Barclaycard is ditching thousands of expat customers who can no longer supply the company with a British home address.
Regardless of how long an expat has held an account with the UK credit card company, they will have to prove they are resident in Britain or an ‘approved’ country.
Any expat that fails the test will have their account closed.
Letters have gone out to thousands of the company’s customers around the world.
They explain: “We realise you’ve had a Barclaycard for some time at your current (non-UK) address.
Regular review
“As it’s part of our terms and conditions that customers must have a current UK residential address, we’re sorry to tell you that your account will have to close on 19 September 2018.”
Barclaycard has around 10 million customers and many are expats who no longer have a UK home.
Not all customers will see their accounts closed, those keeping their cards may live in the UK (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and British forces post office areas), Australia, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Spain, Jersey, the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Falklands Islands.
Barclaycard says the list of countries where expats can keep their cards follows rules that allow a UK financial services firm to operate overseas.
“We regularly review our policies and have made changes to the list of supported countries in which customers can reside and hold an open personal credit card account,” said a spokesman for the company.
Home address problems
“We value all of our customers, but cardholders must now reside in either the UK or one of the supported countries where they can be serviced by a UK-based financial organisation.”
Barclaycard terms and conditions say that customers should live at the address associated with the account, which stops expats nominating a friend or relative’s home in the UK as their card address.
If an expat puts forward a UK address as their main home, they could alter their non-resident tax status as well.
Barclaycard has ditched expat customers before.
In 2014, expats who had not spent any money on their cards for at least six months lost their accounts.
The following year, customers in Cyprus, Malta and Greece had their accounts shut.
