Does acquiring French residence require the closing of UK savings accounts?

[Basham]

Having decided to look into the possible financial consequences of acquiring French fiscal residence, it occurred to me that as all UK Bank and Building Society savings accounts require proof of UK residence before they can be opened, a move to France might entail having to close down any such accounts.

I have asked LloydsTSB, and having initially reassured me that there would be no problem, they checked with their own online savers helpline when pressed, and now say that our online savers account would have to be closed down.

Presumably, if this is really true for this account, it would also be true for other similar accounts, like Cahoot or Ingdirect, which require proof of UK residence.

Does anyone know if a) this is really true, b) this is a case of there being a difference between theory and practice, in the sense that if one did not inform them of a move abroad they would never know, c) any such Banks and Building Societies would in any case soon be informed by Inland Revenue that the account holder had moved abroad (following their remittance of tax deducted at source to Inland Revenue), and lastly d) if there is any equivalent to an online savings account available to a UK ex-pat living in France which pays comparable interest - i.e. 4-5% AER.

Roger Basham

 

[derf]

No problems at all, any account opened while you still have UK residency can normally be changed to your French Address, we have kept our UK Bank and building society accounts, we just have to claim from the Inland Revenue the tax paid on the interest from our Nationwide Building Society accounts as they will not pay the interest gross.

 

[naps]

Same here, it was no problem when leaving the UK to change most financial things to an address abroad.  We did have one credit card that said they'd need the balance at zero to do it, and a store card which said it was ok to keep the card but they couldn't mail us abroad, so if we made purchases while in the UK we had to clear the debt before we left.  It was still worthwhile as being a card holder gave you 5% discount, so we'd buy at the tills with the card, then walk through the store to accounts payable and pay them the cash less 5%.

[letrangere]

Roger, banks are stricter these days when opening accounts due to the ever tightening rules trying to prevent money laundering, hence the request for proof of residence, etc.  But as everyone has said, you shouldn't have any problems retaining your accounts due to a move to France.  In fact, since we've left Britain, we've even opened additional accounts there giving an overseas address without any problem whatsoever.

Re new accounts though, why not look into opening something offshore?  Most (if not all) banks offer a Jersey/Guernsey or Isle of Man option for non-UK residents.

M

[Will]

The only account which we had to close on moving to France was with Cahoot.

[Catalpa]

You asked specifically about **savings accounts**.

Yes, it does appear that with the news anti-money laundering laws etc, some (and I would therefore assume eventually all) mainland building society-type accounts are for UK residents only. This was discussed a few months ago relating to Cheltenham & Gloucester accounts.

http://forums.livingfrance.com/shwmessage.aspx?forumid=279&messageid=134981#bm135196

[Basham]

Thanks for all the response, but I'm still slightly confused. Derf, Les, Naps and M all say no problem, whereas Will says he had to close his Cahoot account. Was this, perhaps because Will made the fatal mistake of telling Cahoot he had moved abroad, or was it simply down to the fact that Will's move abroad was more recent and therefore caught by the new money laundering laws, in line with what Catalpa says?

None of you say when you made the move and took up French residence, but this could be crucial in determining your experience if the money laundering laws are starting to bite and are being enterpreted more rigorously by some financial institutions than by others.

Noone has addressed the issue of whether or not there is feedback from Inland Revenue to the various financial institutions who deduct tax at source, about taxpayers who have moved abroad, so one assumes that it probably doesn't happen, because otherwise someone out there would know about it.

Forum Guru is the only one who has suggested an offshore alternative to UK Building Societies, but my enquiries to date tend to show a considerably lower rate of interest and often annual charges for the privilege of having an offshore account.

It looks like that with this issue, like so many others associated with moving to France, there are no clearcut answers, and it all depends on who you ask (or if you ask at all) and how you phrase the question.

Many thanks for all the helpful input.

Roger Basham

[naps]

To be more specific....

My Barclays current account - no problem, they automatically started to pay interest without a tax deduction

My husband's NatWest current account - no problem either, however they didn't arrange payment of interest without tax, it we ever were to follow it up, the taxman owes us around 20p!

Our Newcastle Building Society - we didn't bother to inform, as we didn't see the need, we've since closed the account in person.

My Egg credit card - likewise, it's an internet account so what difference does it make?  I reverted to my parents address, so they had an UK account, but all statements come by e-mail.

MBNA credit card - no problem.

NatWest Gold Card - no problem

I think it was the Associates who said any outstanding debt would have to be cleared prior to an address change, so surprise, suprise our move was delayed a couple of months   and then we informed them that we moved.

We moved out of the UK in 2001.

Hope this helps a little.

