Christina Brady with Moody 22nd Sept

earlier this week i went to see a client

and she gave me a letter she was very

very distressed it was from barclaycard

she's had a barclaycard for 40 years

saying we're advising you

that due to brexit we will be closing

your account at 11 pm

on the 31st of december 2020. this

is bay radio i've said it a few times

already this morning

on facebook posts and on air here a

timely appearance by christina brady

from black tower financial management

due in any way this week

um so welcome back because that was uh

looks like a pretty dramatic day

yesterday on the markets

all round it's a big fall it looks like

they've been halted now but um

i think it was the thought of what

they're calling them the two rodneys of

doom

um what their names witty and valance

who made the speech yesterday

um what it is is the markets fell

heavily on the threat of lockdowns

um what in the uk they said there could

be widespread lockdowns and the economy

in the uk

is so bad a lockdown could tip it over

the edge it was just starting to recover

most companies had the worst year ever

they're just recovering over the last

two months

then they come out and say oh we need to

lock it down it's quite heavy-handed

the markets fell yesterday three point

three percent the footsie was down

and three point nine eight the ftse 250.

um sterling also went down it was 108

seven i don't know if it still is and

that was mainly on the brexit no deal

brexit news so you've got a double

whammy

usually if the stock market falls

exchange rate goes up and vice versa

but as we've got brexit affecting the uh

exchange rates and see

coronavirus as well but corona vice is

mostly expect it's in the markets

because it's affecting the economy

um i think you know governments have got

to accept the fact that this is a

version of the flu it's going to be

around not

just for this year for every year they

can't keep on locking down economies

every year

people need to work people need to earn

money governments need to get money

through taxes

and i think it's slightly heavy-handed

in the uk they're not paying a blind bit

of notice to it anyway if you look at

all the universities

all the new people and all university

students are all out drinking still

we're all of six how do you know one

group of six isn't mixing with another

group of six in the pub they're so near

to each other

um so boris is going to make a statement

today

yeah that's tonight isn't it yeah

tonight so let's see and what they're

worrying about

is it's it's really projections versus

reality

this uh these duo came out and said you

know we're gonna see 200 deaths a day

from november last year we got even

worse than that the doom

and it never happened i think what

you've got to do is you've got to marry

the two together

and you've got to stop scaring people

because then they blame people because

the economy's not going when the papers

and the politicians have scared everyone

obviously take precautions if you're

elderly if you're infirmed if you've got

underlying health conditions

of any conditions or any age if you've

got underlying health conditions take

precautions

but that's what happened yesterday in

the markets they have come back slightly

this morning

the foots is up not a lot though i

wouldn't say it's well

it went it went to 5804 it's now five

eight two nine it's up nearly half a

percent

same for europe that's nearly up five

four percent as well

uh we'll have to see what other news

comes out during the day it's similar to

when theresa may was in power

one bit on brexit the markets fell um

now it's anything to do with cv19 or

brits it's as i said we've got two

factors

yeah i guess you get used to it now if

you're talking about the sort of that w

shape of the market but it must be

frustrating because it makes it back

over that 6000 threshold and then he'd

get back down again and then back up the

same in spain i mean i don't know how

much you

go by the ibex 35 yeah the ibex that's

over that 7 000

threshold it's well under it at the

moment but um heading back up this

morning

yeah it's now at what six seven one six

yeah

and it's the same as i've been it's been

oh gosh how long have i been saying this

we're really traveling along a 6000 line

we went down to under five sprang back

up to six and we're going

six one six five nine five eight five

nine

six and it's really a constant heartbeat

going along

um we are obviously going to see worse

news

as we get into october november flu

season

starts october it goes from october to

march so you're going to see a pickup in

figures

normal flu figures other flu figures you

know

deaths always go higher in the autumn if

you look nhs every year is stretched

because of flu because of this they

haven't got enough beds they haven't got

enough this they haven't got enough that

it's seeing that's that happened year on

year except they've been exacerbated the

last two years

and also we've got huge redundancies on

the way

yes and maybe well it's one we're

certain um with the end of the

furlough scheme 27 of uk firms

expect to be laying off staff in the

next 12 months and if you just look at

the figures that come out john lewis

they made a 635 million loss the first

time since world war

ii no bonuses for people next 300

million loss

and they've cut wages luffhansa has

caused more jobs and reduced its fleet

iron brew maker bar um has had an eight

percent

uh sliding revenue you've got premier

inns they're laying off six thousand

