Keeping a UK bank account while living in Germany

We're moving to Germany next year and I was wondering whether it's possible to keep current/savings accounts and credit cards. On some account applications it actually says that you're only eligible if you live in the UK but is it different if you've had it for a while and then move?

Yes you can keep them and I would seriously advise doing so.
It is easiest if you just change the address to that of a friend or relative and don't especially tell them you have left.
But, if you just leave a fiver in it, they will try and get rid of you as a customer.

Ducks, in a years time, this will be a drop in the river. Yes.

As it happens even when you change the address to Germany they don't seem to close the accounts.

I have kept a UK credit card for years, the credit card provider agreed to letting me keep it if I make payments by direct debit.

I can think of good reasons to keep UK bank accounts open. Firstly, you maintain your credit rating, which is useful when you move back, and secondly it is difficult to open a new account from outside UK which complicates your life even further when you move back.

i dont see any difficulties in keeping your UK bank account and i reckon you should.

on a different note, i was keen to know if you can open a german account but then if you leave germany for a while but expect to come back in 5yrs or so, can you just leave it open?

You'd end up paying feed though Schotte. Given the fact that the Sparkasse group are obliged to give anyone a bank account then you could just walk in an re-open one.
In the UK, getting an account is apparently harder.

ah ok cheers. you have to pay now? im sure i didnt before with sparkasse?

Weren't you here a student or trainee Schotte?
Some accounts are "free" if you put enough through them or are under 26 or summat.

But most people pay something like € 5 a month for an account, though the banks don't pull the "oh we sent you a letter, that will be 30 quid please" like they do in the UK.

good to know.

always worth flashing a student card in someones face innit

cheers

Abbey let you have a Uk account and foreign address no problem, also Scottish Widows.

It's also good to keep hold of a savings account in the UK, as the rates are considerably higher than in Germany.

When I first moved to Germany I went into see my bank ( HSBC). They could not have been more helpful. They gave me a letter of introduction to give to a bank in Germany advised me on how to organise things. I kept my accounts in the Uk and all correspondance was sent to Germany.

There was NO charge for any of this.

A different story in Germany where they charge you for everything.

Quick caveat to this comment. If you are earning in €uros and then converting to Sterling to take advantage of better rates - you are of course immediately taking a foreign exchange risk. If the pound then drops relative to the €uro you lose! So you are "playing" the markets. Nothing wrong with that, just you need to be aware.

Although I agree - I would rather "risk" the foreign exchange and get 5.5% in the UK than leave cash in €uros and get the comedy rates over here.

Better still - just spend the frigging stuff :-)

p.s. Just to counter Johnny Norfolk above, I contacted HSBC in the UK last week. Had an account with them for about 15 years. They could not have been more frigging hopeless on the phone. All call centre bullshit, could not speak to my branch, left me on hold, could not put me through to the XYZ department - I hung up the phone in disgust. They told me I had to "visit" my local branch - although they are 100% aware I live in Germany. Walked into our local Sparkasse and sorted out my issues there instead. We can speak to a personal contact at Sparkasse by phone or email anytime - this CANNOT be done at HSBC in the UK anymore.

I've got a British bank account, credit card, even a building society account all based around my German address, it's never been a problem. With internet banking you can control everything from the comfort of home, so set that up before you leave if you don't do it already.

It never seems to be a problem to "change" your UK address to a German one. The bugger is if you are already in Germany, without a UK address, that they wil not let you open an acccount.

It seems there is no legal reason why you cannot have a UK account with an address in Poland - but I assume it is just an "admin" issue and the UK banks basically cannot be arsed to open their accounts to an extra 240 million Europeans, and the rest of the world.

So the rule about having a UK address for setting up a UK account is nothing legal - just the banks making their lives easier.

If you plan on using a foreign address for your bank or credit card statements, you should check whether there's any additional charge for this.

I've had my Natwest Visa card registered to my foreign address for years with no problem, but a couple of months ago they informed me that they're going to start charging 1,50GBP for each letter or statement sent to a non-UK address!

I called them up and switched my address back to my parents' in the UK.

Yep. Admin issues and costs are the reason. And profit.
They would end up with a lot more dormant accounts that are "free" to the customers but costing the bank money, or at least reducing their profit.
I put more money through it now but the Midland (HSBC) tried to close down an account of mine for that reason.

A lot of people freak when they here a "foreign" address.
I spoke to the Inland Revenue the other week and they go, what's your postcode?
And when I said "80469" you could hear the woman going like a goldfish.

I continued having my UK bank account (Halifax) even when I moved to France for a year (I changed the address) and then back to the UK, then on to Munich for the past 5 years - also changed the address. It's fine and they send the bank statements here as normal (though there were some problems when they entered the street as Strabe instead of Strasse or with a scharfes S).

I still have a Royal Bank of Scotland account which I opened when I was working in the UK for about 3 months, 8 years ago. I assume statements are still being sent to my parent's place in Australia...

I have a Lloyd's account which i have had since I was 15, so getting on for 20 years now but 14 of those have been abroad, mostly here in Germany. My dad has power of attorney on the account, so he can sort any admin out etc. I let my credit card with them lapse about eight years ago and just re-applied for a new one, which they have given me.

