Are UK Building Society instant access account adaquate for expats living in Thailand.

[Keith5588]

Hi,
I am from the UK but now living in Thailand.
I have read threads on here concerning UK banks closing peoples accounts when the banks know that the person is not living in the UK.
I think most of us need to still have a bank/building society in our home country mainly to have money paid into and to make transfers from. We may or may not need a debit and credit card.
I have only used building society Fixed interest accounts, sometimes they insist on opening an instant access account but I have never actually wanted to use them.
When withdrawing money from a building society instant access account can you pay any external account or do you have to transfer the money out to your nominated bank current account?
So my question is assuming a debit and credit card is not needed would a building society instant access be adaquate for a UK expat living in Thailand.
Thanks in advance
Keith

[Eff1n2ret]

It's a good question, I've been wondering similar myself, what I would do if/when my UK bank account goes t!ts up. (yes, yes, I've read about Wise).

I have an instant access account with Skipton International in Guernsey, which is linked to my UK bank account. I did ask Skipton a while back about linking to a Thai account, and it seems to be possible, they said they'd need to see a bank statement with my name and address here on it. I'm not sure whether they allow linking to two accounts, although I think they do, but I haven't done anything about it since. I assume I could get my pensions paid to Guernsey, so my only real loss would be a UK debit card, and I'm not sure how I could pay for my UK credit card, assuming I managed to keep that (it's not directly issued by my UK bank).