Managing Home Country Finances

[Loaded]

I appreciate any advice.

I have a pension, life assurance, a bank account, a mortgage and bank/credit cards from UK institutions. They were never informed that I moved abroad.

I used to have all correspondence sent to a relative's address and then forwarded to me in Thailand. This has worked for 15 years. This is no longer possible. I'm contacting some of these companies in order to make my accounts paperless and hence have all correspondence sent to my email address. However, this is not straightforward as many state on their websites that authorization codes will be sent to my UK address (my relative's address).

My high-street bank credit card will be cancelled if they know I live abroad which could be a big inconvenience. An expat bank account with this bank requires a balance of 60K UK pounds. I can just about do this but don't want to tie up this amount of cash for the sake of a bank account.

Any suggestions on managing UK-based finances from Thailand?

[CaptHaddock]

Don't they have mail forwarding services in the UK? In the US they typically provide a mailing address that is a street number and then forward or scan your mails to you.

[Loaded]

Don't they have mail forwarding services in the UK? In the US they typically provide a mailing address that is a street number and then forward or scan your mails to you.

Within the UK yes, but not sure Royal Mail would forward to a Thai address.

[CharlieH]

Royal mail will forward overseas for a pre-paid fee, there are other forwarding companies available in the UK to hold/forward mail as you want.

[CaptHaddock]

Don't they have mail forwarding services in the UK? In the US they typically provide a mailing address that is a street number and then forward or scan your mails to you.

Within the UK yes, but not sure Royal Mail would forward to a Thai address.

I mean a private mail forwarding company, not the Royal Mail. You set up an account with such a private company who gives you an address to use that is a street address, not a post office box address, for which you pay a monthly fee plus per service charges. You provide that address, which is now your mailing address in the UK, to banks and whatever other companies you deal with. When a bank sends you a piece of mail, your private mail forwarding company either scans it for you to read online or forwards it on to you in Thailand. Neither the Royal Mail nor the bank know your address in Thailand.

Google shows several such companies providing such services in the UK, although it looks as though the market is less developed than in the US. Google "mail forwarding services united kingdom."

[Loaded]

Cheers gents.

This could be the solution.

[mesquite]

Loaded,

What is being suggested is what I do from the US. My status is not that I live in Thailand, but that I live in the US and travel internationally. The subject rarely comes up, but when it does, I simply tell the bank I don't know when I'll be back. The only problems have been that I have received some time sensitive things and did not know about them on time. That could be prevented with using another service that apparently lists each piece of snail mail on the account website.

If you do do this, I would suggest NOT giving your mail address out to friends and relatives in the UK. I did that and have received things I didn't really want that I ended up paying to get forwarded.

Edited November 29, 2014 by mesquite

[CaptHaddock]

Loaded,

What is being suggested is what I do from the US. My status is not that I live in Thailand, but that I live in the US and travel internationally. The subject rarely comes up, but when it does, I simply tell the bank I don't know when I'll be back. The only problems have been that I have received some time sensitive things and did not know about them on time. That could be prevented with using another service that apparently lists each piece of snail mail on the account website.

If you do do this, I would suggest NOT giving your mail address out to friends and relatives in the UK. I did that and have received things I didn't really want that I ended up paying to get forwarded.

My US mail forwarding service scans each envelope that I receive the same day it arrives and notifies me by email, which is included in the cost of the basic service. After looking the envelope over I decide whether to have them open the envelope and scan each page of contents for me to read online. They will do that within one day of my request and make a small additional charge. That way I stay much more up to date with time sensitive mail than if I only had normal US mail. If you want a referral to my forwarder, PM me.

[Loaded]

CH

That sounds like a great service and exactly what I want. However, my mail is UK based. Does your forwarder have a UK office?

[CaptHaddock]

CH

That sounds like a great service and exactly what I want. However, my mail is UK based. Does your forwarder have a UK office?

No. US only, but google is your friend. Here's one:

http://mtei.co.uk/