lucius

We are going to be moving to the US soon and also selling our house here so we won't have a UK address. However we would like to keep our UK bank account and credit card at least for a while to wrap up some things here. It also sounds like the credit card could remain very useful if it's hard to get one in the US initially.

Obviously we can get the mail redirection for a while but it would be nice to sort things properly so we don't need it too long.

Do you need to keep a UK address to keep accounts and cards? We could use a family address if need be.

Or is it better just to tell them you're going abroad and give them the overseas address?

I don't think we need to receive much mail because we are paper-free on most things, but there will surely still be some (e.g. when credit card expires).

Would love to hear what the best way to handle this is.

henryh

Most British high street banks will accept a change of address to a US address.

Jerseygirl

and credit card companies.

meshwill

Not all banks will accept c/o address or US address, check your bank.
I'm with LLoyds, they said no, as did A&L, HSBC have been fab and I opened a global account (one in UK and one in US) this also helps with credit history as they look at both accounts.

E3only

Don't most of the banks offer online statements now?

meshwill

[QUOTEDon't most of the banks offer online statements now?][/QUOTE]

Some banks will only hold accounts for UK residents.
You could try swopping to online stat's until you get sorted, at least it will hold any mail going to your old address, it will only be mail drops, renewal cards etc that will get posted.

Jerseygirl

Lucius I have accounts with Nat West and The Halifax...all three send correspondence to my US address. So if your bank/CC company won't perhaps it would be best to open accounts in one that will.

lucius

Ok, thanks. I clearly need to find out what the position is with my current bank. We have a few weeks still here and then a few more beyond with mail forwarding so we should be able to move bank if need be

taffie77

We have a joint account with HSBC and had no problem just changing the address to a USA one. My individual account is with A&L, and their information says it's for UK customers only, so I've changed the address to my FILs. The problem is that they've now started charging me monthly as I am not putting the required minimum amount in each month.
Our joint CC is mint, and I changed that address to the US with no problem. My individual CC (Halifax), I've put as my FILs address. I may have to make some christmas purchases on that one to make sure it stays active.

avanutria

Regarding mail redirection - the Royal Mail only accepts credit/debit cards with UK billing addresses on its online renewal form, which we discovered when trying to renew our three month redirect. Sadly since I had already changed our UK cards over to our US address I was unable to find a way to renew the mail redirection.

Worth noting if you are likely to move within your first X months in the US, as we did - which is why we didn't get a longer redirect to begin with.

chrissy52

Lucius
as others have said, I moved here at end of last year and Barclays & HSBC had no trouble changing my address to my USA one & sending out cards statements directly to here, although I have now elected for paperless statements.

We opted to have out mail redirected for a year & mostly it's junk mail but I thought it worth it in case there was someone I'd neglected to inform of our CoA. My credit card also had no problems changing to US address but I don't use it here, too expensive but useful to keep for when I go back to UK on visits since then my US card would be charging me extra.

Good luck

Brat1

We have a Clydesdale Bank current account which we have kept open. They had no problem changing to our US address, but we were stupid and didn't do it before we left the country and had major hassles doing it from here (proof of identity etc), but it's sorted now. So my advice, definitely sort it before you leave the UK. We also have Halifax credit cards and they had no problem changing to our US address. We arranged for mail re-direction for a year just in case we missed something important, but as previously said, it's mostly junk mail. Good luck with your move and hope everything goes smoothly for you.

Bonestable

Barclaycard wrote to me in the spring saying that I could no longer have my credit card with a US address. I had to either provide a UK address or my card would be canceled.

Also, Barclaycard will not issue paperless statments unless you give them a UK cellphone number. This is used to inform you when your statement is ready. They told me they could not inform me by email as it would be a security risk.

bostonbound

That's interesting - Lloyds had no problem with us changing our address to a US one. I guess it depends on who you talk to and how they're feeling at the time!

taffie77

Perhaps it depends on the type of account you have too?