Moo52

Hi all we have lived in CT for 18 months, we kept our UK bank accounts and credit cards but sold our home (using parents address for banks etc). My husbands company wants to move us back over the summer. My main question is has anyone obtained a UK mortgage while living oversea’s. We have contacted a few banks and they will not give a mortgage as we are not resident. HSBC I know do mortgages but for some reason they have turned us down. Just wanted some advise is it possible or and I going to do something very illegal???😳
TIA
Gemma

Benson55

Very hard unless you have a huge deposit and a huge amount of money to temp the banks with.
Have you tried Barclays Wealth management.

Moo52

Thanks we are waiting for a call back from Braclays so keeping our fingers crossed.

durham_lad

Much easier when you have lots of money, but by law the 9 biggest banks are required to offer a basic fee-free checking account

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.u...-bank-accounts

MidAtlantic

The OP has bank accounts, they are asking about getting a mortgage.

You may do better approaching a mortgage broker. They often have choices which are not generally available. Even then I think you may be struggling, until you get yourselves established back in the UK.

Moo52

Thank you, yep may need to get back and rent for a few months

durham_lad

Doh!!

So he is, I better lay off this

VeryVeritas

I met with HSBC bank representatives on a recent trip to find out what sort of mortgage products they offered and whether we qualified. If you have a premier account with them and unlimited right to enter/leave the country, they have a number of very competitive mortgage options. The premier account does require a minimum balance--but you can potentially satisfy this in a number of ways and link a US and a UK account, as it is the latter that will enable you to take advantage of UK mortgage lending through them. If you have a chunk of savings from the sale of your house, or US retirement accounts such as an IRA, or brokerage, direct deposit of income, etc. you can potentially meet the deposit minimum which I believe is 100K USD. However, having only recently left the UK and assuming you had established credit there, and that you are buying a primary residence versus an investment property, I would think there are more options available to you than just this.

Benson55

HSBC told me in Canada is was $200,000 into the Premier account and they will assist in setting up at the other end in the UK including mortgage application with them as long as working, so no good when retired.
I opened a free fee lower account with the intention os upgrading when ready to return to UK, they will open the account with an Advanced or Premier account.
The issue I had is that the currency exchange rate is above the interbank rate, a bit like Paypal does to make themselves more fees.
The Clark I sat with suggested putting the $200k in here and then transferring it over there using Transferwise which would save around 4% in rates.