I know its either impossible or very difficult to open an on-shore UK savings account for British citizens living abroad but what is the situation regarding existing accounts. Do they have to be cancelled - and if so what happens to long term fixed bonds?

I tried a search but nothing specific for existing accounts came up.

Thank.

Add him to the list.

Why on earth would they have to be cancelled?
If you have a long term bond, you probably can't cancel so fairly self explanitary!

Interesting name...

Existing accounts can be kept of course but you are usually not able to top them up, and interest is paid without witholding tax.

As long as you don't notify the bank that you left the country and maintain an address in the UK, I don't think the bank cares if you leave your money on their accounts.

I just thought if as a non-resident you can't open an on-shore Uk based account, you might be prohibited from holding an existing one as well.

Yes - the name is age related......hehe

That's just it, by selling up I won't have a UK address anymore.

I'm sorry if I've done something wrong but it was a genuine question and the reason for not posting much simply is that most, if not all, questions are usually answered by other members much quicker and better than I ever could.

Well I assume that you are still alive, so you should have ample time before Rigormortis sets in

Well if you can't maintain an address in the UK, you just notify the bank of your departure, and you just won't be allowed to top up the accounts. You will still receive your income from your savings etc.

Depending on why you want to maintain onshore accounts, I'm sure there are some alternatives. If you just want to take advantage of higher interest rates for savings in the UK, you will have to somehow maintain an address there, there is no other way, unless the bank allows non-residents to open the accounts.

Some of the nsandi.com products are open to non-residents.

My bank (RBS) has always been happy to maintain, and even open new, accounts for me in the UK despite them being fully aware of my non-domiciled status for nearly 12 years. There are one or two types of special high-interest accounts that are unavailable to me, but for normal current and savings accounts they don't bat an eyelid. Pretty sure many of my colleagues with other UK banks have similar experiences.

Same experience as Ace1, kept accounts when left the UK, including savings accounts, plus opened another one (had to give a UK address for initial contact and used in-laws; then wrote and changed it to home address in Switzerland). Have since changed countries as we moved to France and have had no problems retaining both all swiss and english accounts.
Never had any problems with topping them up either, have regular standing orders to two of them.

Main problem seems to be not being able to change my UK credit card to a newer lower rate one but being made to keep the original one (@27.1%, eek) so don't use it unless I really have to!

What nonesense, been using a UK acount since 1994, gets topped up all the time.

Its obviously not as bad as I feared. Thanks for all your replies. The next problem will be what to do when the bonus period of some of my savings accounts ends.

I was told by the Bank I have an ISA with that as a non-Uk resident I couldn't top it up any more.

An ISA isn't the same as an account.
So it is quite possible that you can't top up or open those as a non-resident.

PS; can someone explain why Rigormortis has a post count of 0? Is he 'late' but doesn't know it yet?!

An ISA is a special restricited TAX FREE account for UK Residents. It's not a normal bank account at all.
Why didn't you ask about ISA's in the first place if that was your question.

BEFORE you start a thread asking if you can keep an ISA the answer is YES, however you can't add to it!

General OFF TOPIC does not count for posts!

Thanks, hadn't noticed it was in 'off-topic'. Odd place for a finance question.....

Errmmm.........What makes you think my question was about ISAs?

FWIW, I asked the question in the Finance/Banking/Taxation, where I thought it belonged, but it was moved to OFF TOPIC.

@Love Doctor 'INCOME from your SAVINGS ahahahahahahahaha
joke of the day

Probably the bit where you wrote:

Ok it's fair to say my answer was a little bit misleading to quite an ambiguous question. I did say usually and then added in the end that the bank doesn't really care if you choose to keep your money with them! But I guess that was lost somewhere...

I have also kept a couple of accounts in the UK, but I still maintain an address there so can't really say for sure.

The terms of certain accounts is that you have to be a UK resident or at least have a UK address, some banks might not enforce these rules religiously and you might find that you indeed will be allowed to open new accounts, top up old ones, or even top up your existing ISAs.

Might seem a bit of a joke, but you will get close to a big fat ZERO here in Switzerland, so nothing in the UK is better than nothing in Switzerland

I can say for sure that it's possible as I've had UK accounts for over thirty years with two different banks who are well aware of my residency status.
The only slight problem I've had was when opening another one several years after leaving to keep certain things separate. The bank (one of the big high street banks) suggested giving a temporary address and for me to then change it a few weeks later.
High Interest (joke) accounts or ISAs are treated differently due to tax declaration requirements.