber number and thought that was done. Just had a reminder to updated it so I did again. They also asked me to check my phone number so I updated that as completely forgot. Put in my Japanese number and then they kind of threateningly asked why I had a Japanese number but was tax resident in uk or something that sounded confusing.
Also, I was planning on using that monzo account to pay my uk pension contributions.

So what should I do? Should I just change my number back to uk/family phone number? How am I supposed to receive any gift money without those uk bank accounts? And how am I supposed to pay my uk pension contributions without those accounts? I don’t think it’s really fair to expect my Nan to pay a transfer fee for birthday money and I shouldn’t have to pay a transfer fee to pay the UK government.
Im getting very overwhelmed by this and extremely confused at the unnecessarily complicated language and nature around something that should just be simple.
Thanks in advance.

[KCLenny]

Also just to add, we are talking small change compared to some of you guys here!
I’ve saved up left over money from before I moved to Japan, and 3 years over birthday/Christmas and other gift money to get £2000 to pay back 3-4 years of uk pension contributions. So can’t really afford regular fees.

[RetireJapan]

Might depend on the bank. I have a NatWest account I have had since I was 12, they have my Japanese address, phone number, My Number etc. and it isn't an issue. They send my new debit cards to me here.

Mondo may not allow nonresident customers, or you might just need to tell them you are not resident for tax purposes (means you get gross interest rather than net).

Anyone else?

[KCLenny]

Might depend on the bank. I have a NatWest account I have had since I was 12, they have my Japanese address, phone number, My Number etc. and it isn't an issue. They send my new debit cards to me here.

Mondo may not allow nonresident customers, or you might just need to tell them you are not resident for tax purposes (means you get gross interest rather than net).

Anyone else?

I have an old NatWest account probably since 10 years old so might see if I can update all that information with Japanese address etc.
I don’t really care about interest as like I said it’s not an amount of money I can actually get any decent interest on. (Plus also don’t even understand the different between gross and net, that’s how financially illiterate I am!).

I thought I had said I was not resident for tax purposes. Or do you mean just do that but keep my registered address/contact details as uk, but keep giving them mynumber?

[imaginatorium]

How did you find out that this was "not legal"?? ... I don't think anything like this is actually "illegal", it is just that banks read regulations on what they are supposed to do, and if they cannot see quite how to accomodate particular cases, they refuse to do so. I advise you not to do anything; I have been living in Japan for >30 years, and still have the same account I have had for 50 years, at the branch I moved to just before we left England. You never know when you might have a problem: I have been unable to open any new account (at the same bank), even as they keep sending me advertising about it. But it is all case by case; someone here was talking about opening a new account at a UK bank only the other day.

[KCLenny]

How did you find out that this was "not legal"?? ... I don't think anything like this is actually "illegal", it is just that banks read regulations on what they are supposed to do, and if they cannot see quite how to accomodate particular cases, they refuse to do so. I advise you not to do anything; I have been living in Japan for >30 years, and still have the same account I have had for 50 years, at the branch I moved to just before we left England. You never know when you might have a problem: I have been unable to open any new account (at the same bank), even as they keep sending me advertising about it. But it is all case by case; someone here was talking about opening a new account at a UK bank only the other day.

Like I said I updated my phone number and then got a warning pop up about my residency.
I understand that’s it’s not legality. More so bank policy or whatever. My monzo account explicitly states you cannot change your address to outside the uk. As in, it doesn’t let you change it.
So should I just change my phone number to a uk number and leave it at that?

[imaginatorium]

Do you actually need to do anything? If they actively object to the non-UK phone number I suppose you can set it to a UK number if you have one, or possibly deleting it is safer. Just suppose they tried to phone you up. I notice that Lloyds online banking now insists on phoning me, with a tediously long message at the end of which I have to key in the number. So they don't seem to mind it not being a UK number, but who knows when anything might change.

First thing is not to close any account unless you absolutely have to; and perhaps it would be a good idea to use your other (Nationwide? weren't they a building society?) bank occasionaly to prevent it going dormant. Second recommendation is (Transfer)Wise for transferring money from the UK. They are very economical even for small amounts, and essentially they give you a UK bank account number to which you can have money transferred.

A very good book by journalist Francis Wheen, "How Mumbo-Jumbo conquered the world", pub. 2004, dates what he calls the Endarkenment to 1979, with the twin arrivals of Thatcher and Khomeini. (I actually bought it in 2004, last time I went to England.) Anyway, this is why nothing makes sense any more. I just logged on to PayPal, and they decided to check if I am a robot. They show me three-year-old's efforts with crayons, and ask which is the dog. None of them actually look like a dog.

[Roger Van Zant]

I changed the address linked to my NatWest account to my sister's address in London. Keeps things simple. She forwards any new cards to me.

[KCLenny]

I changed the address linked to my NatWest account to my sister's address in London. Keeps things simple. She forwards any new cards to me.

Yeah just going to keep my family address and mom’s phone number for now.