joleah

What has happened in Ontario especialy the GTA renting is unreal $2000 Aa month not to mention the housing market has gone insane half a million for an old house if you can get one.Young people now cannot buy a house when we came here was a little bit more stable although was never for me.As I get older extreme cold and heat are killing me.Cant go out in summer to warm cant go out in winter to cold.Flying back 23 April not looking though rose colored glasses Scotland has its faults to but its home.Sold house here and bought a nice wee bungalow in South Ayrshire.Evryone has to make there own choice but cannot see the attraction here if you imigrate to GTA now you had better have some money behind you ........All the best Joe

durham_lad

I’m sure you are very excited about getting back in April. You had asked before about setting up a bank account, did you manage that? How will you be moving your money over?

HSBC US have been closing accounts this last few months so this last couple of weeks I opened up a Wise borderless account which was actually very easy to do.

joleah

Thats what i ended up doing Wise relativly easy to do will see about opening a UK account once we are there.................

durham_lad

Good feedback - thanks.

I hope your move goes smoothly.

Nypool1e

Good morning folks, what is a Wise account, how does one open one please?

Nypool1e

Also joleah, good luck with your move back to Scotland, my wife & I will be 5 days behind you, although to England not Scotland.

durham_lad

Wise is a foreign exchange company that is among the cheapest in the business to use, and I have used it for years, it is great. It also has the option of adding a "Borderless account" in the denomination of your choice. In my case I have US pensions so I have my account in US $, but you can also choose UK £. Once set up you then have a UK and/or US bank routing number or UK sort code that works just like a regular bank account. Because HSBC US is closing a load of their accounts I recently added up a Wise borderless account and linked it to by US Brokerage where I draw money from my IRA accounts. Read about it on their website.

https://wise.com/

Nypool1e

Thanks for the info durham lad. My wife has an appointment with HSBC next week regarding opening an account with them in the UK, she’s not sure if she’s going to open an account with them for various reasons.

robin1234

I live in the far north of New York State, just 20 miles from Prescott, Ontario. I agree, the extreme winter cold and extreme summer heat is the worst thing in this region - and definitely age related! When we moved here in the 1990s, we bought cross country skis, snow shoes, canoes, kayaks etc. Now, I just can’t tolerate the weather extremes. It puts a huge dampener on gardening, walking and other outdoor activities. PLUS the other bad summer thing; biting insects.

We bought a flat in north Norfolk a few years ago, I love spending time there. But my wife won’t move there so it’s more of a holiday home.

One place that fascinates me, I fantasize about moving there, is Largs in Scotland. I love old seaside places with plenty of park benches on the promenade for us old folks to sit down and enjoy the view & people watching. Nardinis, Scotland’s finest Italian ice cream parlour. An hour from Glasgow by train. And presumably, mild winters and summers!

Twitcher1958

Largs is lovely - we lived just south of there for 6 years and it was a regular weekend outing. The ferry over to Cumbrae was always an exciting afternoon for our kids. Have you watched the recent Michael Portillo episodes when he visited Largs?

robin1234

Thanks for the tip - I’ll look for the Portillo episode, see if it’s available.

BEVS

[QUOTE=joleah;13105029As I get older extreme cold and heat are killing me.Cant go out in summer to warm cant go out in winter to cold.[/QUOTE]

I'm in New Zealand and I get this too. My internal thermostat is forever broken.

fulwood

Thanks for posting info on Wise bank. I will be getting inheritance soon from uncle in UK and as I reside in US I will consider using Wise bank. Estate is in probate right now

Helen1964

Just bear in mind that Wise is not actually a bank and that, while regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, it's not covered by the government compensation scheme.
It's a great half-way house rather than somewhere to keep large sums for long periods of time.

cyrian

Largs is like many seaside towns throughout the UK and has been in decline over several years.
I was there about 2 months ago and it was very busy with people walking around and a problem to find a parking space.
Part of the problem may be because of the pandemic but there were several empty shop units and a couple of banks had disappeared.
Helensburgh; Largs and Ayr have been badly affected.
Nardini's is still there and we tried to get a coffee but they were full.
The other cafes available were not appealing and we ended up in a rather grubby Starbucks (I think it was Starbucks).
We used the sea front carpark but the exit barrier went faulty and we had to sit and wait until someone came to open it.
We didn't stay long apart from the queue to exit the carpark.
A walk along the front towards the Pencil is always nice but it was blowing a hoolie and we didn't bother.
I think that Ayr - once a lovely thriving town - is the worst.