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Mia
19-08-2012, 11:15
I receive a small private pension annuity from the UK paid monthly into my bank account here in Tenerife.
I have received a letter from the pension company regarding the payment in foreign currency.
I quote the part of the letter as follows: -

Payments in your chosen foreign currency.
You will be aware that we pay you in the currency of your choice. Unfortunately, the currency conversion service offered by Citi Bank hasn’t proven to deliver the consistent level of service that we require. Therefore, we have withdrawn this service for new customers.
How does this affect me
For the time being, we’re able to continue with your service. However, this can only continue as long as your payment details remain unchanged or unless we encounter any payment problems with your account.
What happens if I change my banking details
If you change your banking details in the future, payment in your chosen currency will have to be withdrawn.
Whilst we are sorry if the withdrawal of this service, may cause you inconvenience in the future. However, your policy is governed by and interpreted in accordance with the law of England. Your benefits are payable at our Registered Office and in the currency of England. We are therefore not obliged to pay you in the currency of your choice.
In the event that we have to withdraw this service, we would then write to you to ask you to provide us with details a UK bank account that can accept pounds sterling. You would then need to arrange for this to be transferred into your local currency.

Does anyone know if the law of England does really allow them to do this?

I do not have a UK bank account anymore and do not intend ever returning to the UK so it is not going to be easy opening one for this small pension payment.

Why do they have to use a third party for the currency conversion?

We are living in the 21st century, I cannot see why they cannot just pay the pension in sterling to my bank here in Tenerife and my bank will surely be able to convert it to Euros.

After we first moved here I received two cheques for refund of services in the UK which I was able to deposit in the bank here, they converted the amounts into Euros. The cheques took longer to clear than normal but it was not a problem that they were deposited in sterling.

willowlily
19-08-2012, 11:21
I receive a small private pension annuity from the UK paid monthly into my bank account here in Tenerife.
I have received a letter from the pension company regarding the payment in foreign currency.
I quote the part of the letter as follows: -

Payments in your chosen foreign currency.
You will be aware that we pay you in the currency of your choice. Unfortunately, the currency conversion service offered by Citi Bank hasn’t proven to deliver the consistent level of service that we require. Therefore, we have withdrawn this service for new customers.
How does this affect me
For the time being, we’re able to continue with your service. However, this can only continue as long as your payment details remain unchanged or unless we encounter any payment problems with your account.
What happens if I change my banking details
If you change your banking details in the future, payment in your chosen currency will have to be withdrawn.
Whilst we are sorry if the withdrawal of this service, may cause you inconvenience in the future. However, your policy is governed by and interpreted in accordance with the law of England. Your benefits are payable at our Registered Office and in the currency of England. We are therefore not obliged to pay you in the currency of your choice.
In the event that we have to withdraw this service, we would then write to you to ask you to provide us with details a UK bank account that can accept pounds sterling. You would then need to arrange for this to be transferred into your local currency.

Does anyone know if the law of England does really allow them to do this?

I do not have a UK bank account anymore and do not intend ever returning to the UK so it is not going to be easy opening one for this small pension payment.

Why do they have to use a third party for the currency conversion?

We are living in the 21st century, I cannot see why they cannot just pay the pension in sterling to my bank here in Tenerife and my bank will surely be able to convert it to Euros.

After we first moved here I received two cheques for refund of services in the UK which I was able to deposit in the bank here, they converted the amounts into Euros. The cheques took longer to clear than normal but it was not a problem that they were deposited in sterling.

i may be wrong but it seems that the uk is bracing itself for a euro crash/breakup

Vortex Wake
19-08-2012, 12:48
Open Sterling (£) account in Tenerife ?

My boss opened a Dollar ($) account in the UK to allow easier (in his view) business transactions from a USA customer (it did made reconciling accounts very difficult for me)

timmylish
19-08-2012, 13:26
I had made an enquiry for payment, next year, of an Insurance Policy in existence for 30 years and was told by the company involved that they do not have the FACILITIES to pay in euros and will only issue a sterling draft. When I queried this they blamed the costs involved in having their bank remit to a foreign bank (!) so will not pay into any bank here in Spain, no matter the currency of that a/c held. As has been said, in this day and age this seems totally incredible so others, look into any claims you might make soon!

