Hello fellas, especially guys from the UK who now live in Thailand. 

To keep the post short and to the point, I have now sold my house in England and the proceeds are now deposited in my Natwest current account. 

Now I know it's not the best place to leave it. Obviously I want to get the best return of interest I can and I know of a few places I could put it But.... They seem to require me to be a resident of the UK. Now, I've lived in Sweden for the last 3 years and I'm resident here but I'm loathed to move my cash here as the interest rates here are garbage and the first penny of any interest earned is liable for tax. 

I'd rather keep my cash in the UK for now but I'm worried about this " resident" problem. 

Have any UK expats overcome this problem and just opened accounts and hoped for the best? 

Not sure about what I should do to be honest. 

Thanks in anticipation guys. 

Check the rules for the Baltic states, I seem to remember there are some interesting possibilities in Latvia or Lithuania (or maybe both).

You could look at offshore banking , like this 

https://www.natwestinternational.com/international-banking.html

https://www.expat.hsbc.com/international-banking/products/bank-account/?cid=WPB:RM:P1:XX:05:2212:017:AO2023/24&nst=0&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAC314iqz8PHwNPw2c4uzW5vFHWCUe&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9M-y8NushwMVn4lQBh2HmApcEAAYAiAAEgK4mvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

lots of other options , most high street Banks have offshore branches in IOM or Channel Islands 

 

 

 

I'm a fan of ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) and would suggest looking into low-risk ETFs as a place to park your money. Doing a quick search on that possibility for Swedish residents led me to this discussion.

Sweden resident - Holding investments in USD

While the discussion is about investments in USD, perhaps it will lead you to other alternatives for investing your money.

Worst case scenario and this is only an assumption by me is that if you retained a UK address open the account and put it in it the bank in the UK the worst case scenario is they would close the account at some point when they found out you weren't a resident I'm guessing there wouldn't be any fines or they couldn't suspend and hold the funds again I'm not certain but I would guess that's the most they could do was just close your account

4 hours ago, Aqualung said:

Have any UK expats overcome this problem and just opened accounts and hoped for the best?

I've opened accounts the last couple of times I've been back in the UK.  Although hardly used I opened them more as a backup in case the banks I do use get awkward.  I do maintain an address in the UK however.

Also you should remember you have 6 months to get it out of the Natwest (all but £85,000) or you will lose the protection from the FSCS.

4 hours ago, Aqualung said:

I'd rather keep my cash in the UK for now but I'm worried about this " resident" problem. 

Have any UK expats overcome this problem and just opened accounts and hoped for the best? 

I've had a HSBC account for many many years and now i'm resident in Thailand i just use my son's UK address. Now if HSBC ever found out (they don't seem to bothered to find out) and chose to enact their ''resident only'' condition then i would have a problem but i understand that Wise is an option. I don't have any other UK bank accounts.

Have a look at trading 212,you can park cash in etfs,snp 500,or if you just open the account and chose not to gamble with these,they will give you 5.2 % paid daily on any unused cash,no fee to transfer from bank account,protected to 85k,the money is split 4 ways 3 banks and mmfs.

you might be able to use this method - active online savings account.

https://www.hl.co.uk/savings/savings-account

23 hours ago, Freee!! said:

Check the rules for the Baltic states, I seem to remember there are some interesting possibilities in Latvia or Lithuania (or maybe both).

Not wanting to poo poo your post mate but I'm not even considering those places. No disrespect at all. 

23 hours ago, Stillearly said:

You could look at offshore banking , like this 

https://www.natwestinternational.com/international-banking.html

https://www.expat.hsbc.com/international-banking/products/bank-account/?cid=WPB:RM:P1:XX:05:2212:017:AO2023/24&nst=0&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAC314iqz8PHwNPw2c4uzW5vFHWCUe&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9M-y8NushwMVn4lQBh2HmApcEAAYAiAAEgK4mvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

lots of other options , most high street Banks have offshore branches in IOM or Channel Islands 

 

 

 

Took a look and it's definitely an option. But would I need an IOM postcode?  

The HSBC looks OK though and Tfp. 

23 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

I'm a fan of ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) and would suggest looking into low-risk ETFs as a place to park your money. Doing a quick search on that possibility for Swedish residents led me to this discussion.

Sweden resident - Holding investments in USD

While the discussion is about investments in USD, perhaps it will lead you to other alternatives for investing your money.

Thanks for your help force. Although I worked in financial services for a few years I think that sort of stuff is beyond me as I've been out of the industry for 27 years. 

Never say never though. 

1 minute ago, Aqualung said:

Took a look and it's definitely an option. But would I need an IOM postcode?  

The HSBC looks OK though and Tfp. 

I don't think so ... my cousin lives in France and has an HSBC offshore account  .... 

15 minutes ago, Aqualung said:

Not wanting to poo poo your post mate but I'm not even considering those places. No disrespect at all. 

Your money, your choice.

21 hours ago, KWA said:

I've opened accounts the last couple of times I've been back in the UK.  Although hardly used I opened them more as a backup in case the banks I do use get awkward.  I do maintain an address in the UK however.

Also you should remember you have 6 months to get it out of the Natwest (all but £85,000) or you will lose the protection from the FSCS.

Thanks @KWA.

I'm well aware of the FSCS scheme and it is important of course. I would think the likelihood of Natwest going bust in the next 12 months is highly unlikely but you never know. 

