If you’re trying to draw an analogy between the ‘cake-ism’ of brexiters and the resentment people express here at losing their UK bank accounts, Nigel, that analogy is patently false for most.
Bexiters chose to give up the benefits of being in the EU, then complain about losing them; most contributors to this forum are remainers, so are in the entirely different position of having their cake taken away against their choice!
Geof, those that expressed their concern about the number of days they potentially will be able to spend in Europe as of the 1st of January didn’t choose to give up the benefits of being in the EU, they too had their cake taken away against their choice.
@Nigel1 particularly as you flagged the 90 days thread perhaps you would co-operate and continue your discussion about that issue there as that thread is still live 
I have UK and French HSBC accounts (and frankly I find them excellent, unlike Soc Gen who seemed to think customers were just an inconvenience. Lesson learned, never bank with a bank where even the junior staff wear designer labels because you are the one paying for them)
My HSBC France advisor has informed me that Brexit, end of passporting, whatever will not impact my holding a UK HSBC account (no surprise as obviously they have a French banking license). But that might change as HSBC are trying to divest their French operations to focus more on the Far East.
I think all EU banks are government guaranteed up to €100k and you can have many accounts with different banks as you like 
Not sure this is correct.
We are currently with Barclays and although we have had the letter regarding our Barclaycard account as yet we have not received similar advice from Barclays, which I hope never comes.
Our son is employed by HSBC and his advise today was to open an on line UK account.
I have now completed the online proceedure for a joint account which allows anyone living in the EU and beyond to apply for. Approval in principal has been given subject to providing identity documents by post. These documents are now winging their way to HSBC in the UK and if accepted we will get an email confirming the account is open.
This is a basic current account without overdraft facilities but if our current bank closes our accounts we will certainly manage with a single joint current account with HSBC, we shall see.
HSBC NOT opening joint a/cs any more.
@John_Hall quote: Not sure this is correct.
Our son is employed by HSBC and his advise today was to open an on line UK account.
I have now completed the online proceedure for a joint account which allows anyone living in the EU and beyond to apply for. Approval in principal has been given subject to providing identity documents by post. These documents are now winging their way to HSBC in the UK and if accepted we will get an email confirming the account is open.
[/quote]
John that is VERY interesting. And this is my concern about right hand not knowing what left hand is doing and whether we reach people of sufficient seniority through the helplines. My experience as an HSBC customer.
HSBC helpline told me I COULD have a credit card but that they could not authorise one for me and I had to apply online. My online application was refused.
HSBC helpline told me I COULD NOT have a joint a/c with my OH as HSBC has NOT been opening joint a/cs for some time.
Is your online HSBC account going to be a sterling account? Or a euro account?
Please do report back because OH will be online immediately if you are successful.
The application is for a sterling account. Advice from my source is to then open an online foreign currency account with HSBC UK but one step at a time. I will post again as the application progresses.
Interesting information re HSBC, where I have an account not used for a year until last week so I paid funds into it to keep it operational.
Our quandary is that we were about to sell our small flat in UK so we would no longer have uk address, but have put that on hold until matters are clearer as for financial reasons it’s important we are not deprived of uk accounts
Our Barclays personal manager had not been told of closure plans but that didn’t mean it would happen early 2021.
Been doing it for years. The rules don’t take account of nomads like me. I’ve been winging it so long, if I was a bird I’d have evolved into a condor by now.
I saw the article on BBCi, immediately called Lloyds. Was assured they were not going to pull the plug on me. “You have a UK address”. If they are content to regard the UK address they have on file as my address, I will not say them nay.
Carol, if you can find a British prepaid Simcard company and leave that phone just for banking purposes, then you can get around that problem. I have been doing the same thing for 2 years with my old bank, that also demanded a local phone number! In between I make sure that the phone only gets turned on for banking from time to time.
Thanks for advice Annie
Some reassurance for anyone worried about probs with pensions if their UK bank a/c is closed.
We moved to France four years ago and initially had our state pensions paid into our existing Barclays and RBS current accounts. From there we made various transfers to our French accounts – Credit Ag (Britline) and Credit Mutuel.
About a year ago we spoke / wrote to “Newcastle” and arranged for payments directly to our French accounts. It sometimes takes a day longer for the money to land, since HMG uses some sort of US bank (can’t remember details) for forex – so nothing happens on US holidays.
But – and this is the best bit – the exchange rate is better than when we did our own transfers from UK to Fr accounts. AIUI that’s because HMG is doing lots of transfers in bulk every day from GB£££ to Eur€€€ so naturally gets good rates.
The problem arises more I think with private/company pensions who can’t ( or won’t ) pay into foreign accounts. Ours both will BUT not only are we at the mercy of exchange rates - but there’s a handling fee as well.
@Sue_Young quite right. When we looked at having our Govt pensions paid in euro direct to our French bank, we found the same with poorer rates and handling fees but as @Ken_Welsby rightly says, the State pension is paid pretty much on the day at a rate usually close to the inter-bank.
That might be the best bit if you rely on those funds for day to day living. But many of us keep the money in the UK until the exchange rate is propitious. We haven’t brought any money over since the beginning of the year… And as Graham says the same does not apply to other pensions.
The tech-savvy like Graham Lees will confirm but if you have a VPN on your phone that connects to a UK server automatically when you turn your phone on, as far as anyone can tell, that phone is in the UK.
Yes and no.
Just using the IP address it will look as though you are in the UK.
But there are other ways - such as, on a phone, asking the phone’s GPS to tell you where it is.
I suspect that this will become more prevalent as VPN use to hide locations becomes more common.