nrgiser

Hi Everyone,

I have just become a member on here and hope to be able to offer my advice to other members in the future. But first I need some advice myself and hope someone will be able to help me. First I will explain a little about myself. I have been living in the Philippines for 7 years now, happily married and have my 13A. I have over these past years had my weekly war and also my monthly army pension paid in to my UK HSBC account and then withdrawing it via my debit card here in Pesos.

I have tried about 4 years ago having my pensions transferred here to a MetroBank account. I rang up Equiniti Paymaster in Crawley and they sent out some paperwork for me to fill in, which i duly did and sent it back to them. But they never received it, so i sent it to them again on about 3 occasions but again it never arrived. Well I put it on the back burner for something to do again, which is now, but it seems things have changed a little. I came across an article in the Telegragh where it states from April 2015 people from certain public pensions will be unable to transfer their pension abroad anymore. Here is the link >>


Big decisions looming for expats as UK pensions rules change - Telegraph

Does this now mean that if I rang up Equiniti Paymaster, they will no longer be able to pay my pensions in to a overseas bank account directly anymore. Will I have to use a third party to do this for me. I am somewhat confused with it all and if anyone else is in a similar situation or has dealt with this already, your advice and guidance would me greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance,

Matt.

Philosophical 11

Hi Matt,

This is what I and most Brits do. I opened a BPI (Europe) account in London and had money paid into that from my UK bank (Lloyds). I then opened a local BPI account here in the Philippines. I then have a standing order to move money from my UK Bank to BPI (Europe) and then on-line move money from there to BPI branch here. Once set up....its just a few clicks and money is there at the ATM in reasonably quick time.

HTH

Pete M

quiltman

And me. works well. Did you send your docs to Equiniti by courier, or did you trust the highly efficient Philpost?

nrgiser

Hi Pete,

Thank you for your quick reply. I have been reading about this BPI Europe account on this forum. But I am of the understanding that I would have to travel back to the UK to open this account first. I don't plan on going back to the UK anytime soon, in fact since I have been here I have never gone back there. Plus they want a bank statement from my current bank account within the last 3 months to open an account, not an online statement, something I do not have as I went paperless many years ago. They also want some utility bills from my UK address in my name, again I do not have as my property in the UK is on a long term rental and all bills are in my renters name. This also applies to the council tax bill they want to see. And finally I do not have any recent governments issued documents from the UK as i have been in the Philippines for quite a few years already. I do not want to seem downbeat on your suggestion which is a great one if I was back in the UK a lot, but as it is with me, I have hardly any further connections to the UK anymore apart from a house that is on long term rental from me. But I do appreciate your feedback and suggestion. I just don't think this one will suit my needs.

Matt.

nrgiser

Hi Quiltman,

I used the highly efficient never lose anything PhilPost. Yep my fault but this was like 5 years ago and I did not know any better back then. Now if I can send those docs again to Equiniti it will be via a courier, that is if I can still move my pensions over from the UK to my MetroBank over here. I await to see if that is still possible after reading the article from the Telegraph. Thank you for your reply

Matt.

Philosophical 11

Matt,

Try emailing them [email protected] and put see if they can help. Nothing ventured...nothing gained.

There are Forex companies that you can use to transfer money from the UK to Phils.....but you may run into the same problems regarding paperwork.

Best of luck

Pete M

mikemike

No need to return to the Uk it easy peasy. The process you have outlined applies to those who have yet to leave the UK. I was here 12 years before I did that and I do not have any property in the UK

1/ Open a BPI account here first

2/ send email to BPI london, ask for Thea let her know you have a BPI account in the phils and wish to receive account opening docs, she will send.

3/ Have local BPI attest the documents and return the forms to the UK by rapid post, the account will be open in less than a week after docs are received and opening cheque cashed/cleared .

I did it that way and no problems

my UK BPI account receives my pension and stock market funds and I transfer on line in no time and the ATM card does the rest

The cost of funds transfer is very competitive and the exchange rate is hard to beat

nrgiser

Hi Pete,

Thank you for that suggestion, like you say nothing to lose if I explain the situation to them. Still hoping though that I can get my pension paid directly by Equiniti Paymaster to my bank account here in the Philippines. I hope someone on here can tell me. Thank you.

Matt.

nrgiser

Hi Mike,

Thank you for that suggestion, if I find that I can no longer get Equiniti Paymaster to pay me directly to my Philippine Bank Account here then this could be a way forward for me. Thanks again,

Matt.

mikemike

The BPI express on line was opened to ensure that I would have at least two financial avenues to and from the UK. So much can change re off shore compliance and banking laws you never know when you need a back up. interestingly enough it looks like BPI Italy have gone of line due to money laundering issues, I hope their clients have a back up. Must be the boy scout in me..''always be prepared''

quiltman

Just had email from BPI Europe - so called customer information update. Pages of it including the USA FACTA declaration! Even tho' i'm a UK citizen I still have to fill the form in - putting NO on every line. It's part of the tightened money laundering requirements but as Mikemike says, start from this end and work back. In our case, I opened a BPI Europe account 12 months before we moved here and they arranged a BPI peso account here before we moved. All I had to do was call in my nominated branch, show my passport and the email from BPI europe and I got all the account details and my ATM card. BPI are one of the better banks here I've found and the bpiexpressonline works very well. Yes, they have closed BPI Milan a few weeks ago, as mike says, likely for money laundering.

Stokkevn

You could reverse the operation. I opened a BPI account here ( initially a joint with my wife and subsequently one in my own name ) and after that a BPI Europe ( London ) account with nearly no questions at all, I just gave them my other two account numbers and everything was sorted.

calman014

There should be no problem in having your (forces) pension transferred to your foreign account. All the other stuff applies to regular UK pensions.

Try scanning your stuff and sending it by e-mail, and just to make sure, additionally by FedEx or UPS.

Please note that when you reach UK Pensionable Age your forces pension is automatically 'reduced' by a certain amount to compensate for your receipt of a UK state pension (they assume that you get one!). If like me you don't get one, you need to inform them of your lack of entitlement in order to avoid the reduction.

The exchange rates used by Equiniti are quite good so you won't lose much in currency transfers.

Good Luck.

nrgiser

Thank you to everyone for their suggestions on this post I am very appreciative. Calman you seem to be in the same boat as me, I am many many years away from receiving a state pension from the UK Government and probably when I get to that age it wont be around or you will have to be at least 85 before getting it, but it is something to bear in mind as I also have not paid enough contribution to National Insurance to be entitle to the full amount. And if they are just going to deduct my army pensions to pay for it, then there is no point paying any further NI contributions.

I will then ring Equiniti later today then via Skype and get the ball rolling. If that fails I now know I have BPI Europe option to fall back on to. Thank you again to all who had answers and suggestion for me. And I hope in the future I will be able to help someone on here too.

Matt.

calman014

Hello Nrgiser, You will probably need to take a look at UK state pension rules carefully via Internet. The most important factor for you is the number of qualifying years of paying into NI, as that is changing over from the old situation. If you don't have the minimum years accrued you won't receive ANYTHING at all. Above the qualifying period it will be a percentage of the state pension. In your case you need to look closely if you will in fact get anything out of it before stopping any NI payments. Good luck with that.