people

uh their total sales for this year are

down nearly 77 percent

because obviously it's mostly on uh

hotel accommodation

so it does look quite dire and the city

of london is laying off left right and

center

one good thing is co-op are going to

open 50 new stores because there's a

mixed sexual demand for loo rolls

yeah so and lots more positions created

at domino's pizza as well i know

yesterday take away things like that

are going to obviously not take a hit

but traditional businesses retail

businesses anything it should be the

travel agents

a travel business uh anything to do with

leisure india

yeah the hospitality sector a bit like

in spain obviously that's a big part

you know it's just been absolutely

crucified and they need to do something

to prop up these industries the number

of people losing their jobs and as you

said furlough comes to an end

people have been living it up on their

money for nothing and they're going to

find out they've got nothing for nothing

and it's going to kick home so once

autumn comes in it's usually a bit doomy

and gloomy in autumn

i think this autumn could be a bit more

doomy and gloomy than normal so that's

where we're at with the markets and

the big um plunges yesterday but they've

been halted

looks like we're climbing back up a

little bit this morning that exchange

rate is at 109

at the moment yeah on the markets yeah

so uh that's the euro to sterling latest

but um just want to get on to this that

we had in our spanish news yesterday

about expats living in europe in the eu

with uk bank accounts which they could

still do you know we used to have the

branches over here of course

um that they may face losing those uh at

the end of the year

if nothing's hammered out at the last

minute to sort out

pro pan-european banking regulations

this is very very true earlier this week

i went to see a client

and she gave me a letter she was very

very distressed it was from barclaycard

um she's had a barclay card for 40 years

saying we're advising you that due to

brexit

we will be closing your account at 11

p.m on the 31st of december 2020

that was it and she said is this true

and i said

well it could be i said let me go away

and check so i phoned up barclays and

they confirmed and so did lloyds

that because of brexit what happens at

the moment is these banks

uh it's only banks it's credit card

companies

and it's also financial advisors in the

uk they passport

into europe so being part of the eu they

are allowed to sell their services and

their products or give them to people

who

live in the eu if we have a brexit with

a no deal

at the moment let me just put this

weight none of the deals on the table

actually cover financial products

so something's gonna have to be

negotiated separately it means that they

will lose

these passport in rights so it means

that people in europe

who can no longer hold a barclaycard a

uk or any

credit card or a uk bank account unless

they have a uk

address now that is key hear me out

unless they have a uk address

um natwest and santander have said they

are waiting they're not sending out

letters yet

um they're waiting to see what happens

santander as we know has branches here

natwest is royal bank of scotland so

for some of them they're saying they're

going to close the accounts on the 16th

of november

others are saying at 11 pm on the 31st

of december

2020 unless you have a uk residential

address

so that means your bank accounts will be

closed doesn't matter how many years

you've had them

how much money you've got in them this

lady had a letter saying you've got so

much money

can you arrange for this to be

transferred out

she's got a rental property in the uk

that she rents that money needs to go

into a bank account

in the uk it won't be able to if they

close her bank account so it's very very

distressing

and i think the banks are very

irresponsible because they've known

about this for ages

they could have taken steps to warn

people about this sooner

and they could have put processes in

place to stop this happening

blacktown is the same for us we use

passport

via gibraltar to do uh business

in uh across europe um we knew that if

there was a no deal brexit and that

the financial side wasn't being

discussed that unless you were

authorized to do business

in the country you want to do business

in any eu you can't

so therefore we've got authorized by

every authority in every country

sorry and also we have set up another

head office within the eu

so we don't have to passport in um from

the uk

and the banks could easily have done

this they could have maybe used ireland

and switched the accounts to ireland i

don't know the logistics of it but at

least they could have given people more

warning

telling them now when there's literally

what two maybe three months to go

that they've got to do something it just

isn't good enough and the way things are

going

it does look like there will not be a

deal on the financial side

it's also going to impact people who

have investments in the uk

i have had at least in the last month

half a dozen if not more people contact

me

who have been contacted by the uk

financial advisors saying that they will

no longer be able to service them after

the 31st of december

because they won't be able to passport

in and also their professional indemnity

insurance will no longer cover them

to do business in europe so we're having

to look at that

also if some of you invest on your own

in

platforms you may not be able to do that

