Bo-Jangles

Indeed, I have an old Halifax account which I left open to pay a Direct Debit and only ever used occasionally online. This served a useful purpose for a while but all went horribly wrong when I stuffed up the login.

They had allowed me to change to a NZ address from the UK but then refused to send me anything other than obligatory notifications about interest rate changes - meaning I couldn't get a new security code and they won't even send me a statement, far less send a replacement for my long since expired credit card.

Thankfully their computer must have had a fit recently and seems to have forgotten that they were refusing to communicate with me - so I have a shiny new debit card which I could potentially use for some online shopping or maybe I might try to get some cash at the ATM if I can remember the password.

Other than that my only option to get money was to write myself a cheque - which I have done on occasion. Trouble is I don't have any idea how much is left in the account because they won't friggin tell me.

janiejones

We've kept our Nationwide account, they use our NZ address without any problems.

Snap Shot

We kept our old UK bank. We filled out a form prior to coming to NZ, a p85 or something like that. To tell the bank what we were doing.

I've got my UK bank cheque book and ATM card. Those are some of the, 'seeds' that I will grow my life in Britain with should we ever return. The cheque book has been useful when sending occasional small cheques as presents to UK relatives.

I've also got a Barclaycard with a zero balance. Recently, after spending no money for three and a half years, i.e. the time we've been in NZ, I got a two thousand pound credit limit increase !

We strived to settle our debts prior to leaving Britain. However, we ended up paying off the last four and a half thousand pounds owing on a credit card balance from the proceeds of the house. Something I really didn't want to do but it just seemed to be the easiest quickest way to get rid. Technically we still 'owe' ourselves the money i.e. $9,000 or we owe it to the house as it would have gone/will go on the house. How much new carpet & lino will $9,000 buy ? Rhetorical question.