Keith5588

Thanks @Jaggg88 I agree with what you write except I would want a UK bank as well as Wise. I cannot give any firm reason but I think someone on a forum stated that their private pension provider would only pay into a UK registered bank. That may not be correct but better to be safe than sorry as they say.

@mrwebb8825 Because sending a letter to Thailand is more expensive, takes longer and is less reliable than sending within the UK.

@mrwebb8825 I did write above "My friend has a large family and usually very busy, I think he would continue to help but he is also thinking of downsizing to a smaller house". I haven't used a mail receiving / forward company but I would like one who scans and sends me the front of the letter they receive. I would make notes and envisage after the first 2 years for most I would just instruct to destroy most letters knowing that it is say just a yearly statement and for anything important the company has my email address. I will be in control and independant. I am not sure what the future will bring, maybe I will give the mail receiving company a run for 2 years and if I am not happy then stop. Maybe as you think I will just register my friends address with companies if my friend is more than willing for that. Concerning renting out my house and having Royal Mail redirect my mail. I have already stated that I have done that in the past and they will only do it for a few years. It is a personal choice but for me, at my age, I feel that it now makes little sense to keep my house.

@Letseng Thank you for the information, so sorry that you had the kidney injury. I decided to self insure and so do not have any health insurance myself. I guess you need to add up all the costs of staying in Thailand compared to going home to Europe. I guess living costs will be higher in your European country but dialysis free. Private hospitals in Thailand will be very expensive but I gov hospitals very reasonable. I hope you end up not needing dialysis.

Thank you @OJAS I have been declaring the rent I received from my property to HMRC. Actually over the past year I have received little rent much as I have had a lot of repair and maintenance jobs done. I will declare the details for Capital Gain to HMRC, actually I think they would be informed as well. I think I am lucky in some way as I have enough savings to buy a house in Thailand and they are savings I had before 1 Jan 2024. So I have made a note to transfer these savings to Thailand and reinvest the proceeds of selling my house in the UK. I plan to spend 2 months decorating my house before putting it on the market so I will plan to spend 187 days in the UK, so less than 180 in Thailand during 2025. I think that means I could transfer the whole proceeds of selling my house to Thailand during 2025 if I wanted to, but this is something I would need to check. Myself I don’t think the Thai revenue department will investigate the average retired expat. Thanks a lot for the link to the guide, Mike Lister has done an huge amount of work writing that. It looks to be very good, well written. I have the bookmark and will look at it when I have time.

@VBF Thanks for your thoughts on why some UK banks have closed accounts, you are probably correct. It’s very difficult to speculate when banks and the government seem to be making illogical decisions all the time. Thanks for your explanation about the offshore accounts, it reminds me of speculating about working offshore for the higher pay and tax advantage when I was very young, but I never did. You also explain the past secrecy of these banks, I also thought I had heard that it now much more difficult but I didn’t know why, thanks for explaining. I have just Google searched to find out what Private banks are. From the very little I have read they would not suit me, I might be able to qualify for one but it would be putting “too many eggs in one basket”. I think my plan of having quite a few bank accounts will give me enough peace of mind as it would be unusual if all were closed.

An update to clarify my own query. I have had replies from all the mail forwarding companies and can confirm that the address you are given or can select is not unique to you. It will be an address shared with many other people. At least two said they provide a unique client ID number which you can add into your address if you wish. If not they will just sort by the addressee’s name. So I would advise if your name is John Smith take special care to use the provided ID number prominently.

@Letseng Thank you for your message and thoughts. Can I ask your age and why you think you may be better off returning to your country in the EU rather than staying in Thailand?