 

 

[Basham]

Many thanks Naps. Your specific information was very helpful.

Roger Basham

[SaligoBay]

Touch wood, no problems with either of my Lloyds accounts.  Moved here in 2000, get statements sent here.   Now and again they send me a letter about their Man in Havana who deals with their non-resident customers, but I think that's for people with a lot more money than me!

I keep that account open because in 5 years we've never managed to get a Carte Bleue to work either on the internet (e.g. Amazon or Ryanair) or outside France, even though husband's has a MasterCard symbol on it.  

[Llantony]

[quote]Same here, it was no problem when leaving the UK to change most financial things to an address abroad. We did have one credit card that said they'd need the balance at zero to do it, and a store card...[/quote]

The problem for people who haven't got/dont want to bother family members is whether banks will send new cards to foreign addresses.

I was planning to keep Smile because it's easy to bank online, also Nationwide because they seem to have the lowest charges for withdrawing cash abroad as well as for their credit card.

[Will]

I'd agree with you about the fact that UK banks do not really pay too much attention to the needs of their overseas customers. I often find that the only phone numbers they provide don't work from France - and if they do the cost of calling is prohibitive once you've been through all the menus several times over.

A few financial institutions do actually insist on only dealing with a UK address.But most have no problem in principle, or at least once you get through the poor phone communications, and above the level of customer service staff who don't know whether I should have an account, or what to do about sending out my card/pin/activating my card, they are mostly very helpful.

Our current battle is with M&S, which is quite happy for us to have an account at the French address but won't let us have the associated &More card which attracts bonus points - particularly as their latest communication seems to suggest the old account card is about to be replaced by the &More chargecard. But if you didn't have hassles like that to deal with it would be no fun living in France would it?

[Chrissie]

It varied for us (we left UK in 2001)-

Barclays were OK (although I STILL haven't been able to persuade them to pay interest gross, hope whoever it was can tell me how they did it!),

But HSBC refused to allow us to continue, ditto Nat West, ditto Yorkshire and Halifax Building Socs.  We were also told we would have to cash in Premium Bonds, but later they allowed us to repurchase with foreign address (see Mic's thread on tax on winnings though)

Have seen frequently on this forum that Nationwide Building Soc is very useful as you can withdraw cash on a card here and not pay any fee, hence all you have to do is to pick a time when the exchange rate is right.  But you can't open a new account with an overseas address, only convert an existing one.

Hope this is helpful

Chrissie (81)

[Chanto]

Deviating slightly on this subject: we are Royal Bank of Scotland customers with Switch cards.  Therein lies the problem.  Try using your Switch card at Limoges Airport to buy tickets etc. or Stansted for that matter, when trying to hire a car for example (fine on line but not in person as we know to our cost).    So, for all those of you with Switch cards who are about to emigrate to France - be warned!  Open a UK account with any other bank issuing a Visa card and stick with it.  It opens many doors.  We cannot buy on eBay with our Switch card as we cannot register with PayPal within France as they don't know what a Switch card is here.

As for Premium Bonds - we have bought since living here.  Our only gripe is that, in future, we will have to pay tax on any winnings - we feel that as we are putting money into the UK we should have the same rights as UK citizens.  Such is life.

[Will]

A Switch card is the same as the Maestro card which is widely accepted in France (though Visa and Mastercard are much better bets as you say). Remember the TV ads with the penguins? However, from past experience with RBS I wouldn't expect them to be helpful enough to tell you that.

In response to the earlier post, we have had no difficulty whatsoever with NatWest about living overseas, in fact I have nothing but praise for the bank, including its Relay service. Yes, I know that others have had the opposite experience. It just shows that France isn't the only place where things are highly variable.

[Llantony]

Slightly off topic, but there is the problem of some places, particularly petrol stations, not accepting UK credit cards in card paying pumps.  We were travelling in the south, needing petrol after 12 noon.  Supermarkets were closed for 2-3 hours but advertised 24 hour petrol - not for people with British credit cards!  Most frustrating as the small garages were all closed for lunch too.

[Punch]

[quote]Slightly off topic, but there is the problem of some places, particularly petrol stations, not accepting UK credit cards in card paying pumps. We were travelling in the south, needing petrol after 12...[/quote]

This has been a problem for many years and often catches out Brits at the 24 hr garages, especially at the ferry terminal at Oiustreham. A simple solution is to just " loiter " at the pump until someone arrives with a French card and explain the problem. Most decent people will top you up if you give them the cash. I did this last week for a couple and caravan who were on there first trip to France . I believe now that the garage at Ouistreham has a machine (tucked away and not easily noticeable) that takes notes?

Paul