also certain funds can no longer be used

in europe

if you have funds that begin with an

icing code it's a code how you

distinguish what a fund is it is every

kind of code has got uni

unique icing code every fund if it

begins with gb

some of those will not be able to be

used in europe so these companies are

setting up new

sort of funds in either ireland or

luxembourg so they'll begin ie

or you if you have those you don't have

to worry but there is a lot and people

need to act now they need to look at

their finances

they need to look what they have in the

uk and what we do

at blacktails we do a holistic approach

when people come to see us it's not just

what have you got we can invest what

pension have you got it's what uh

you know what wheels you have what life

assurance what accounts you have in the

uk

are you properly equipped for life in

europe and we go through what the rules

in europe are regarding in spain or

france or wherever you are regarding

taxation

what accounts you can have what's tax

efficient what's not tax efficient

and then we try and make you as tax

efficient in the country you're living

in

because what's taxi efficient in the uk

is not tax efficient in

europe and now we've found that some of

the stuff you have in the uk

will now no longer be able to be held in

europe but it is definitely true

at the bank accounts and about credit

cards so

those of you that have you been using a

barclay card if it has a

address in europe you should be

receiving a letter in the post saying

they're going to be closed down

um as i said unless you've got uk

residential address they will be doing

this and presumably if you need to uh

transfer that money out

when the accounts closed they're not

going to be necessarily uh friendly with

the rights

um move it to sterling you could open a

specific

account in spain yes all the banks here

will offer you a sterling account

so you can transfer into a sterling

account here but the problem is

if you don't have a uk bank account what

they're saying is post brexit

some of the pension companies will not

be able to pay your money

over into the eu so it has to go into a

uk bank account

and then you transfer it to europe so we

have to see if that's going to come in

pla

into false because if it is it's going

to cause lots of problems for people

getting their pensions not for state

pensions

because the government can automatically

pay those and convert them into euros

and pay them over here

but some private pensions you may find

you have a problem receiving your money

but as i said it's not scare mongering

it's not fake news

i've checked with barclays i've seen the

letters that are coming out

it is definitely happening so please

beware

you should receive letters in the next

four to six weeks if you haven't already

received them

are there any uh alternatives like you

know you see these online banks online

only

how do they work is it would that still

be the same it depends

you'll have to look at their terms and

conditions there are some that operate

throughout europe

um i think it's revolut um i don't know

there's quite a few there's quite a few

but if you check their terms and

conditions

and you may need to look at opening one

of those bank accounts and please act

sooner rather than later

i'd rather you open a bank account now

just put 50 pounds in so it's there

if anything if it all does fall apart at

the end of the year you've got something

to fall back on rather than the end of

the year you're thinking oh my god what

can i do

i'm really really stuck so please look

at it now

don't panic don't run around like

headless your kids go oh my god oh my

god you have got a few months to sort

this out

but please do not bury your head in the

sand if you have a uk address please use

that uk address

if you have a property in the uk that's

yours or you can you you know you use a

uk address

make sure your bank accounts have that

address and then you won't be getting

this letter

but if they know you're anywhere in

europe in france spain italy germany you

will be receiving these letters

certain companies have certain countries

on their list

so not every country in europe at the

moment seems to be included but

definitely

france spain was germany slovakia

there was quite a few that were on the

list i think more were than weren't

so it is true well thank you for

clearing that up as i say it was a

timely appearance and we're glad we're

able to to back that up because we ran

it as our news story yesterday

and we know it's like on facebook and

all sorts of reaction

immediately and there's no need why

would we be scaremongering there's no

need i know

i don't actually ever very rarely look

at facebook now or twitter because

you know even stuff that you think is

proper news sometimes can be fake news

it's best just do research yourself and

if you're in doubt just phone up the

provider

just phone up barclays they will tell

you um and we've also got if you want to

carry banks we've also got the prospect

of maybe negative interest rates in the

uk

right so if you do have a deposit in the

uk

uh you may be charged to hold a deposit

account and also

lots of people have nsni national

savings

and investment bonds their governments

like premium bonds

and the over 60 is guaranteed income

bonds well they've announced that

they're cutting the prizes down

on the um so the odds from you

winning have gone from 24 500 to 34

500 and the interest rates have dropped