At one point I had the address listed as Germany but they started charging for sending bank statements and letters so i changed that to my dad's address.

Lloyd's have never really caused a problem about it and in many ways have been way more understanding and helpful than I ever would have imagined from a bank.

I had a shock recently...after opening a second account here, I then transfered some money, online, between the 2 accounts (as I have done thousands of times with my UK accounts,) On the next statement a charge was levied as a percentage of the transfer amount!!
I got it refunded after promising never to repeat such an act again!! shocking...beware.

I also have a Natwest card (but Mastercard) and am not aware of such a charge...did you get notified in a separate letter or something you read in the small print?

Natwest Credit Cards summary does say:


I wonder if the term 'redirection' is important - as when I left the UK many years ago, I remember having to fill out a couple of 'Not Ordinarily Resident' forms and send them to the bank. So the statements are being to sent to my main residence and not being 'redirected'.

Anyway I will wait and see if I get charged. An alternative could be to cancel the printed statements and register for Natwest Online (which I had no problems with from Germany) and check your credit card balance there.

I also have Nat west and know of no such statement charge,
dont forget to declare it with the tax regardless of how little money is in the account (interest is earnings )

The only catch I've hit is Lloyds refused to change my address since my signature didn't match the one they had on record from 11+ years ago. They now want a noterized proof that I live at the address I say I do. The funny bit ? Lloyds Credit Card changed my address no problem over the phone!

The notification of the charge was contained in a leaflet I got with one of my regular credit card statements a couple of months ago. One of those "Notification of Important Changes to Your Account" kind of things.

I haven't got it to hand now, so I can't give you the exact text, but it only applies to Credit Card accounts, not current or savings accounts.

When I called to ask about this charge, the agent said that I would have to pay it even though the statements were being sent directly to Germany. Maybe she was mistaken, but I changed my address back to the UK address anyway.

I can dig out the leaflet when I get home tonight and check, if it would be useful to you.

It should never be a problem to re-assign an address on a UK "current" account to your new German residence. The bank may ask for proof that this is your new permanent address as the are obliged to check that both you and the address are valid as part of money laundering and fraud prevention. It might be easier to simply re-assign your address to an accommodation address such as that of parents or relations if the bank will allow it. The advantage here as pointed out earlier is that you maintain a level of credit rating in the UK system. Some banks will even split the addresses. As an HSBC customer I get all non-important information as well as replacement cards etc., sent to my UK accommodation address and more sensitive information such as statements sent direct to my German address. It's sometimes pertinent to give someone living at the UK address limited power of attorney for your affairs with the bank so they can personally authorize funds transfer or withdrawal, but you will need to trust them!

Savings accounts, particularly with Building Societies are another thing. The terms and conditions of many savings accounts with UK onshore institutions do not permit non-UK addresses, so you may need to close the account or transfer the funds to an account which does permit foreign residency. Again, a UK accommodation address should get around this, although strictly speaking it would be breaking the rules. If you are permitted to register a savings account with your new foreign address then you can complete HM Revenue and Customs form R105 which permits the payment of interest without UK tax deduction at source. Note you must include any interest earned on any account in your German tax declaration for consideration of income taxation. You can receive up to €700 (€1500 for a married couple) per year in interest free of German tax. Thereafter you are taxed at your highest rate.

Lloyds have been sending me statements to Germany for years free of charge, no problem. The account is essentially dormant with just 200 GBP in it and a few minor direct debits each month going out. I've even opened new accounts in the UK by pretending I live there, using my Mother's address where I have my driving license, a credit card, and some share ownings registered. This is usually enough to satisfy banks that I'm a real person.

It seems that when a savings account or wotnot is listed as being for UK residents only this is only to put off hoardes of foreign investors with no link to the UK whatsoever, not so much to put off British citizens who are living abroad. In the UK it's fairly easy to achieve 5+% interest on cash savings, something you can't dream of here. The banks will want to verify that you are indeed you to satisfy the money laundering prevention laws, but otherwise it seems they're happy just to have your money

Edit: As an amusing side effect it's then possible, once the account is open, to fill in a tax form saying that you are non-UK resident and thus not subject to UK taxes and have the interest paid directly to your account. There's a course to be sailed through 'British citizen', 'non-UK resident', 'not ordinarily resident in the UK for the purposes of tax' and one or two others. No idea what the law says is really correct, I did try to find out and it's simply mind boggling, so now I play the game a little with enough declared stuff to give a plausible 'but I tried' excuse if the shit ever flies.

Edit2: Like YL6 said...

Thanks for all your comments and advice. Seems like the easiest option is to just change my address to that of my in-laws. I don't get paper statements anyway, so it wouldn't be that many letters.

I have a Royal Bank of Scotland account in UK still (opened when I was a student & it was called William's & Glynn's so that dates me)...

They send occasional statement to my German address - I dont have any Uk credit card but have a cash machine withdrawal card...

Amen to that!

This surprises me. I also have NatWest accounts, including a Mastercard, and I pay no such charges... yet.