Ex-pat bank accounts closed due to Brexit

Money Box

BBC

Business

4.2 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 19 September 2020

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Thousands of British people living in European countries have been told their UK bank accounts will be closed by the end of the year because of Brexit. Money Box has learnt that Lloyds Bank and Barclaycard have been writing to customers telling them to cut up their cards and pay off any outstanding overdrafts or debts in two months unless they can provide a UK address where they are resident.

Buy now, pay later - the slogan of easy credit for generations but now it's being offered routinely in shops and online whenever you buy anything. The regulator is launching a review.

A ban on evictions for residential tenants ends in England and Wales this weekend. We hear from tenants and landlords.

And - in the podcast - what to do if you've ever been charged to keep hold of an old email address when you've changed broadband provider to get your money back.

Presenter: Paul Lewis Reporter: Dan Whitworth Researcher: Darin Graham Producer: Alex Lewis Editor: Richard Vadon

Transcript

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0:00.0	In Northern Ireland, from the late 70s to the early 90s, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers.
0:08.0	But the man who often found, tortured and sometimes killed these people on behalf of the IRA
0:12.0	was himself an informer, a secret British army agent with the codename Stakeknife.
0:18.0	Who gets to play God? And why me? Why my family? When lies are still being told to this day,
0:24.0	who do you believe? I wouldn't even know where to start and I'm with the IRA.
0:28.5	Steakknife. Listen first on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. Hello, I'm Paul Lewis, and in this Moneybox podcast, should buy now pay later shopping deals be controlled,
0:45.0	conflict between tenants and landlords over the end of an eviction ban,
0:49.6	and one woman's triumph against the intransigent might of telecom provider BT. But first,
0:57.1	thousands of British people living in European countries have been told their UK bank account
1:01.8	will be closed by the end of the year because of Brexit. When we finally leave EU rules
1:07.1	behind us on December the 31st, many people living in Europe may no longer be able to have
1:12.8	a bank account in the UK unless they have an address here. Lloyd's account holders have told
1:18.3	Moneybox they've been told to cut up their cards and pay off outstanding overdrafts within two months.
1:24.9	Sharon Clark is one customer who lives in the Netherlands.
1:27.9	I received a message through my Lloyd's app saying that there was an important message for me.
1:35.5	When I opened the message it said that due to changes in the EU, I was going to lose my Lloyd's account from the 2nd of November 2020.
1:47.0	It said that I have to pay off any existing overdraft agreement, that I must make other arrangements
1:54.0	for any ingoing and outgoing payments and destroy all cards associated with the account.
2:01.6	It happily said they will not charge me for closing my account.
2:06.6	I was extremely upset because I have had a current account at Lloyd's Bank for 50 years.
2:13.6	Well Lloyd's told Moneybox that 13,000 retail and business banking customers across five European countries will have to close their accounts.
2:23.7	People with a Barclay card who live in Spain, France or Germany have also been told that their accounts are going to be closed.
	...

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