If you’ve moved to Spain, can you keep your old bank account in the UK for example? Do all banks have the same rules? Do you actually need a UK bank account? What have expats said about their experiences? Find out the latest information.

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Let’s get straight to the point. Some people’s banks in the UK have told them they can’t have an account with them if they’ve moved to Spain.

Is that legal?

If it’s in the bank’s regulations then yes they have the right to close your account.

But is it legal to keep a UK bank account open?

Yes, there’s no actual law against that, or against opening a new account as a non-resident, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to get one. 

Why you might need to keep your UK bank account open. 

• If you’re working remotely for a UK company, or you have investments or expenses in the UK.
• If you have a pension that must be paid into a UK account.
• If you’re renting off a property in the UK.
• If you want to hold currency in UK sterling until the exchange rate is favourable.
• If you have an employer in the UK and you’re working remotely.
• If you have a business in the UK, so you can keep a business account, especially if you’ve got employees, expenses, clients, contractors or suppliers in the UK and you don’t really want to be paying transaction fees all the time.

Which banks are keeping accounts open?

Let’s quickly run through the high street banks and see what they say.

Barclays Bank.

On the home page of their website, there’s a huge contradiction. To begin with, it says, and I quote, 

If you live outside the UK or you’re planning to move abroad in the future, you could face changes to your banking and investment products and services. You’ll be unable to open any new products or services with Barclays UK, including increasing borrowing limits on your existing accounts.

So that sounds like you can keep your account, but then, further down the page it says:

For your accounts to stay open, you and everyone you have an account with need to live in the UK, and all the addresses we have for you also need to be in the UK.

So forget about keeping a Barclays account, they’re playing hardball with the rules. They do, however, have an international bank account, which looks great , but you need to keep at least £100,000 in there, so it’s not for everyone.

Lloyds bank 

They seem to be saying you can keep your existing account and use an overseas address. They also have an international account, which has a monthly fee of £7.50, and you need to have income of at least £50k or savings of £25k. There’s a savings account too with a lower balance required but that doesn’t seem to be suitable for everyday banking. 

HSBC

I can’t find anywhere on their website that says you can’t keep your old account, all of my searches were bounced to their international account page, which looks promising, but Spain isn’t on the list of countries where it says you can open your account, and even if it was, although it says you can open an account in advance, the documents and proofs they ask you for in order to open the account would be nigh on impossible to get in advance. 

NatWest

On their Brexit FAQs page, they say there should be no change to how you make and receive payments to EU countries, and you can continue to access your bank account through the mobile app. That was written before Brexit but they’ve not changed the answers since then. 

Again, just like the other banks, they offer an international account, but once again, Spain isn’t on the list of eligible countries.

Santander

They say you can keep your existing UK account, however if there’s a change in regulations they’ll contact you and ‘let you know your options’. 

They have an international account too, it doesn’t have a list of eligible countries on their website, and you need to deposit £75k  to open it. It says no monthly fees, which is better than some of the others.

It’s worth saying that all of the banks were talking about their currency exchange and multi-currency accounts as if they’re offering the best experience, but although they don’t charge commission, the exchange rates they quote are much lower than you get through a currency broker. I interviewed our friend Jack Wiggs all about it, the video link is HERE so you can take expert advice. And HERE is a link for a free account.

What are you all saying the banks have told you?

We had a report that Nationwide are allowing existing accounts to stay open but you’re not allowed to make any changes, like adding a name to make it a joint account, or taking out a loan. It could be that their building society status means they’re not bound by exactly the same banking rules as the main high street banks, they need a licence to operate in each individual country, which is probably why Spain doesn’t appear on a lot of banks’ lists. 

One person said that HSBC are allowing new accounts to be opened, which they said was a UK account for non-residents, but the experience of opening the account was so difficult with uploading of documents and bad communication that they gave up.

One viewer says the online banks seems to be able to operate cross-border perfectly well, probably because they’re not based in the UK, but be aware that you may not be able to do what you could with your old UK account for the same reason.

I’ve had reports from people saying that NatWest and Santander have told them they can keep their UK accounts and register them to a Spanish address, but not open new accounts.

One of our Facebook community members said they have kept their Nationwide, Halifax and Barclays accounts, but they still have a UK address, and it’s not one that they’re renting out by the way, they have both business and personal accounts in the UK. Sounds like if you have your own business in the UK like that, most things are still possible, except depositing UK cheques using the app apparently. But as cheques are becoming a thing of the past and it’s possible to do everything online these days, I can’t see that being a problem for most people. 

So, that’s the information I have so far, if you have any other information or updates, then please put them in the comments below and I’ll update this article when there’s more to add.

See you in the next Blog. Let’s dance!

Article by Skatz