The same way I had to provide proof of ID with my photo and passport etc. to start dealing with a sterling exchange company. And what are credit checks to do with putting your money in a bank? Unless you want to borrow from them which is not usually the case with foreign residents.
Many/most of them do have a connection to the UK, through pensions, which is the whole reason to want an account there in the first place.
There was case in Northern Ireland some years ago when a small bakery run by very a very religious couple refused to make a wedding cake for a same sex marriage. The people who wanted the cake took them to court under some discrimination law or other and lost. While I disagree with the couple’s views, I couldn’t see why the offended party had to have a pop at them when they could have procured their cake from innumerable other sources. I thought it was vindictive and grandstanding and I was glad when they lost their spurious action.
My point is that Farage is grandstanding and the World and its mother has fallen for it, again. Of course Coutts should have the right to throw Farage off their books. The further they throw him the better.
There should be a bank of last resort for to prevent people being disconnected from the financial system, that would be good enough for Farage.
Because they (allegedly) broke the law
Political beliefs are also protected - e.g. in the workplace (you can’t be sacked for belonging to a specific political organisation for example)
In the case that you quote I believe that the bakery managed to persuade the court that they had not discriminated against the couple for sexual orientation but something else which fell outside the Equality Act’s protected characteristics.
If we are talking about retail banking for private individuals I agree.
However in Farage’s case you can’t separate his (protected) political beliefs from his very public and distinctly tawdry persona - a business would be quite within their rights to decide they do not wish to be tainted by association.
It suits him far better to tell everyone he’s a poor* martyr and the nasty bank is being discriminatory to him rather than he’s simply not rich enough to be their client. Tosspot.
They don’t want him as their client any more, for whatever reasons, but he ticks the box for one legitimate reason so bingo press the ejector button.
*Boom ka tish
Again I ask the question, should that cover UK citizens who are resident in a foreign country connected to the UK for their pensions? It doesn’t affect me, yet, so far Yorkshire Bank is happy to have me, but who knows?
There sort-of is - you ask a bank for a “basic bank account”. Most (maybe all) banks offer them, they are not credit checked and offer no credit facilities.
If DWP can pay pensions direct into a foreign account I’d say no, if DWP will only pay into a UK account I’d say yes (but I believe this is not the case and DWP will pay into non-UK banks ?)
But that leaves us at the mercy of exchange rates. Far better to recieve the money in England and then transfer it when we can afford to and when the rate is favourable. Why should we be condemned to receiving less than our entitled pensions just because we moved within the one entity at the time.? We earned our pensions in Britain so why can’t we spend them, or keep them, there?
I live in apprehension that this will happen to us. I bought euros a month or 2 back when the rate was 1.17, if my pension date fell right now, I would only get 1,15. Just because some bank can’t be arsed to do whatever is necessary.
FWIW I quite agree though some won’t have the luxury of leaving pension payments in the UK to catch the best exchange rate.
Also most people in that position should have been able to leave their UK bank account active when they emigrated.
So, given that lack of a UK bank account would not prevent receipt of pension payments and the number affected should be tiny I’m not persuaded that it should be possible to force a UK bank to open an account for a non resident.
Of course you can, but you have to stay there with them! It was your choice to leave the UK I presume.
Just be glad you are still getting annual pensions increases!
I left at a time when it was thought to be no more than moving from England to Wales, how were we to know that the whole thing would be overturned 17 years later?
And getting increases isn’t a gift, it is a right, having paid into the system most of my working life and I would be seething with anger were I to discover that we were in the same boat as those in Australia for instance. But I presume that they knew the consequences when they went, unlike most of us.
How dare you.
We did what the government wanted us to do and saved for our retirement and just look what happened to interest rates.
Do you expect us to live on thin air?
I don’t know really, I have a HSBC account in Deal (though I haven’e been there in 25+ years).
A bit harsh and I’m not surprised at Jane W’s reaction.
It isn’t really - the state pension is what the government decree it to be (crap, mainly); though I 100% agree that this business of freezing the pension of anyone who goes to live abroad is wrong headed and illogical. Does the government believe inflation doesn’t happen in Australia or that if it does then somehow UK emigrants are immune to its effects.
Surely is very wrong but unlikely to happen as long as UK nationals resident abroad can still vote in UK.
