UK Bank Account Curveball = Off To Dubai
Blame Brexit for this as Barclays has apparently already implemented these changes 2 years ago. This makes sense why my credit card was not renewed as the plan all along was to cut me adrift. The letter sent on the 6th October has taken just on 3 weeks to arrive and that is speedy for SA's standards and I am lucky it arrived at all. This cuts down my time considerably as I am 3 weeks behind already.
This week I received a letter from my bank in the UK that they will be closing the account on the 6th October. This is the first I have heard about this and it gives me just short of 6 weeks to make alternative plans. Not ideal and there is still some confusion around this as to who is going to have their accounts shut down and this option can be reviewed. I phoned again tonight and the review option is not an option. Still not great as 6 weeks is not something you can sit on and wait for a decision. I would have appreciated more time to sort out an alternative bank as 2 months is not that long and the bank has dropped me in the dwang (slang for shite) with this news.
When I spoke to their call center earlier today I was informed that this was the first they had heard about this and there was nothing highlighted on my account. The account is active as this account is used by myself as a normal bank account like one does. I have a salary paid in there monthly from the UK based company and pay taxes etc so this may be classed as being very different from other expats. This information was wrong and found out the truth this evening after making the second phone call.
After speaking to my brother this afternoon he said this is a genuine "thing" and I need to phone the bank back and make 100% sure my account is not going to be closed. I have had this account for 31 years and had no intention of just shutting it down and will fight for this service.
The plan was always to open another account in Dubai later this year which only takes 2 days mainly this was going to be used for my crypto portfolio and possibly now will also become my main overseas bank very shortly.
So saying that even with this sudden urgency this is not so bad as over the next two days I will whittle down which bank i will select meeting the right criteria. I will do another post on the Dubai banking so anyone wanting to open a bank for their crypto can have a simple guide that needs to be followed.
I was looking at what other options i had with the UK banks suggestions as there are special expat banking facilities available. The catch is many require a £100K deposit to cover the £40 monthly bank service fee. Others require a guaranteed £75K deposit throughout the 12 month period so it could be your salary payments and not a lump sum. I do not earn that amount and kind of leaves me with far less options and Dubai is looking like it for now. I can recall Dubai had a minimum balance of 5000 Dirhams which is literally £600.
I feel fortunate that I had already done the research on Dubai so there is no need to panic as I still have 6 weeks to make this happen if this is required. There is no chance in hell that my UK money is coming to South Africa as the Rand is depreciating continuously and this would not be an option to even consider.
This feels like the loop holes that have always existed allowing people the freedom to move around even when they are still paying taxes where the bank account is held. I am sure this is something to do with banking regulations that have changed over the last few years and they are now banks are under pressure to close these accounts or face some type of financial penalties.
Whatever the reason this is not good news for the likes of myself and I will see if having a salary paid into my UK account gives me a fighting chance or not and now I know this is not. The timing of October sucks as I wanted this to tie into the crypto cycle possibly being November or December. The good part is Emirates has a special running from September for flights to Dubai being R10K return which is roughly £400 so maybe I will be flying sooner than later.
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The time pressure sucks but I am curious for the Dubai Option. Good luck with your UK bank, maybe it was kind of a stupid mistake.
PS: That Dubai Flight is really cheap! Donthey often have those offers?
No I checked this is no mistake and it is the regulations now that no one living abroad can have a UK account, They have specialists expat accounts and my bank wants 100K GBP as the balance. The flight offer is good and they have certain months that they drop the prices.
Good luck with everything!
Thanks this is actually a heavy 2 day work load as this has got to be sorted by the end of Friday so I can make flight bookings etc. Time is ticking and less than 6 weeks is not long.
What about some good old swiss banks : p
We got some good online fintech like swissquote
Yes I am looking into all of this over the next few days. Dubai stood out as this is done in their International Tax Free Banking Zone. The other plus is some of their banks accept crypto directly so there are advantages.
Dubai is shady banking though, the amount of scammer/criminal with there funds there make me don't want to have a single penny in dubai hands, (+ risks of banks there collapsing from drity money) just like switzerland banks in the past but know they are some of the most controled ones haha
I hate England since went with Brexit. I bought something about 1 month ago which I thought was in Europe but it was from England in since than it stays in customs. It is like they've shot themselves in the foot...
Brexit would have been good for the UK if they had the human rights EU based regulations removed and the illegal migrant boats would not be coming if they had done it right. I can't see the EU lasting for that much longer if the migrants keep coming as countries will break away.
What ?? I am sure there are so many things I don't know about banking, but I never heard of anyone's account being closed for no reason while they are using it. Yes, I also know things are different here, but that doesn't mean they will stay that way.
Nobody needs one more surprise issue on things that are as important as the bank you use.
I agree as this is a proper curve ball I never ever expected especially being with the bank for 31 years and had my home loan with them. 2 months is no time to arrange this and will find a stop gap maybe in the mean time. I cannot use a bank here for my GBP as there is depreciation risk and has to be kept outside the borders.
Maybe it should be obvious to me, but I wonder why they have made the rule to not let people who move away keep their accounts. As long as they are in good standing, I don't see what it would hurt.
Apparently you cannot grade someone's credit rating if you are not living in the country. My account is in good shape and this is the new regulations. What gets me from all of this is they say you need a minimum balance of 100K in their special expats bank that is available in order to cover the 40 GBP monthly fees. At least offer this option and let us pay the fees instead of having the set fixed amount. Sickening really as this was convenient even though we are planning to move to Europe shortly.
This sounds ridiculous! You get your salary in UK, pay UK taxes, why would they want to close your account?!
This is crazy but that is the banking regulation if you live abroad. I was never aware this was even about to happen so this has been a bit of a shock. They cancelled my credit card or lets say would not renew it 2 years ago and now it makes sense why. The bank account is active and used on a daily basis so they earn money from transactions, but this is no longer allowed.