I’m an expat and Barclays closed my account: Why has my £15k been ‘on hold’ for 10 months? CRANE ON THE CASE

I’m a UK national but have lived in France since 1986. I’ve banked with Barclays since 1965, but in late 2022 my cheques stopped being honoured.

I was later told I could no longer keep my account due to the Brexit rule changes, and the account was closed. 

My problem is getting the £15,000 I held with Barclays transferred to my French bank – it has been a nightmare. It’s been 10 months and my money is still stuck in a ‘holding account’ which I can’t access.

I was asked to send various documentation signed by an official, including a copy of my UK passport, my French account details and various forms Barclays sent me. 

This has been done and signed off by my accountant, and I have even filled out some of the forms multiple times – but the money has still not been transferred. 

I’m in my eighties, don’t use the internet and can’t travel to the UK to sort this out due to my ill health.  

Recently I got a call from the Barclays complaints department and the person told me she couldn’t see or find an account for me at Barclays at all – not even a holding account. This is quite concerning. Where is my money? F.E, France

Helen Crane, This is Money’s consumer champion, replies: While you have enjoyed living la belle vie in France since the 1980s, there are certain financial downsides to being a UK expat. 

Since Brexit, many banks have taken a harder line on customers living in European countries outside of the UK. 

Some have decided to stop allowing customers who don’t have a UK address to bank with them at all, and have closed their accounts. 

Others will allow them to keep their accounts open, but prevent them from opening new ones or accessing certain services. Some banks gave customers the opportunity to open special expat accounts, but these come with hefty fees. 

In your case, Barclays made the decision to close your account entirely, as it did for most of its expat customers. 

You accept that that is the case. However, there has been a breakdown in communication which has made it a real challenge to get your cash. 

You don’t use email, instead preferring to bank via phone and post. 

Barclays did say that it warned you about this six months in advance of your account being closed, sending you a letter in July 2022 – but you say you didn’t receive it. 

You also say that you didn’t receive a bank statement from Barclays for more than a year in advance of this. 

Whether or not that July letter was sent, I think it is the sort of urgent information that would have been better explained to you via a phone call from Barclays. 

The bank has set up a website for those who are having their accounts closed, but it seems things have gone wrong when it comes to getting touch with customers directly. 

Thousands of customers living all over Europe are affected by this – many of whom will be retirees who don’t regularly go online. 

As it happened, your account was closed in February 2023. If you had realised about the closure earlier, you could have simply transferred the funds yourself to your French bank account before the UK account was shut down. But as you had missed that deadline, the process was much trickier.  

In the instructions on Barclays website, it says those living outside the UK should only need to fill out one form in order to transfer their money. 

Sounds easy – but unfortunately that wasn’t your experience. Understandably, there were several documents you had to provide, but you say that you have sent these off and not heard anything back from Barclays. 

You sent some by registered post, so know that they were delivered. You also said you had to fill out the same form several times, which was stressful given your age and ill health. 

I do feel that banks are getting lazier when it comes to dealing with customers who prefer to correspond by post or phone, instead of doing things online. 

Too often, letters in particular seem to be ignored with the assumption that the customer will eventually pick up the phone or use online banking. But you are in your eighties, don’t bank online and don’t intend to start. 

You don’t even have an email address, and had to enlist the help of your daughter back in the UK’s account to get in touch with me and send me your correspondence. 

Once you did, I contacted Barclays in November to ask why getting your money had taken so long. After I did that, it said it attempted to call you several times, but you didn’t pick up. 

You assured me you hadn’t received the calls, though, and when I questioned this Barclays said it didn’t have the right phone number for you on file – even though you had called them on that number multiple times. 

You also received the call from the complaints department, which told you it couldn’t find an account for you, on that same number – so someone in the Barclays must have known it. 

I had to send them your correct phone number in order to get the money transferred, which I am pleased to say was finally done in late December. 

That was 10 months after your account was closed, and more than a year after you first became aware of the problem. If I hadn’t got involved, who knows how long it may have taken. 

A Barclays spokesman said: ‘Our Barclays UK products are designed for customers within the UK. Barclays UK is no longer offering personal current or savings accounts to retail customers who have an address registered with us outside of the UK, with limited exceptions. 

‘Our customer was given six month’s notice in July 2022 of this decision before account closure took place in February 2023, with accompanying information explaining the next steps they needed to take.

‘Letters were sent monthly between April 2023 and July 2023 to our customer requesting information that would allow the funds to be released. 

‘Unfortunately, without this information we were unable to complete the claim. Once we were able to speak to our customer the required information was obtained and the funds released.’

You claim you didn’t receive those monthly letters, and again I think the information would have been better communicated in a phone call.

However, I am glad that you finally have your money safely in your French account. 

You have since sent me a postcard from your town in the beautiful Côte d’Azur – and I hope you continue to enjoy your twilight years there, unhampered by any further banking bother.