vivsim

Hi Jasper,
See earlier posts re. Santander in Isle of Man. An initial deposit of only one pound is required. I opened my account with more than that, although not a huge amount. I wanted the account, like you, specifically to receive my UK state pension.
You don't have much time if you have to close a Co-op account.
Good luck.

Llaregub

It seems that Santander is the only option. I'm in Oz and have just received a very curt letter from HSBC Guernsey that my account will be closed in February. It seems that all UK based banks are closing expat accounts. Is this the result of EU legislation. Can anyone confirm that Santander is the only option for transferring my account and, if they have transferred themselves, comment on the quality of the on-line service please

Llaregub

Gday VivSim
It seems that Santander is the only option. I'm in Oz and have just received a very curt letter from HSBC Guernsey that my account will be closed in February. It seems that all UK based banks are closing expat accounts. Is this the result of EU legislation. What is the quality of the on-line service please and what requirements do they have for opening the account remotely.

vivsim

Hi Llaleub
I can't claim to have exhausted the possibilities, but I looked at a lot of options. The two best suited to my needs are Standard and Santander. Unfortunately, Standard has rather high fees and minimum balance requirements. There's more on that in earlier posts. It's worth reading all of them. As to Santander, it seems that only the Isle of Man branch offers the account I took. Other Santander branches have deposit requirements and transaction fees.
I'm convinced I've made the right choice. Nick99 thought the Santander site might be awful but, actually, it's not at all bad.
Why are they doing this? I really don't know, but I suspect they weren't making enough money out of ex-pats, many of whom need accounts just to receive the fast-eroding frozen UK pensions.
If you call Santander, Isle of Man, they'll e-mail you the necessary application documents. I found them very helpful.

nick99

I am going to be looking again for a UK expat account with low fees and low minimum balance. Standard in IOM have been fine for service but now my new Dutch bank also wants a substantial deposit to be on deposit with them at all times.

When you consider Standard want GBP4000 on permanent deposit (or they will charge GBP30/month), plus 15-20 for transfers, plus 0% interest on the deposit its getting a bit tiresome. It was annoying that they bumped all their requirements just after I signed up.

Vivsim, I have just emailed Santander IOM to see if they have launched a cheap/simple current account yet.

Llaregub

The reason that Coop, HSBC etc closed accounts was that the Guernsey government, under I am sure duress from the EU, brought in a new rule that only residents of Guernsey could hold accounts there.
I spoke to Santander and went through the process to open an account but after going through 4 stages of providing information, I gave up when they wanted more information about my doing the odd transfers to UAE for my daughter's birthdays etc. They were very helpful but in the end I couldn't be bothered continuing.
It seems that the highly corrupt EU money launderers are intent on ensuring that Joe Bloggs can't try to do the odd GBP100. So be prepared for an interrogation because if the EU gets the slightest chance it will close down the IOM Santander operation too.

JAJ

Really? Except that it's not true. Of course non-residents can hold bank accounts in Guernsey.

The Co-Operative Bank decided to close its Guernsey operation because (presumably) the costs of doing business in Guernsey no longer justified the benefits.

And as for HSBC, not clear why the Guernsey government should be blamed for the decisions of a corporation to restructure operations and/or withdraw from a particular market.

Llaregub

I received a letter stating that HSBC was closing non-resident accounts because the government had banned them. HSBC was not closing its branches in Guernsey.

JAJ

Really? Banned them? And the relevant law in Guernsey that bans non-residents from holding bank accounts there is .... ?

Perhaps there is confusion with the fact that Guernsey's offshore-focused retail banking sector is relatively small compared to what is available in Jersey or the Isle of Man. And many of the retail providers have either shut their operations entirely, or have restructured to focus only on Guernsey based business, as HSBC appear to have done. Which may involve terminating a Guernsey banking licence. Which may in turn lead some to think that it was a government ban rather a voluntary termination of business.