Bijilo123

Good sensible response!

Bijilo123

If you are non-resident for tax purposes then keeping an account open is meaningless - completely non taxable except for interest above your personal allowance. But if you are trying to be non-dom status (and this is rocking horse shit) then it might. If you remit to that bank from abroad then you run the risk of it being taxed and that risk is increasinging. - so you are right but it is not the complete story.

Tr1boy

We just had to write an answer to a 'please explain' letter from HSBC. When we were in the UK in 2006 we had no trouble opening accounts (mainly because my UK licence was in the same address as Mum and Dad's where we were staying).
M account has stayed open with no issue, but Mrs Triboy's had some 'irregular activity, in that a large sum of money went into it, and 3 mths later (when we came back here) it was withdrawn. Mrs Tr1boy isn't a British citizen so it kind of look weird.

Anyway seems to be sorted now, especially when we explained that we are coming back to the UK.

Definitely keep them open and if you have family there it doesn't hurt to get them to throw in a tenner now and then

Jay Bird

Update on my suggestion......I've just been to Barclays to organise a savings account and was told I didn't need proof of address! I nearly fell on the floor. If only this branch of Barclays was right in the centre of town, instead of halfway down the hill, I would have remembered about it and gone there four weeks ago! Ah well, just thought I'd let you know............

SueG

We currently live in Spain but have kept accounts going with Nationwide and Lloyds TSB both with my Mother's address on. Opted out of all post and statements and do everything online including very occasionally using credit card and pay that online as well. It does seem to work for us and also when we go back for visits we have no problems.

scampicat

We moved to Spain four years ago.

We kept open accounts at two banks and two Building Societies (basically we didn't close any of our accounts). The one BS wouldn't register us to a Spanish address, but luckily we still have our UK house so kept that address. The others, no problem at all with the Spanish address.

I have since opened other accounts with no problem *but with the same banks).

We also kept open my credit card as although we can't afford to use it much now, it does have a ten grand credit limit on it - one never knows when an emergency might occur that this would be needed.

All the bank accounts (including our Spanish one) and the credit card account I manage online.

We have also kept ourselves on the electoral roll as non-resident voters (we have a proxy vote) and can exercise our right to vote in Parliamentary and European elections.

We have also kept on the books with our private dentist whom we visit once a year. I realise this is not a possibility if you live in Australia or Canada!

My husband has a Government Pension, so has to pay UK tax on this.

Our move here was never intended to be permanent and when we want to be UK residents again, we want the move to be as seamless as possible.

Jay Bird

Mr Oldbag used to come over from Canada once a year to go to his dentist here......it was cheaper to do that than pay the extortionate dental fees in Canada!
Now we're back home it's a 10 minute walk.

scampicat

Oh wow, and there's me thinking that the £450 we paid this year between us for dental treatment was extortionate.

You must have to re-mortgage your house to have treatment in Canada!

Our dentist will only be a five-minute walk away once we are back in the UK. Then again, in England we are on the outskirts of a Midlands city, so EVERYTHING is close.

Pollyana

Thanks! Sounds like its not a problem for me then

Jay Bird

The cost of a filling, for example, is based on the size of the filling, and where it is on the actual tooth. The dentist will not look at you 'til you've seen the hygeinist....based in the same practice......Mr O was quoted $1500 for one small filling in a back tooth. And don't even ask about bridge-work! Yes, much cheaper here, and just as good a result.

Pamela 1

I don't know where smalltown in Ontario is/was, but our dentist in Scarborough Ontario charges nowhere near the same as you paid. If we have a filling it is $300.00 at the most.

Jay Bird

Where we lived, until we gained our freedom, was Seaforth (Southwestern Ontario, roughly 300+ miles from you). The dentists I referred to were in Stratford, Goderich, London....and Seaforth, which surprisingly wasn't the most expensive. So,if I were you I'd hang on to your Scarborough dentist. Years ago, when we lived in Pickering Village, we had a lovely dentist (Dr Hag), but we also had a dental plan back then........happy days!

backagen

Well that's certainly very good news for all of us going back with no existing UK account. I'll go straight to Barclays when I arrive!

lisajhb

HHmmm! Barclays. Now dont get me started.:curse: Moved back to uk about 6 weeks ago and have had a few hassles, many of which have been talked about many times; problems with getting a credit score, and proof of address and so on. As an aside, without a credit score I cant even get a contract for a mobile phone and so on, so am on pay as you go even for internet. Anyway, barclays...well, as many have advised, I kept a barclays account on the back burner. I had had it for about 12 years. It had a debit card with it and I had made sure I used it from time to time, and everything got sent to my parents address. However, it hadnt been used for about a year, or rather, they hadnt sent me a new card after the last one expired in the autumn of last year. I hadnt clicked this until about spring of this year. Anyway, 6 weeks ago, popped into barclays and asked for a new card and cheque book. That first order was automatically cancelled by the bank as they said the account had been dormant. So, they got re ordered. Then, we asked them to change ot to a joint account, after the bank advised that it would be easier to do this rather than open a new joint account. Well, after having to show our council tax bill and passports etc, the personal banker advised us that we could transfer money from our bank account abroad. so, we did that, only to recieve a letter 2 days later from the barclays fraud office, saying that my account was to be closed down in 7 days time. no explanations. just a snotty letter. so, the branch didnt want to help, and we had to phone the number on the letter. the guy sarcastically told me that it was very convenient that i now suddenly wanted to use the account. Well, it would have been more convenient if you hadnt decided to close it without any explanations! well, the next thing we know, on the day before it was due to close, popped in and asked for the balance. I got a heart attack when they told me i was in the red for many thouands of pounds. They had accepted the money we had transferd into the account, only to reject it the next day.!!!? then, the same amount was sent out of my account again, to some unkown destination. so not only did i not have the money i had sent, but i was now in the red. their reaction was really shitty. i was told no one on the branch could help and was again sent to phone a number. to cut a long story short, no one can say whats going on and i am in the red. this was 5 days ago and still nothing, apart from letters from barclays tellling me i owe them dosh and informing me of their bank charges. as you can imagine i am well cheesed off. I am annoyed not just about the situ that i find myself in, of thier making, but also at their really crappy customer care. The moral of this rather rambling rant, is to not only keep an account open, and to use it, but dont try and add anyone else onto it, especially someone with a foreign ID. Another problem we have found by the way, just to reiterate what others have said, is that no one will give us any sort of credit, not even a debit card. Good old nationwide, where i had also kept an account open, cant give us a credit score. so, never mind that we wnat to transfer loads a money over, as we dont have an income at the mo, no debit card. you can forget a credit card.
welcome home!!:curse:

scampicat

Oh dear, what a palaver, but illustrates the point that it might be a good idea to keep a UK Credit card and use it occasionally too.

We use my credit card to book flights/ferries (then pay it off when the statement comes) and we have used my husband's for a 0% balance transfer until March. We will pay it off in full in March and then after that use it occasionally.

His credit card is rather a bonus in a way, we thought we had cancelled it and therefore didn't tell them we had moved abroad. When we visited our house in the UK last year there was a letter from them offering this balance transfer. So we decided it was a good idea to use the card and keep the credit facility. All the documentation goes to our UK address (our son lives there so he phones us and tells us what it says) and the account is managed online.

So..keep both a bank account AND a credit card and use them every so often, seems to be the way to go.

lisa, I hope you get your barclays sorted out soon.