Raymate

Moved to Toronto a couple of years ago now, my bank accounts back in the UK are at my old address that my family still lives at so, my paper work goes there.

Is it a good idea to keep the address for myself as the UK address or should I change my address details with the UK banks to be my Canadian address?

I have two UK accounts, should I change one bank to Canada and keep one as UK address.

What are the rules, and the plus and minus of changing.

I was hearing that keeping at least one account open in the UK is a good idea, for me its handy as I can use my UK bank card when I'm back in the UK

Jingsamichty

Always good to keep a UK bank account at a UK address.

agr

Our UK HSBC accounts are registered to our Canadian address. The debit & credit cards still work. There are some retarded UK web sites that won't accept foreign cardholder addresses, but these are gradually being updated (eg thetrainline.com).
If there is a case for retaining UK addresses on UK bank accounts, I'd be interested to hear it.

Atlantic Xpat

I have a UK bank account with First Direct. They use my Canadian address and seem perfectly happy with that.

Jingsamichty

There are certain times when it's useful to appear to be UK-resident. Having a UK bank account with a UK address certainly eases that appearance.

fledermaus

We have one too. They keep sending us letters saying we should transfer the money to another type of account as we live abroad. We ring them up and agree to this and then nothing happens.

Confusing. I had only good experiences with First Direct when we were in the UK, the international part hasn't been so good.

Atlantic Xpat

That's odd. I have very little communication with FD & infrequently access the few thousand left there as emergency travel home money. Most of the communication though is 'here's your new credit card' and 'we're pleased to review your overdraft facility' (which I don't need, nor use.) There's never been any hint of you might find another account or bank more in line with your needs.

fledermaus

I'll pm you about this if you don't mind.

Mike Gas

So are you going to expand on why you wish to appear a UK resident.

Jingsamichty

Nothing sinister, it's just a case of lallowing people believe what they want to believe because they see a UK address in front of them, e.g. access to UK mortgages, credit cards etc. If you're able to maintain a UK address for UK business, why complicate it with a Canadian address?

SambaDeAmigo

Barclays never changed my address to a foreign one, after about 20 requests.

The4BellsLondon

Indeedy!

Souvy

I've never had any problems. Barclays have been quite happy for me to keep my accounts and have a Canadian billing address. The only thing I have to remember is to tell them when I am visiting the UK (or my card won't work).

Now I think of it, they did advise me to change accounts a couple of years ago. The one I then had included some sort of credit facility, which I didn't need and for which I was being charged. That was noticed by one of their staff while I was making a telephone transfer. She suggested I switch to something else and did it on the spot.

Paul_Shepherd

I totally aggree with this, closing everything down or changing addresses to a Canadian one, seems to greatly complicate matters with what your allowed to do with your bank account and the services it offers - and also other related issues with it.....for example a UK mortgage. It shouldnt - its your money after all! and having access to sterling is also advantageous. Sometimes I feel the less people know about your new life in Canada the better, it just seems to over complicate things and create unimportant issues if they do.

woodmanbg

We still have our Nationwide accounts. They have no problem with us having a Canadian address, the only problem seems to be their DP department is unable to allow a Canadian address to be inserted when trying to register your new address on line! We have tried many times to get the address shown correctly and each time they balls it up.

I have had correspondence with them telling them that if they do not include our PO Box number in the address correspondence will get returned to them. Although we have ticked the paperless option they still send some things through the post and on one occasion this was returned to them as it had not included the PO Box number and my OH's account was frozen!

They have told us not to worry that they have marked our records accordingly - fills you with confidence doesnt it!