I also have a correspondence address back in the UK and I have changed my account details with Natwest to reflect this. 

Now, my worry is.... Should I go back to the UK to open other bank accounts, stay in Sweden and try to do things online or just use the best that Natwest offers? 

Natwest is currently offering a 1 year fixed rate of 4.45% but online I can find offers of just over 5% or a little bit more but I'm not familiar with some of the banks. In short it could mean losing out on over £1500 per year in interest. 

Thanks again. 

If you want to fix your money , I wouldn't hang around too long , U.K. rates could be cut in September 

20 hours ago, Pumpuynarak said:

I've had a HSBC account for many many years and now i'm resident in Thailand i just use my son's UK address. Now if HSBC ever found out (they don't seem to bothered to find out) and chose to enact their ''resident only'' condition then i would have a problem but i understand that Wise is an option. I don't have any other UK bank accounts.

I think this is my likely route Pump. But I'm wondering if they did bother, follow up and find out I'm no longer resident would it just be case of closing the account?  Or would they recoup any interest already added to the account? 

Anyways, one thing I do know is that they can't close my current account even though I'm living abroad. 

 

1 minute ago, Stillearly said:

If you want to fix your money , I wouldn't hang around too long , U.K. rates could be cut in September 

Im not surprised mate. 

Currently, I've had the money in my current account for nearly 2 weeks, which in real terms means I'm possibly losing out on appx £150 week in interest when comparing other fixed term accounts. 

I've explained this to the Thai wife but it's gone over her head ( she wants to buy her own little business!!!)  and I'm frustrated. 

But not for long I hope. 

16 minutes ago, Freee!! said:

Your money, your choice.

It is yes. But I'm all ears if you want to elaborate on your initial post. 

9 hours ago, Phantom51red said:

Have a look at trading 212,you can park cash in etfs,snp 500,or if you just open the account and chose not to gamble with these,they will give you 5.2 % paid daily on any unused cash,no fee to transfer from bank account,protected to 85k,the money is split 4 ways 3 banks and mmfs.

Thankyou, I've taken a gander at their website and it wasn't working so good regarding using GBP. Every time I pressed the "more info" tab it took me to a page regarding investing in Euros. 

 

1 hour ago, Aqualung said:

I think this is my likely route Pump. But I'm wondering if they did bother, follow up and find out I'm no longer resident would it just be case of closing the account?  Or would they recoup any interest already added to the account? 

Anyways, one thing I do know is that they can't close my current account even though I'm living abroad. 

 

I can't see them recouping any interest, all the time you have the account you're entitled to whatever the benefits are. So how do you manage to have an account that they can't close if in the T&C it states you have to be a UK resident ?

I can't give you any advice different from some of what's been said, other than don't put all of your eggs in the same basket. 

Good luck.

If and when we move to Thailand my money will be going offshore,especially if the present lunatics are still in power.

Jersey,Guernsey,IoM,Switzerland et al.

And probably out of Sterling,or most of it antway,the UK is on a fast moving roll downhill.

Edited October 15, 20241 yr by coxyhog

On 7/18/2024 at 7:06 AM, Aqualung said:

Thankyou, I've taken a gander at their website and it wasn't working so good regarding using GBP. Every time I pressed the "more info" tab it took me to a page regarding investing in Euros. 

 

Still a good deal at 5.10% ,I've got an isa finishing with virgin in 2 weeks and there only offering me 4.56% as new deal or something.. so I guess I'll stick it into trading 212.

On 10/15/2024 at 2:17 PM, Phantom51red said:

Still a good deal at 5.10% ,I've got an isa finishing with virgin in 2 weeks and there only offering me 4.56% as new deal or something.. so I guess I'll stick it into trading 212.

At the end of the day and after all the buggering about trying to find a decent location for my wife to start her own little business, I've dropped my savings elsewhere. 

We found a great property in a busy area of town and the rent by Sweden standards was affordable. We only needed to purchase the fittings needed to change the place into a small Thai take away with seating for 16. It would have been the only genuine run Thai place in the whole of this small city as the rest are run by Vietnamese people and their attempts at Thai food are very poor. So both of us were quite excited at the prospect of owning our own little business. 

We spoke to the tenant. We talked with the Landlord and everything was moving along OK with the help of a small business advisor. 

Low and behold 3 weeks later it's a "No Go!". Finito!  The landlord and the tenants failed to tell us that there was a clause in the rental agreement that no other SEA food place could be opened in the same block of premises as a Chinese take away (also selling shite wannabe Thai food). That surprised me as the premises we were after sold Sushi! 

So basically I lost a a few months of earning a decent interest rate whilst hoping to invest in a small business of ours. Explaining this to my wife wasn't the best thing I ever did as it put pressure on her. But I needed to do something. 

So I put my finances into a 1 year fixed rate with a company called Investec. Used them before and I get 4.75 % fixed for a year. The money proposed for my wife's business is also deposited with Investec in a flexi saver account paying 4. 51% variable with unlimited withdrawals. 

I've missed out on a fair bit of interest whilst waiting for a suitable place to help her open her own business which is her dream. I'll cope with that for now as we've agreed on going back to Thailand to live. 

Then the fun and games will begin again I suppose 55555! 

At the end of the day I'm not going to be throwing money away silly nilly. I'm only in this position because my parents worked hard all their lives and owned their own house and I saved in pensions. 

A long winded reply mate. Sorry.