Will UK banks recall your overdraft/credit card if you move abroad?
Jul 22nd 2012, 10:11 pm
#1
Just Joined
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 12
Will UK banks recall your overdraft/credit card if you move abroad?
Hi all,
My girlfriend and I will be moving to NZ this August. Between the both of us, we have a few accounts:
Halifax - still has 1 year of interest free overdraft (ex-Student account)
RBS - still has 3 years of interest free overdraft (ex-Student account)
First Direct's Credit Card (promotional 0% period)
Nationwide Credit Card (promotional 0% period)
Santander Zero account & credit card - for fee free usage abroad
We committed a big part of our savings previously to fixed rate savings.
Now we have a few options:
a. Withdraw some of the savings early and paying the interest penalty to repay the debts above fully.
b. Reduce the amount that we are remitting to NZ.
c. Keep savings going, and repay the lending nearing their expiry date.
Option c. is of course the most preferable. My girlfriend and I do have relatives in the UK (so can change the address to theirs), but of course we prefer to have any correspondence directed to us in NZ.
Will giving the banks above a foreign address lead to automatic recall of the lending?
Thanks for any previous experience/advice!
My girlfriend and I will be moving to NZ this August. Between the both of us, we have a few accounts:
Halifax - still has 1 year of interest free overdraft (ex-Student account)
RBS - still has 3 years of interest free overdraft (ex-Student account)
First Direct's Credit Card (promotional 0% period)
Nationwide Credit Card (promotional 0% period)
Santander Zero account & credit card - for fee free usage abroad
We committed a big part of our savings previously to fixed rate savings.
Now we have a few options:
a. Withdraw some of the savings early and paying the interest penalty to repay the debts above fully.
b. Reduce the amount that we are remitting to NZ.
c. Keep savings going, and repay the lending nearing their expiry date.
Option c. is of course the most preferable. My girlfriend and I do have relatives in the UK (so can change the address to theirs), but of course we prefer to have any correspondence directed to us in NZ.
Will giving the banks above a foreign address lead to automatic recall of the lending?
Thanks for any previous experience/advice!
Jul 23rd 2012, 12:00 am
#2
Forum Regular
Joined: Dec 2010
Location: Manurewa, AKL
Posts: 165
Re: Will UK banks recall your overdraft/credit card if you move abroad?
Hi
I can offer a bit of knowledge as a former RBS / Natwest bank manager, personal lending manager in one of their back office sites and Santander branch manager. Having been out the UK for a while now I'll also share what's happened with mine.
If you have a facility on the current accounts but no income going through for a number of months then you may have your od limit revised or removed. Normally they will start with a letter to say there has been no credits in recently and asking you to pay in. Its best to have some standing orders set up to cycle some money around your accounts monthly so it looks like they are still in use. That should avoid the problem as a credit is a credit and that's all the systems look for.
Student accounts may have different terms as the interest free period is sold as a benefit of the account so there may be grounds for a facility to be kept without any movement on the account. Check the small print.
If you just make minimum cc repayments then they will send you letters advising that paying the minimums means you will take longer and pay more to clear the balance but are unlikely to ask for the balance to be repaid in full because they are cancelling your account as you are now out the country. Make sure you keep making the payments on time though!
My girlfriend and I left the UK in August 2010. Since then I have had regular income going in to my Natwest current account from rent paid by a tenant in the property I still own there. One month his rent was late and because I didn't have a credit in for over 30 days I got a letter through asking to pay money in.
I have a relationship manager on my account as former staff so it's managed and viewed a bit differently. I've had the same od limit though since I left and having made some changes on the account recently there was still no mention made of reducing the limit.
There are also dd's coming out the account for the mortgage and various credit cards all set to minimum payments (really must do something about that!)
Santander removed the od limits we had with them without advising us. We had not used the account at all for a number of months though. This is the account we used while travelling for the free ATm withdrawals abroad. Once the money ran out though we stopped using it altogether. Must get it closed down!
To sum up having a foreign address won't lead to the banks calling in the credit but inactivity on the accounts will likely cause some issues or be picked up.
Hope that helps.
Where abouts are you moving to?
I can offer a bit of knowledge as a former RBS / Natwest bank manager, personal lending manager in one of their back office sites and Santander branch manager. Having been out the UK for a while now I'll also share what's happened with mine.
If you have a facility on the current accounts but no income going through for a number of months then you may have your od limit revised or removed. Normally they will start with a letter to say there has been no credits in recently and asking you to pay in. Its best to have some standing orders set up to cycle some money around your accounts monthly so it looks like they are still in use. That should avoid the problem as a credit is a credit and that's all the systems look for.
Student accounts may have different terms as the interest free period is sold as a benefit of the account so there may be grounds for a facility to be kept without any movement on the account. Check the small print.
If you just make minimum cc repayments then they will send you letters advising that paying the minimums means you will take longer and pay more to clear the balance but are unlikely to ask for the balance to be repaid in full because they are cancelling your account as you are now out the country. Make sure you keep making the payments on time though!
My girlfriend and I left the UK in August 2010. Since then I have had regular income going in to my Natwest current account from rent paid by a tenant in the property I still own there. One month his rent was late and because I didn't have a credit in for over 30 days I got a letter through asking to pay money in.
I have a relationship manager on my account as former staff so it's managed and viewed a bit differently. I've had the same od limit though since I left and having made some changes on the account recently there was still no mention made of reducing the limit.
There are also dd's coming out the account for the mortgage and various credit cards all set to minimum payments (really must do something about that!)
Santander removed the od limits we had with them without advising us. We had not used the account at all for a number of months though. This is the account we used while travelling for the free ATm withdrawals abroad. Once the money ran out though we stopped using it altogether. Must get it closed down!
To sum up having a foreign address won't lead to the banks calling in the credit but inactivity on the accounts will likely cause some issues or be picked up.
Hope that helps.
Where abouts are you moving to?
