UK bank account when in NZ
 

The bank thread reminded me of a question. At the moment I do most of the food and groceries shopping for my parents online via Tesco. Tesco happily take my UK bank account VISA debit card; I do an online order from 350 miles away and they deliver to parents house.

How does this work if I make it to NZ? I think some people have mentioned they still have UK bank accounts but don't you need a UK home address for that?

Re: UK bank account when in NZ
 

My UK bank refused to support me in NZ but my own fault I did not question them before I left so I had to close the account and open a Lloyds Offshore Account IOM. The wife's bank is happy to support her with a NZ address. I would check with your bank and maybe even open an extra supportive account before you leave, or just open an Offshore Account...(sounds posh doesn't it !)

Re: UK bank account when in NZ
 

You can keep your UK bank account open. I think you may need to fill out a form P85 to advise them that you will be out of the country. Google, 'Form P85' as I can't remember where we got ours from.

Don't rely on some drongo at the bank to have a clue. This is the rest of your life here, not some minimum wage drone at the other end of the phone in a call centre.

We have an HSBC bank account in Britain. We didn't open an HSBC bank account in NZ as it would have been like opening a new account, being existing HSBC customers albeit overseas didn't seem to mean anything.

There's some account or other that HSBC operate that you can take with you overseas or perhaps I'm just referring to an old advert from five years ago. I looked into it and it seemed complicated and expensive and you needed to have quite a high balance and be able to make large deposits into it i.e. be earning shed loads. So I just thought, 'och, nae bother, I'll get a local account in NZ.'

Re: UK bank account when in NZ
 

As you see it depends which bank....
Can I Keep My British Bank Account Open When I Move Abroad?

Re: UK bank account when in NZ
 

we kept out uk bank accounts but transferred the home address to MrF's parents address.

Re: UK bank account when in NZ
 

Nationwide are quite happy for me to have an overseas address.

Re: UK bank account when in NZ
 

We are with RBS and are ok with us having a NZ address.

Re: UK bank account when in NZ
 

I use my brother's London address as my home address for my UK account.

Re: UK bank account when in NZ
 

And us!

Re: UK bank account when in NZ
 

The issue is that some shops don't allow you to have items delivered to any address other than that which is the billing address on the credit card (particuarly supermarkets for some reason).

Re: UK bank account when in NZ
 

I have kept my First Direct accounts open for the last 2 1/2 years with no problem. I use it for all sorts of purchases. I chose not to have paper statements but you HAVE to have one for credit cards apparently, and they send me a monthly one.

Re: UK bank account when in NZ
 

If the supermarkets are difficult about billing addresses vs shipping addresses (presumably not because you're already doing this) could you consider being added to your parents bank account as a joint signatory? That way the shipping and delivery address are the same.

Re: UK bank account when in NZ
 

And us.
We still have all our Nationwide accounts. The only one they wouldn't renew was the credit card when it expired.
Wife also still has her Natwest accounts.
Easy to operate them over the Internet.

Re: UK bank account when in NZ
 

Lots of helpful replies, thanks :D

Nationwide were a bank we were going to talk to soon anyway so I'll add NZ residency to that conversation when it happens. :thumbup:

I'll follow the link and do some more reading over the weekend.

For reasons relating to different UK jurisdictions I can't be on their bank account at the moment. That might change if we move to NZ but would need investigating and is not something I think my mother would agree too anyway as I'm still the daft youngest child with no money sense ;)

Looks like the credit vs debit card could be the thing that trips us up as I don't have a credit card. I'll make sure I check that out when talking to banks.

Re: UK bank account when in NZ
 

My bank were fine about living the address as my mums in the uk