Revolut - UK direct debits taken from GBP accounts
Discussion
In 2023 Barclays decided to close my UK bank account, apparently no longer able to offer the level of service they consider necessary. I left the UK in 1999 and have been officially (tax-)resident in Switzerland since June 2000. It was useful to have a UK account for visits back to London, dealings with HMRC regarding pension withdrawals (emergency taxed then difference claimed back by making a return), and also for a few legacy insurance policies whose premiums were taken by DD.
Barclays had indeed proved to be a complete shower of s
t since my departure, so much that I did at one point open an (expensive) GBP account with UBS here, to deal with one pension affair as Barclays refused to send a paper statement to my home address (the pension company rejected any downloaded document and wanted an original on the bank's headed paper.) So it was no big loss in that regard.
I then discovered that Revolut could provide me a GBP IBAN so I opened accounts for me and Mrs B. My DD to Avon Insurance has been successfully taken since then, and premiums for Mrs B's Aviva life policy (ex-Endsleigh from her student days 40 years ago) have been taken from hers. These are small amounts (<£10/month) but given our ages now it would be much more expensive for similar cover under new policies.
A couple of weeks ago Revolut sent me a message to say that they are no longer processing UK direct debits, which is a bit of a ball-ache as that's the only real reason I opened the accounts in the first place. I called Avon and they said it was not possible to do a standing order, or any form of bank transfer. It would however be possible to annualise the premium and pay once a year... by cheque. I asked a UK-resident family member if they could do this, and she laughed and said that she hadn't had a chequebook for years. That said, I've never had one here in Switzerland, but still do a few transactions by cheque from my French account (e.g. fuel oil deliveries) for our place in Burgundy.
So I will be updating my DD bank mandate to her details and will send over an annual payment to cover the monthly outgoings.
Next call on Monday is to Aviva...
Barclays had indeed proved to be a complete shower of s

I then discovered that Revolut could provide me a GBP IBAN so I opened accounts for me and Mrs B. My DD to Avon Insurance has been successfully taken since then, and premiums for Mrs B's Aviva life policy (ex-Endsleigh from her student days 40 years ago) have been taken from hers. These are small amounts (<£10/month) but given our ages now it would be much more expensive for similar cover under new policies.
A couple of weeks ago Revolut sent me a message to say that they are no longer processing UK direct debits, which is a bit of a ball-ache as that's the only real reason I opened the accounts in the first place. I called Avon and they said it was not possible to do a standing order, or any form of bank transfer. It would however be possible to annualise the premium and pay once a year... by cheque. I asked a UK-resident family member if they could do this, and she laughed and said that she hadn't had a chequebook for years. That said, I've never had one here in Switzerland, but still do a few transactions by cheque from my French account (e.g. fuel oil deliveries) for our place in Burgundy.
So I will be updating my DD bank mandate to her details and will send over an annual payment to cover the monthly outgoings.
Next call on Monday is to Aviva...
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