Out of interest, there are plenty of bank accounts in UK kept by wealthy foreigners. Whether as a bolt hole or to fund their shopping holidays I couldn’t say but it is most unlikely UK banks would want to lose such clients.
Of course, there could be a minimum deposit imposed to maintain an account, which may not work for some.
we’ve still got our UK bank account… tiny pension goes into it and slowly adds up for when we are in UK or (more likely) want to buy something for folk in UK (Christmas/Birthdays)… then it drops back to just a few £’s… not enough for a night on the town… 
(and, yes, it’s declared in France…)
sadly, we’re not “wealthy foreigners” … but the bank seems happy to keep us…
I think Lloyd George might disagree with you on that, as do I.
You are rightly outraged that Australian UK pensioners’ payments are frozen, so why are you not similarly outraged when French or German UK pensions are effectively so, at the whim of the markets?
You are obviously much richer than I am if you think the UK pension is crap. To me mine is not crap despite it being lower than so many others because I had less working time in the UK and also was so poor at one point that they exonerated me of contributions while warning me that it would reduce my pension.
My pension despite that is still £200pm more than my company pension and Fran’s is £250pm more than her local authority one. These pensions are vital to our existence and every advantage we can squeeze out of them by choosing the time of withdrawal from our UK bank is equally vital.
Sorry David - I think you might have misunderstood my comment slightly
The UK pension, as a percentage of previous earnings is well below both the EU27 and the OECD average.
I think “crap”, compared with other nations is a perfectly adequate description.
Because the former is deliberate policy and the latter (I’m afraid) bad luck.
I know some on SF moved in the days of €1.50 to the € so today’s €1.10-1.20 are making things very tight but that is only indirectly the government’s fault.
I understand that, indeed I can see that your income is only a little more than the current minimums for a couple to remain in France, which is known to be an expensive place to live, so it is very reasonable to want to optimise the number of € that you get for your UK pension
BUT lack of a UK bank account would not prevent you accessing your pension, and retaining a UK account is simply part of the financial planning that anyone should do before deciding if they can afford to retire abroad, so I don’t think UK banks should be required to provide accounts for non-residents. In any case there are a number of banks that offer accounts to non residents so I can’t see that anyone who lives outside the UK but desires a UK account being blocked from opening one.
Easily. For many British who have chosen to relocate it is an opportunity not afforded to millions and millions of people in the world. We are privileged.
Yes we didn’t anticipate the UK leaving the EU. But then those who moved her 50 years ago didn’t anticipate the UK joining, Life is a process of making choices and weathering change.
The only people who I feel sympathy for are mixed UK/EU couples, as they can’t go back to the UK easily if they wish.
I may have misunderstood what you meant by crap, but I don’t se what comparing a UK pension to other country’s pensions has to do with anything.
We are talking about a UK pension paid to a UK citizen, where we live should have nothing to do with whether we are entitled to keep that pension in a safe place in the UK until required.
It is the government’s fault if they fail to stop UK banks closing legally, and in some cases decades long, held UK bank accounts. We are fortunate in that our account, held since the ‘80s has not been shut down as others’ have. But we live in constant fear that one day it might be.
And what are
In any case there are a number of banks that offer accounts to non residents so I can’t see that anyone who lives outside the UK but desires a UK account being blocked from opening one.
these banks and accounts? Would be useful if we knew and the conditions on which they can be opened? We have had several posts on here recently from people to whom this has happened and are, as a result, actively considering breaking the law in order to open one.
Not sure you’re right about France being so expensive either, but apart from a recent trip back when I learned that diesel prices at Sainsbury’s were roughly the same as what I had paid in Calais, in my experience France has always been cheaper in that respect at least. Our weekly grocery bill is certainly not more than what I am told people are paying in England either.
And I for one did not come here to retire anyway, so no financial planning required on that front. I came here to work, in another part of the European Union and the least the UK government could do when, through no fault of our own, it pulled the rug from under our feet, would be to stop UK banks, over which it has regulatory control, from further damaging our lives.
That’s us, and it basically forced my wife to take up UK citizenship before we left the UK. Otherwise there would have been a risk that we couldn’t have moved back near to our children if we so wished. More importantly, given the sentiment at the time, we were not even confident that the UK wouldn’t make it difficult for EU citizens to enter the country for sustained periods.
