EuroTrash

Well I suspect that in fact the registered address of the client is what makes all the difference. Like VAT - what matters is where the client is resident. Eg if you are a business based France providing an online or mail order service, then how you deal with VAT depends on the address you put on the invoice. Even if you mail the item to an address in your own country rather than in the client's country, or to a different country altogether, it's the client's address that determines what VAT is payable. If your client is in the US then you're trading or providing a service to the US; if your client lives in the EU then you're trading or providing a service to the EU. I think. So the issue here would be that if you live in the EU the bank may quiite simply not be entitled to provide a service to you, ie provide you with a bank account.

From the link I gave, it seems that the issue is basically the same as all the fuss last week about the EU blocking trade between GB and NI - it's not that the EU wants to stop food being transported between GB/NI, or to stop UK banks operating in the EU, it's that the EU is not unreasonably asking the UK for assurances on food standards and financial standards before it gives the green light, and the UK won't provide those assurances. It keeps saying that it's a sovereign nation and it can set whatever rules it likes. And apparently it's so sovereign that doesn't see why it should tell anyone what those rules will be.

BuckinghamshireBoy

dmu, have you seen this article?

scrubbedexpat056

That's not good.

scrubbedexpat056

For what it's worth I went into my Nationwide today and short answer, no idea, wait for the bank to contact us.

BuckinghamshireBoy

Exactly so. I maybe didn't explain it very well, what I was meaning to get at was that it seems that it's not a blanket pull-out across the board, each bank is handling it differently.

dmu said that she was with Lloyds, as am I. Neither France nor Belgium are on "the list". One of our members living in the Netherlands (which is on "the list") received notification of closure a couple of weeks ago.

EuroTrash

This answers my question about EU banks operating in the UK
https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...arclays-brexit
"while the UK has legislated so that EU banks can continue to provide services for customers in Britain, the EU has not done the same."

scrubbedexpat056

I've just discovered that those of us with a Britline euro account can open a separate sterling account for a minimum of 1000 sterling to open. The downsides are that you don't get a debit card or cheque book and that all dealings between the bank and a UK bank, both ways, incur a fee of 20.85 euro. Far from ideal, but could be necessary, at least until something better comes up. It may well simply be a conveniently packaged service that allows what any french bank would offer ie. accepting or sending money in sterling in exchange for a fee.

scrubbedexpat056

I just looked up Transferwise as mentioned by EuroTrash. At a glance their rates for transferring money seem much cheaper than Britline.

G-J-B

I was thinking of using Transferwise if necessary. It's odd because the .com website gets good ratings on Trustpilot but the UK version of the same site gets terrible trustpilot reviews. I'm also considering WorldFirst - they seem to have a good reputation, but it's all quite new to me, so I will have to see.
I'm hoping my UK bank stays open as I have a direct debit set up to pay my NI contributions, so that would cause me a headache trying to find an alternative form of payment each month. My other bank which looks like it will definitely stay open, is just a saver account, so no possibility to set up direct debits.

Helen1964

I don’t have a Transferwise borderless account but have used them many times to do transfers. They were brilliant.

G-J-B

I'm sure they're good, but those who use them regularly had complained that they weren't what they used to be, and customer service has significantly declined. I guess they're regulated by the FCA, so they must be pretty trustworthy; I did read about people having funds held up for weeks at a time though - not good if the money is needed in a hurry, but I doubt it happens often.

Thairetired2016

My husband years ago was told to close his account in UK as he no longer had a UK address. He had a German address at the time. Bank was Barclays. Just recently he could not sell shares as he is based in Asia. He needed a broker. A UK broker refused to open an account as my husband wasn't resident in UK. We found a way round the problem thanks to a forum member. Banking is getting a bit more bureaucratic.

EuroTrash

Not sure what "the UK version of the same site" means. When I log on, everything comes up in French but I manage all my accounts (£, € and £) from the same place, you don't log in to different sites for your UK account, your French account etc.
I've had Borderless accounts for years and have had one or two queries along the way (everything from What's happened with this transaction? to Do I need to declare all my accounts separately to the fisc on my tax return, and if so, how do I do it?) and I've always had an extremely prompt, helpful and civil reply from customer services, even when it's turned out I've been asking a daft question. On the last occasion they'd changed the way you contact them and I had trouble finding the details; I told them this in the email and the person apologised and said they would pass my comment on to their website developers. I used to use Transferwise mainly for moving money, but after returning to the UK last year I started using them as my main euro business account, because I was still freelancing from the UK for my French clients and I didn't dare have payments made into my French account in case the fisc thought I was working in France on the black! No problems, and there are advantages such as you get an automatic email each time a payment goes into your acccount, so it saves you having to keep logging on to see if so-and-so has paid yet. I also have a bank card that I can use for online transactions and to withdraw cash.

G-J-B

Hi EuroTrash. Yes, it redirects to the French one for me too, but there exists the name of the company followed by .uk and they have their own trustpilot review page (same site, just the UK version) where it gets 1.5/5 stars. Their main .com site does considerably better in the reviews. I'm not sure why this discrepancy exists.
For my own needs I would only have to transfer a lump sum as a one off really. Actually I'd probably do a small sum first to make sure it went smoothly and then come back to do the rest.
I'm hoping it won't be necessary; guess I'll have to wait and see.

EuroTrash

If you just want to transfer money, you probably don't need to set up Borderless accounts, I think you can do currency transfers without. But for anyone who thinks they are about to lose their UK bank account, they might want to consider setting up a TW Borderless account to switch over any direct debits etc.