I am keen to know how other Brits in CH have navigated around this. TY,
Hi, I am a UK expat and having moved around have some cash in GBP. I'd like to invest in UK mutual funds and have a UK bank account on my parents address, but as a non-resident brit, it seems impossible to open a uk based trading account. Hargreaves were unable to open an account. Interactive Brokers does not list any UK funds on my account, presumably as the address is Swiss.
I have opened both Hargreaves and Premium Bonds while being a non resident. Something I also really like is Property Partners, which again I opened as non resident. You just have to jump through a few more hoops.
You can open them all, just need to get your documents verified by a notary.
An ISA wont be possible but otherwise you can do the rest.
Timing might be important here. When did you do this? I have noticed a significant increase in complaints about people trying to do business with UK financial services companies on one of the Irish finance forums over the past year or so.
In the past it was never an issue, Ireland was just treated as if it was part of the UK. But it seems that between new UK legislation, new EU rules, BREXIT and company policies, they are not so interested in taking on new non residents anymore unless of course you have a couple of million... the usual.
Hargreaves don't open accounts for non-residents, as the OP said. I'm not allowed to add any money to mine that I opened when I lived in the UK.
Interactive Brokers is perfectly fine, you can hold GBP and invest in UK stocks. You can't invest in mutual funds with IB though.
If you really want mutual funds, could look at Fidelity UK?
The HL fund was opened I guess in September/October last year, so really recently. Property partners was Feb last year so also not so long ago. And the Premium Bonds was quite a few years a go
Very strange, as HL stopped allowing me to top-up my account after I told them my new address, earlier than September last year...
They still required notarized documents, so that I could even just withdraw my money.
I called HL a couple of days ago and they said it would be fine for me to open an account despite living in CH. This being said however, I noticed that some of the funds I am interested in are only open to UK residents and so likely to be blocked within HL...!
HL told me last year that I cannot add funds to my account or buy or sell anything on the platform. I can keep the account but the only action I can take while I'm resident in CH is to close it entirely, for which they agreed to waive the usual fees.
I have added substantial funds to my HL account in the last year whilst being non resident.
From HL T&Cs: "We offer a full range of services to UK residents and may be able to offer limited services where you are resident outside the UK. You must let us know if you are not, or cease to be, resident in the UK or the EEA and/or become resident in the USA. For these purposes you are deemed to be resident in a country if you have lived, or move with the intention of living, in that country for 12 months or more. We may not be able to offer some or all of our services to you if you cease to be resident in the UK."
They have only ever had a foreign address for me, they know I have a NT (No Tax) code from HMRC as the pay my UK pension free of UK tax. Other than a new ISA or their new cash handing service, I don't think I am missing any services.