Mia
19-08-2012, 14:32
i may be wrong but it seems that the uk is bracing itself for a euro crash/breakup

Thank you for your reply willowlily.

That is a good theory.

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Open Sterling (£) account in Tenerife ?

My boss opened a Dollar ($) account in the UK to allow easier (in his view) business transactions from a USA customer (it did made reconciling accounts very difficult for me)

Thanks Vortex, I will look into that option.

Another thing I have thought of is to have the pension paid into a Currency exchange company like "Moneycorp" in the UK. We used them to transfer money during our move here.

I could ask them to keep the monthly payments in our client account until a reasonable fund is reached and then ask them to convert it to Euros and pay it into our bank here.

I think this is possible but I need to contact them to check if it is.

- - - - - - - - - - merged double post - - - - - - - - - -


I had made an enquiry for payment, next year, of an Insurance Policy in existence for 30 years and was told by the company involved that they do not have the FACILITIES to pay in euros and will only issue a sterling draft. When I queried this they blamed the costs involved in having their bank remit to a foreign bank (!) so will not pay into any bank here in Spain, no matter the currency of that a/c held. As has been said, in this day and age this seems totally incredible so others, look into any claims you might make soon!

Thanks timmylish,

Regarding their costs involved in having their bank remit to a foreign bank, I forgot to mention that they have been deducting £2.50 each month from the amount the pension is supposed to pay out to cover these costs!!!!!!!!!!

I was disgusted by this in the first instance!

But surely they will actually lose out if they stop paying out to our account here because it never costs them that much and they will not be collecting this fee anymore.

Rickiebear
19-08-2012, 16:52
Hi, can they not pay into your Spanish account in Sterling, leaving your own bank to convert?

Mia
19-08-2012, 22:38
Hi, can they not pay into your Spanish account in Sterling, leaving your own bank to convert?



Hi Rickiebear, your suggestion was one of the options in my original post and I intend to contact them to ask if this is possible. I cannot see why not.

I will keep the forum informed of the outcome.

timmylish
19-08-2012, 23:14
According to my company, AbbeyLife they will issue ONLY a sterling draft/paper cheque!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rickiebear
20-08-2012, 06:42
Hi, we have a bank account with Sabadel, (Solbank), we were introduced to Solbank by our UK bank HSBC. You may find your Spanish bank has a UK arrangement.

timmylish
21-08-2012, 01:00
If the issuing company is only prepared to issue funds in a certain manner, ie sterling cheques, then changing banks makes not one bit of difference. Each and every Spanish Bank will accept these stg. cheques.

Mia
29-08-2012, 14:55
Thanks everyone for your help.

I have contact our bank here which is Caja Canarias. They do have a UK arrangement and they said there is no problem because they will accept any payments in sterling whether it be a bank transfer or sterling cheque.

(They also assured me as timmylish pointed out, each and every Spanish bank will accept sterling cheques).

I have contacted the pension company and requested that they make future payments direct into my account in sterling.

I am awaiting their reply!!!

cheery
29-08-2012, 15:29
Surely in this day and age, supplying sort code, a/c no. name and address of bank is sufficient. The bank at your end then convert the amount at that days rate. That's what banks do isn't it?

Mia
07-09-2012, 17:01
I received a phone call from the pension company which is Guardian Financial Services.

They told me that as a company they do not have the facility to send payments to a foreign bank.

I told them I did not understand, because it is their bank which sends the payments, not them.

The only reply to this was that they are not set up to pay to a foreigh bank and can only pay into a bank via a third party (i.e. Citybank) This was not a satisfactory answer but I realised I had hit a brick wall.

The final outcome is that they are willing to send me a sterling cheque each month, so I will have to hope the Spanish postal service gets these to me!!!

timmylish
07-09-2012, 19:34
Although not helpful I,m not at all surprised as |I,ve been down that road!