Lydia Spencer-Elliott
BARCLAYS is set to abandon its expat customers on November 16 by terminating the accounts of anyone without a residential address in the UK.
Because of Brexit, the bank will cancel all credit cards of Brits living abroad full time. Unlucky expats have been told to get their affairs in order as their cards will only function until October 22.
After this date, they have been told by the bank to cut up their credit cards but continue paying back their debt with the usual interest rate.
Tommy Lee, 55, who has banked with Barclays for 15 years and lived in Alcoy for 14 of them, was horrified: “I’ve never missed a payment, ” he told the Olive Press.
“They’re just being awkward. Maybe they’re using Brexit as an excuse to get rid of expats. I don’t know what to do instead.”
“A lot of expats are using these cards to regularly live off. They need to be warned what’s coming and they better get ready. If you need credit get your act together now because this could be really serious.”
Barclays started pulling out of the EU in 2014 when it sold its retail banking business to CaixaBank for 800 million euros.
Before Brexit, Barclays was once the largest foreign bank in Spain with over 500 branches in Madrid, Cataluna and Andalucia.
“With the UK due to leave the European Union, we can no longer offer credit cards to customers who do not have a residential UK address linked to their Barclaycard. We have written to impacted customers to give them advance notice of this decision,” said a spokesperson from the bank.