um so most of the interest rates if

you've got a three year or five year

term

your interest rate will still is as it

is until that's up and then the interest

rate is going to 0.01

the same as the banks um so and

we're not sure nsni at the moment you

can hold them

if you're overseas but as i said who's

going to want to hold them it was

it's a secure way to hold your money but

if you're getting the same as a bank

0.01

what's the point so it's a double whammy

for savers really if you keep money in a

bank account you could be charged

if you go to somewhere like nsni your

interest rates are going to fall to

practically zero

it's a tough world out there at the

moment it's it's fine whenever you

mention premium bonds i was thinking it

just reminds me of my nan buying me

something

when i was born yeah i've got like a

little card yeah i think about

10 pence or something but they are still

going

clear that up not fake news at the uk

bank accounts and we just had

confirmation from barclays that at the

moment it's just their barclay cards

that they're closing

and if they are going to close your

accounts they'll advise you in the next

uh four to six weeks so the letter i saw

was for a barclay card

so it's credit cards at the moment but

if you actually look at all the news

it could be bank accounts as well so as

i said it's best to take

uh measures now open yourself another

bank account with someone who won't be

closed down

just in case that catches you short so

it's better be prepared

because all the branches they just sort

of disappeared a couple of years ago

didn't they

um like because you used to have the

barclays down the road sold out they

sold them

what it was was you had barclays the

parent company and barclays spain wasn't

part of barclays uk it was a separate

entity

same with deutsche bank and they sold

them off and closed them down we used to

have halifax here we used to have

natwest

we used to have barclays uh they all

closed down or sold off their

subsidiaries they did the same in other

countries as well

so you said as far as financial products

and the like nothing is really

on the table nothing's been sorted as

far as brexit goes

so it could affect pensions and what

we've got is usually if you live in

spain and you transfer your pensions you

have two options

you have a sip or you have a cure up so

cureops is a qualified recognized

overseas pension scheme

and a sip is a self-invested personal

pension

um what happens is if you move to a cure

ops you are then

outside uk tax jurisdiction

so you don't pay tax in the uk you get

it paid gross and you declare your tax

in the country you live in

however i did read something from an ifa

i don't know where they came from the

other day saying that if you moved

into accuros you escape uk jurisdiction

altogether you don't

because the cure of has to be recognized

to be a cure has to be recognized by

hmrc

and has to abide to certain rules that

hmrc put down

so it has to have the same retirement

date as in the uk

it does allow for slightly more of a

lump sum but in most countries a lump

sum is not tax-free so it's irrelevant

so really the reason for a cure-ops is

just because you're not liable for tax

in the uk

you are you're giving your money gross

and then you pay tax

but with a sip you can opt out you get

an nt

tax code and then you're no liable for

no longer liable for tax in the uk

you again get paid gross and then you

declare it here

the difference is a sip is still

governed by

uh death rates um so if you die

after 75 uh your pension goes into your

estate and whoever it can be taxed up to

45

whereas with the cure ops it's outside

that and also if you're near to the

lifetime allowance

lifetime allowance is if pensions are

valued at more than 1.073

million pounds then that's the lifetime

allowance limit

so if you're near that in the uk you get

penalties whereas if you move it to the

cure ups you don't

we're waiting to see whether the rules

will affect cure ops if there is a no

deal brexit

because there is also a 25 tax percent

tax

25 tax charge on transfers outside the

eu

so at the moment or outside where you

live so at the moment if you live in

the uk or you live in spain and you

transfer your pension into a cure

usually the trustees in malta it's all

part of the eu so it's all within a

common region

they're saying if you transfer outside

then you could be so if you live in the

eu and you transferred it to australia

you could have a tax charge well if the

uk comes out of the eu

doesn't mean there's a tax charge so

we're waiting for clarification

on that but what we usually advise is if

you haven't been in spain

more than five four uk tax years we're a

bit wary about a cure ops and depending

on your age we may recommend a sip we

look at everybody individually

so don't panic if you've heard any scare

mongering stories about

now you should never cure up she should

have a sip or you should have a sip

instead of a cure rot

please don't rush into anything please

don't panic and some people are selling

cure-ups on the fact that you pay less

income

because you can get classified as a

temporary annuity

i had someone in the other day who had

been advised to transfer all his

pensions from a sip into a cure ops

because he could take his income and pay

less tax well he was taking income

of under 14 000 euros equivalent a year

and under spanish tax law if your income

from

income so this is income work income

which your pensions include is

from one source is under or around 14

