I recieved a letter today from Barclays UK telling me that as I had a french address they are closing my account in January 2023. The party’s over.
We had exactly the same today too - they also withdrew the overdraft facility at the same time which hasn’t needed to be used in 14 years.
Since there was only about £12 in the account and we haven’t really used it since moving here anyway, we had been thinking about closing it for some time so this just sealed the deal.
Bugger waiting until January 2023… we closed it today by completing and sending in the account closure form after transferring the funds to another account on line. My main reason for doing this now is that it will be marked as closed in 2022 when I complete the cerfa 3916 Foreign Bank Accounts declaration to the Fisc in spring 2023, after which it falls off the need for further declaration.
The Barclays account closure form in pdf format is here for anyone interested.
Yep, exactly the same with us. Last year we managed to open an HSBC account who were the only UK bricks and mortar bank who will for non residents. Was busy this afternoon moving last few links with Barclays to HSBC.
Will leave Barclays open for a few weeks to be sure that all incomings have been relocated and then, like you, will close the accounts well before the year end.
Many thanks for the closure form link which I will keep copies of just in case the fisc need proof of closure.
Keeping the accounts since moving here has proved beneficial as have dealt with 2 probate admins in recent years which would have proved difficult without a UK account.
Seems a shame that having had a Barclays account for both business and personal for 50 years that it ends like this. Brexit, the gift that keeps on giving.
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Can you not just CASS the Barclays into the HSBC? That way anything will get redirected for 3 years or whatever it is anyway. If Barclays will allow you (and I don’t see why not) to I’d suggest that makes more sense, at least you get the protections of the Current Account Switching Service like the redirection. If the account isn’t doing much it probably doesn’t really matter, but it’s an option
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Many thanks for your suggestion but I am an old fashioned type of chap who gets on the phone and insists on speaking to a real person that will action my request.
Then sit back and wait to see if they listened and understood.
I spoke to a call centre in Bournemouth yesterday and the young person could not have been more pleasant but must have had a common sense bypass. I explained the reason for my call and was taken through all the security details after which I was told all my records were correct and hoped I would enjoy the rest of my day. I reminded them that they had not yet asked me for my new bank details to which they replied, yes your records are correct!!!
Obviously they couldn’t get the staff. I now wait to see if my instruction is actioned.
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I think it seems from press reports of some months ago it depends in which county you live, if the institution has significant business (and is making profit) then it is worth them establishing processes and systems to allow continued use for Brit’ overseas customers.
Any other banks known to be doing this, though i seem to remember Lloyds were rumoured to be doing it, as were Barclaycard?
For some British nationals it is important to have uk banking facilities to handle for instance rental income and costs which would be v difficult if there was only a € account.
Seems its very difficult to undersand how banks etc interptert the rules…we’ve just taken out a small buy to let mortgage on our uk flat with main stream uk building society as French residents…no hassle or problems, the biggest issue was convincing them there was no dangerous cladding on the block aka Grenfell.
absolutely! I opened a Bankley Bark account in my late teens and later changed it to a joint account when we got married in 1974 so a similar time period with them.
I have had a Lloyds credit card for around 50 odd years but the bank account there was closed almost as long ago as that. They seem happy for me to use the card still but won’t let me open an account. Not a problem at the moment, as long as Yorks/Virgin don’t start doing the same, but I can’t give Lloyds my phone number to validate online transactions, they will only accept that from account holders. However, they have no problem with me paying Amazon UK for Kindle downloads with that card. Bizarre. 
Interesting pojnt there David… how do you refund the card? Wouldn’t it normally be direct from the Lloyds account (which you no longer have)?
No, I do a transfer from my Yorks account every 12th of the month and bring it back to zero. I daren’t say a word in case someone has made a mistake in allowing me to do this for so many years. 
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hard copy letters, one each (as its a joint account) so absolutely kosher 
Barclays are a nightmare. (Well all banks actually, but they specialise in it… 
)
Warning - long rant alert!)
I had both personal and business accounts with Barclays for many years. When I decided to leave the UK in 2003 and move to the Turks & Caicos Islands, I passed over my share in our software training company to my then business partner, and asked Barclays to remove me as a signatory on the account. Their response was “OK in that case we are going to close your personal account as well”!! Despite many attempts I could not get through on the phone to a real person to challenge this - all calls to various “business advisors” went to voicemail and were never returned!
When I arrived in Turks & Caicos I somewhat foolishly went to open an account with “Barclays International” - they turned me down as I had no local track record - I was told that having had an account with Barclays UK for 30+ years didn’t count as “we are separate companies”!!
Eventually I got an account thanks to my brother who was already living there and had accounts with them, but I moved my account as soon as Royal Bank of Canada opened a branch in the islands, they were much better.
Once upon a time banks were run by the local manager who knew his customers personally and could make informed decisions about accounts, overdrafts, loans etc. Now it’s all computerised credit-scoring and you can’t even get to speak to human being above the pay-grade of “call centre operative”.
My UK “banking” is now done with Nationwide Building Society and I use Wise for non-UK payments.
I appreciate that French banks also enjoy giving customers the runaround, but when I move to France I will cross that bridge when I come to it!!
Me too, back in the 70s, they confused the 2 accounts and bounced a business cheque because of it. You can imagine how well that went down with a business supplier. But, as you say, local manager with authority soon had it sorted.
All banks too, CA here bounced a cheque which would have been covered had they not been on strike to stop me paying in. Being in the aftermath of la Grande Tempete of '99 when nothing else was working didn’t help either. They managed to overcome all difficuties though to report me to the Banque de France and demand my chequebook back not to be replaced for 10 years. Did get it sorted with a lot of trouble but the word ‘desole’ never made an appearance. 
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I find HSBC service excellent. Sadly they’ve flogged off their French subsidiary and next year it will revert to being Crédit Commercial de France (CCF) which is what it was before HSBC aquired it in 2000. I’m assured that all their products will remain the same but over time, who knows?
Barclays did this to me when I moved to Ireland, Nat West don’t require you to live in the UK so I have my account with them now.
Not known in France.
I think that the dictionary says it has been replaced by a shrug of the shoulders.
Don’t remember even that.
Usefull article on The Local.fr titled: Ask the experts, what are the best uk banks for Brits in France. Nothing ground breaking but interesting synopsis of options from a guy from Harrison Brook France…and unusally not a sales pitch.