Hello all! I'll be moving to Australia early next year and have been doing lots of planning and research, but still really confused about:

1. how to keep a UK phone number active and roaming (at least able to receive text messages, ideally also able to make or receive phone calls if needed)
2. which UK bank will allow me to keep my accounts while being a resident in Australia and non-UK resident.

I've found a lot of information about restrictions on EU roaming (SIMs being blocked from roaming if you stay in the EU for too long) and also news about UK banks forcefully closing accounts of people living in the EU due to Brexit, but it's not really clear if that's just the EU or everywhere including Australia.

So any fellow Brits already in Australia able to give me some advice on these topics?

If you are moving to AU, why keep UK number?

Quite a few AU Sims come with calls to UK included - Aldi 's $29 plan is one.

As for banking, that's probably more challenging. I still have my main account after 12 years here, which is Santander and the use my AU phone for 2FA, but I've also had some accounts closed (closed was Barclays who I think closed all accounts for all overseas, but only from what I've read).

Some people advocate for Wise, but not true bank accounts so not protected. I see Revolut advertised here which I know you can have in UK but not sure if it's the same.

Banking-wise, a lot of people mention HSBC. Barclays are definitely no good as many people on here reported their accounts being closed in the last few years. I was in Aus from 2003 until 2022 and I kept my Lloyds account the whole time. They had my Aus address, listed me as 'not UK resident' and were happy to send new credit/debit cards in the mail to Aus when needed.

As for a SIM card, again I kept my UK number going the whole time I was there, proved incredibly handy for trips home. Its with EE (when I went out it was Orange, but the company became EE some years back). In the early days friends bought vouchers, sent me the details, and I did PAYG top-ups from that. In later years I could top-up online each month.

We still have nationwide accounts here and they send new cards etc. the new app can’t be verified so we just use online bank. We also have a santander account which works fine.
we do keep a Uk phone sim from TESCO to receive texts from nationwide as they refuse to send to an overseas number!

our Aldi sim allows calls abroad to landlines and mobiles no problem. When we travel we get an e sim and use wise card for currency plus our nationwide credit card which has no foreign fee and a decent rate as a back up.

HSBC willingly kept my account open. Nationwide initially wanted to close my account. Barclay did close my account. I can use HSBC with my US phone number. I was using UK vonage to access my nationwide after they stopped using the little ID machines. Capital one is the only card that still works without a uk postcode. Nationwide credit card used to do free foreign transactions but stated charging a couple of years ago. EE canceled my pay as you go line after about 4 years. Not sure why but probably due to lack of uk based activity. That was annoying as I got no warning.

Nationwide are happy for us to change, but still use inlaws address for now
Barclays closed us for lack of use
One downside, looks like sending new debit cards over have been lost , hopefully just delayed as they sometimes are
You are able to remove the card reader from your account now (but need it with the physical card to register- which we don't have)
Do not forgot your card reader !!!!

By the way, I got the Nwide app to work, you get a new google account and say you are UK based. Go to google play with that account and it worked .

Have three payg sim for auth/ texts. Only need to use every 180 days
They have roaming packagaes - special one with aus I think where you get the 3-2-1 deal, sms /data/calls (in some order, never used it)
Pre pay coles has free UK calls, recently surprised to find 0800 numbers work for free.

General advice, sort it all out before you come eg download/register/set up authentication on any apps
With all the hoops and id verification it won't be long before it won't be possible anymore unless you are with an expat friendly organisation, so best to do some research and make sure you set up with one that is

I have had huge problems with Virgin Money (was Clydesdale Bank). They said they were closing all accounts of non UK residents but I needed a UK type account as I have 2 forms of income from UK. I opened a UK type account with Wise and my income is now paid in there. Every attempt to transfer the remaining balance from Virgin to Wise has been blocked by Virgin. I had several long, expensive phone calls trying to resolve it but it still got blocked. We are now at the point that Virgin have agreed to keep the account open as long as I agree to have my UK state pension paid into it (when I start getting it in March 2026).