not over 14 000 a year

you don't have to declare it you don't

have to pay tax anyway so there was no

need for him to transfer from a sip to a

cure

so please be careful don't get scared

into doing things that you don't know

because remember

and i hate to say this about financial

advisors but they get paid

to transfer your pensions okay that's

how they earn their money

we have lots of people coming to us

who've been advised to transfer we go

through with them we say no you don't

need to

and also they're being charged very

large upfront fees sometimes four or

five percent

to transfer a pension and then they've

got underlying costs as well you really

need to look in this because

costs are key you've got to keep your

costs down

so you actually make money if you look

at it you know we had the

downturn in the markets in march all my

clients now

are above the level they were before the

fall that's because

the products they've been given are cost

effective

they're tailored to meet their needs

they are

the right products for them and please

don't be rushed

into anything by anybody don't be scared

don't be told that you're

you you know if you do this you're going

to pay less and this that and the other

please look into it before you do

anything as we say

we don't know what's going to happen

post brexit but at the moment it looks

like there's been no agreement on

financial products

so we have to be very very careful what

we advise people to do

and what we tend to do is we have a

panel of independent experts we've got

an independent

legal expert independent tax expert we

don't have them in-house

because we feel then that negates any

independence

and they come in and they will give you

their advice so we are not

using our own in-house people to try and

make you do something

you go to an independent person they

will tell you the facts and then between

all of us

we will come to the best solution for

you so it's like a road map to exit the

uk

and that's what we're trying to do for

people i know you've said about uh when

transferring private pensions before

that you sometimes look at it and say

it's it's not worth you doing

with final salary pensions yes and also

we follow salary pensions

i honestly think that we have got maybe

a six-month window before they

those transferred will be stopped

altogether really so please if you've

got a final salary pension with some of

the companies that go in

that are having problems like british

airways huge deficit on its pension pot

offering you hugely advantageous deals

to leave

please look at it now take proper advice

and see if it is worth transferring it

before that opportunity goes

also look at your pensions if you have a

final salary pension and you're not

taking benefits once you're taking

benefits you cannot transfer it

if you're not already taking benefits

please look at it see if it's in deficit

see what plans are in place to

to get rid of that deficit if they're

not plans are not in place or they don't

look very

viable then please please look at maybe

transferring them but

you know it's you have to be very very

careful but there are some good cases

now for people to transfer

so there's lots going on out there the

best thing is just to

look at your own finances concentrate on

yourself get your own house in order

and just make sure you are as

financially secure as you can be

and your finances are in the right place

and if you have any questions at all

you can always email so you can email

bay radio one word at blacktowerfm.com

or info at blacktower fm that stands for

financialmanagement.com

put for the attention of christina it

will come through to me if not studio

bay radio dot fm that'll do you and they

will pass it through

you can always phone the office which is

965

05 8212 or you can go onto the blacktail

website blacktowerfm.com

go on to spain if you go down to costa

blanca it gives my details

you can send an email through or you can

call us even if it's not to do with the

costa blanca we've got offices across

spain across europe france everywhere if

you come through to me

if i need to pass it on to another

office i will or another individual

but please don't worry about anything we

are here to help and to give you

guidance

um so just email us if you need us and

you can you know

you can come in for appointments or we

do do virtual appointments if you prefer

so it's very very easy for you to get

good financial advice

nicely wrapped up you're so much better

at that than me it's the thing i'm very

worst at

it's a smooth wrap up like that and you

do it seamlessly so i'll leave that to

you just close my eyes and

try and remember the phone number but as

i say it's handy for us if you use the

bay radio at

rfm.com so you know where it's come from

and uh yeah as you say anything that's

come up today

we will um in case you've joined us

halfway through whatever put this up

on the website facebook page and all of

that because we filmed it once again

even

despite your protest stations oh it's

got you on camera but that was an

important bit today to cover the uk

yeah definitely and if you have if you

are worried about your bank

please just phone them just ask them you

know that if you've got a letter then

obviously it's happening

but don't worry if you haven't got one

you can always phone them up and

as i said natwest and santanderas are on

the fence at the moment they haven't

made a decision

one way or another so we'll just have to

wait and see