UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

I have a sterling and current account in a Cyprus bank and I'm considering having my UK Government Pension paid directly into it from UK. I know they give the exchange rate of the day when they transfer it, but does anyone know if they apply a charge for doing this and how much?

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

No, they dont. Ive been told many times that the rates they give are very good. Your other option is just to have it paid into your UK bank account and then use a commercial company like Currencies Direct to do a regular monthly transfer. They dont charge either when you commit to a regular monthly d/d

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

I checked DWP in UK and was told that they don't incur charges on transferring pensions and that I would receive a good rate as it's done by Citi Bank. They were unable to give me a rate of exchange (for the day I asked for) to enable me to make a true comparison. DWP said they do either a 4 or 13 week payments of government pensions abroad. I couldn't
get hold of anyone at Citi bank and their website doesn't give exchange rates on the day either. :zzz:

Can anyone in Cyprus who receives either a 4 or 13 weekly government pension, that is paid directly into their Cyprus bank, let me know what they received in Euros for their most recent payment. I would also like to know how it compares with what they know they should receive in sterling in the Uk so I can work out how many Euros they actually receive to the £ and see how 'good it really is' in reality? :confused:

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

Does anyone know the correct Immigration office in Paphos telephone number. The one on their website just keeps ringing whatever time of day I ring it?

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

I have my UK state pension paid here to a local village bank that I can walk to, there is no charge as posted, and so far always happy with the exchange rate the give you on the day, as many will agree it's not a huge amount of cash but every little helps in these hard times, by the way I never keep it in the bank as the local bank I use is Greek owned not Cypriot, I maybe be paranoid but you never know..

Jim

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

Can any UK pensioners advise whether it is true that you can elect for any taxable pensions amount to be taxed from Cyprus at 5% as opposed to UK @ 20%. I read somewhere that this is because of the dual tax agreement between Cyprus & UK. 15% tax reduction is better off in our purse than in the UK tax bin!!. Would welcome any advise on this matter.

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

Yes this is true, I am below the Cyprus tax threshold at €19.500, a benefit at the moment to paying any tax's here on the island

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

Thanks JimCross. My combined pensions are more than my personal allowance so I will definately elect for tax Cyprus end if I make it over to the beautiful Isle. Hey, every penny saved counts, especially when we lose out on benefits like winter fuel allowances and pension increases just because we decide to leave the UK to retire to the sun for a bit of quality life

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

You cannot do it if you have a government pension though. Only state and private

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

Thanks Mitzyboy. I have a SRP + superannuation pensions from when I worked for Local Councils in England (local Govt. officer) so I should be OK. I have only been on this site for a couple of days and am overwhelmed at all the goodness expats in Cyprus show each other - Way to go guys & gals xx

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

I think you may be wrong there Mitzy Cyprus and Australia are 2 of the few places that you are allowed to take your Government pension to tax free from UK. So if you take your State Pension and your Government Pension tax free from UK and you do not work or have any investment income from Cyprus then you can elect to have your income if you are above the personal allowance taxed in Cyprus at a flat fixed 5 per cent. We only found this little gem after we had made our decision to come to Spain. At the time it was pretty evenly balanced and it was mainly that Cyprus is a fairly small island and at the time only had 2 high cost airlines that swung us to Spain. We would have been about 3000 euro a year better off had we gone the other way. But as I say we did not know this little wrinkle then. It also explains why so many senior military officers retire to Cyprus. It was a full colonel who explained this to me.

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

Hi John & Kath. Thanks for the update and will definately look into the 5% rule. As always all the nice little gem's and perks we are entitled to never seem to get publicly issued to us, so lots of us lose out - so bad of the powers to be - they're quicker off the mark when it comes to taking from us though. Hope you're having a good life in Spain despite missing out on the tax break.

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

My wife and I have both Government and State pensions mine is a Civil Service Pension and Kaths is a Teachers the Spanish/UK DTT does not allow these to be exported tax free however we both move our State pensions tax free direct to Spain every four weeks and the FX rate is a cracker. I check it every time but of course I do not know at what time or day Treasury buy their currency but it is always close to interbank rate and absolutely no charges. If we were to do the same with our Government Pension we would loose since Capita sub contract the exchange and it was Bank of New York when we tried it and we found we could always better the rate.

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

:nod:We just love the food, sunshine and atmosphere. Not quite as warm where we are as Cyprus but plenty warm enough for us.

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

Hi John & Kath. Glad Spain's good for you. We're currently roasting alive in Sinai Egypt where it's been seriously hot. Fed up with the intolerable oppressive heat, camels, goats, sheep & rubbish strewn everywhere. Been here 6yrs & boy do we miss bacon, pork chops/roasts and all things yummy. I'm hoping I can get a visa to live in Cyprus but retain my finances from Egypt as I get really good XE & % savings interest

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

If you already have your WFA and Christmas bonus you keep them and a new ruling from the EU means you can now clim from overseas. Your index linking is not affected by a move except to some countries such as Australia just that CamCleg changed the Index downwards of course.

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

That's another trick the military men told me keep the bulk of your cash in Jersey in Royal Bank of Canada and use credit cards for everything in Cyprus you do not appear to break any rules and only have the 5 per cent tax since you have to be on the tax hook somewhere or HMRC won't let you off theirs.

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

We get the most awesome black pork from the Aracena and Alentajo in Portugal and the eating out is very cheap so we are in pork heaven!

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

Oink Oink you lucky lucky devils. I'm slavering just thinking about that!!

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

Sorry, being a bit thick - don't understand what WFA is. Don't know anything about new rulings & Christmas bonus's. I started getting my pensions whilst in Egypt so I never got any bonus's etc. Possibly because I live in a non-EU country I have been missing out - can you enlighten me what I can expect to get officially if I move to EU country.

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

In that case I would recommend visiting the HMRC site rather than taske our word for it, as its such an important issue

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

WFA winter fuel allowance £200 per year. Christmas Bonus £12extra just in time for Christmas so gran can buy little Johnny some sweeties for his stocking.

Re: UK Gov pension payments in Cyprus
 

Good day John & Kath - thanks for the info. I have no recall of getting either!!! Shall be making enquiries to SRP. More double standards by SRP folk me thinks? We should get Aircon allowance if they think we don't deserve winter fuel allowance - however we need heating too as 3 months here in winter is cold and have to put a heater on! + 6 months of the year we definately needed A/C. All expensive. And as for Xmas bonus ... do they think just because we live in a Muslim country we ex-pats don't celebrate Christmas.