@VBF Thanks for reminding me about my UK Driving Licence. I renewed it in 2023 and it expires in 2026. I will be in the UK next year and plan to renew it if I can renew over 8 months before it expires. I will check but it’s now not that important to me. If in the future I ever visit the UK and if I don’t have a UK Driving licence I believe that I can drive using my Thai Driving licence. I haven’t considered bank accounts in the Isle of Man / Channel Islands. Up until now I plan to open accounts with some of the newer online only banks like Starling. Chase, Revolut, and of course Wise, hoping these will not send any letter post when instructed not to. Also that they will only ask for proof of UK residency when initially opening an account. I could be totally wrong! I am quite ignorant concerning opening a bank account in the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands. I have assumed that these accounts are used by wealthy people to help avoid paying some UK taxes and so they probably need to pay more or meet high deposit amounts for these accounts, but again I might be totally wrong. But you have a good point that they might be better for expats, I assume they would not close accounts dependant on where you live. On this thread it has been mentioned that Halifax has closed an account because the holder cannot prove they are living in the UK. I am aware that this has been happening but I cannot understand why. Many expats that have left the UK formally worked for many years in the UK and have assets in the UK, and they need a UK bank account. I have read that for some bank accounts that have been closed the reason cannot possibly be money laundering so I am at a loss why they close accounts. Can I ask do you know how the Isle of Man / Channel Islands bank accounts are better for UK expats? Maybe I should start another post? Thanks for the good wishes.

A bit of a summary Thanks @Nemo. You are now the 3rd person using ukpostbox. I have had another look, it is £12 per month if you select a Pool, Dorset address, £21 if you select a Central London address. So for me £12 per month and if pay for a year it states 2 months free. The other processing charges look reasonable e.g. for forwarding a letter £0.90 per item + postal cost. Myukpost seems to be a bit more expensive at £20 per month + £1.50 per letter handled. @scottiejohn I have just had another look and if I select the £20 per month plan it states “Price fixed for Lifetime” so I am guessing it was £12 when you started. I sent messages yesterday to ukpostbox, ghostmail and myukpost. Only myukpost have replied and they replied quickly and I have just sent them another message to clarify some charges.

@Virtualrecluse I don’t think you will have a problem applying to renew your UK passport. I renewed my UK passport a couple of years ago in Bangkok. The processing company that works for the British Embassy needed copies of all pages of my existing passport, my email address, my current address where I was living (I think) and payment. I think your passport states where you were born etc. but not your UK address …… have a look in your passport. I’m not an expert but having a mail forwarding address would not give proof of residency, no utility bills etc. but they will only enquire about that if they have a reason to I guess.

@scottiejohn the link you posted takes me to https://www.myukpost.com/ and I think they now charge £20/month so you now have a good deal I think. My mistake and appologises @sandyf stated "I also use Ukpostbox" and I thought it was the same as you. Similar name but different. I now see that someone else mentioned Ukpostbox. My mistake.

I think for someone younger than myself that would be good advice. I will be 72 next year, it will become more and more of an agrevation to sell it. Also I can see no financial advantage in keeping it at my age. Also it will be very unlikely that I will ever want to return to the UK but if that unlikely event happens I can rent a place to live.

@scottiejohn Thanks again Scottiejohn I referred to Myukpost in my opening post as I had seen you mention them before in another thread. I have just had another look and I think they charge £20 per month and not £12, and they charge more for other work. Maybe you pay £12 as you started with them 8 years ago. Saying that as with many things I would rather pay more if the service is better. @sandyf thanks for the extra information. You and scottiejohn have both used Myukpost for many years and you are both are satisfied with them which is good information for me.

@scottiejohn Thank you so much. Thanks for the advice about doing it while I am in my house before I sell it, I might have not done that. Can I ask something, you say that they provide a full UK address. My thinking is that it cannot be an individual UK address just for you and that most of their customers will have this address which is a house that they use to receive all mail, maybe also where they work. For instance you give this address to your bank and then your bank sends you a letter via Royal Mail to this address. If Myukpost has 5,000 customers it cannot provide 5,000 houses? I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with this setup at all. I’m just trying to understand. Thanks again for the information, it has helped me.