Keeping bank account after leaving CH

Finance, Taxes, Banking, Insurance and Retirement
1
So it looks like we will be going back to the UK for retirement.

My wife is Swiss and I am British with Swiss nationality, we have investments and a portfolio with UBS and Pillar 1, 2 and 3 pensions.

When asked, our bank advisor was of the opinion that if we were no longer domiciled in CH we would have to close the account. Problem is “domiciled” can be quite nebulous /

So question is, has anyone managed to keep their Swiss bank account after having left the country. Given that everything operates online and correspondence is no longer posted it would be no problem to change our address to a friend/family in CH .

2
No it is not possible. You can't give relative's address as you will not be legally resident there, as far as I understand. There is no flexibility in where you are legally resident.

Will you ahve pensions from both countries? What will you do re Health Insurance?

3

Afaik you can keep the bank account but you will need to pay a higher monthly fee, it depends on the bank you are with now.

I think PostFinance and Migros bank do that, Valiant as well.

https://www.moneyland.ch/en/leaving-…important-tips

4
Very interesting Roegner, thanks. UBS certainly does not do this.

5
It's possible with higher fees. Since it's about literal lifetime savings, banking fees should not be that high.

Problem with advisors is that they place people's cases in boxes. They never strive to look for alternatives. I'm almost sure that if you ask to UBS about an account for non-resident they'll give you the options and prices. But since you did not made that very specific question, the advisor did not say anything about it. It's almost like this people wear horse blinders in the office.

6
UBS told me that this is possible, so maybe it depends on your portfolio.

7
We have friends who have done this one with UBS and one with credit suisse so it definitely possible but you need to be upfront with them.

Don’t mess about trying to use a relatives’s address etc as that will just piss them off.

8

Yes they do ! It needs to be an account with a little more than a UK pension funding it though

9
Thanks for the answers, I will go back to UBS and rephrase the question.

I had a feeling that it would be possible, but I guess the way we asked the question was not precise enough.

Not sure how the taxes will work if we have our CH pensions paid into UBS, but having a UK address.

10
I have about 15 years contributions in the UK and a very small UK private pension, main source of income will be from CH.

I will be able to access the NHS but my wife will have to get private.

Getting UK citizenship is going to be laborious.

11
Oh I see- not for the plebs. Thanks!

Especially not the British ones. Ta.

12

It a nutshell, yes, you've fully understood.

13
Yes, you are such a lovely gentleman, as always. Merry Christmas.

14

It also can be done when you are british.

15

Your wife will have to continue paying Swiss health insurance (maybe you too unless your U.K. pension exempts you) but she will still get NHS treatment with it, not private.

https://www.englishforum.ch/insuranc…ce-issues.html

16
but not plebs!

17
That may be your interpretation but not what I said.

18
Yes, I am aware of this, thanks.

19

Being a pleb doesn't necessarily mean you have money or not.

The UBS, nor any other bank for that matter don't really want to dick around for peanuts, it costs them more to keep the account.

For a non domiciled person there are various reporting that need to be done legally, ensure it is tax declared and conform so unless you have nice wedge coming in each month, it isn't worth their while.

Absolutely nothing to do with being British, or any other nationality for that matter, you seem to imply you were as pleb all on yourself with no prompting, although this is not a criteria, it is purely an economical reason as to whether you can hold an account as a non dom.

20
Your verdict.