Ex Pats want to use our UK address for a credit card?

A_Lert

Hell no. It's very dodgy.

There are commercial mail forwarding services they could use, if they have to deal with a company that won't send outside the UK. But of course then that company would know the customer was using such a service.

redux

Santander is a Spanish bank. It probably has some branches in Spain, or online banking for its Spanish accounts.

From a Which article in December about changes to UK accounts after Brexit

Santander isn’t closing accounts at this time, but non-UK residents can no longer open accounts with the bank, and existing customers won’t be granted new requests for new or increased overdraft limits, credit card limits or additional cardholders.

kaMelo

I think the real question to ask is what are they going to tell Santander is their main address. If they are honest about where they live and only want to use you as a mailing address then I don't see the problem. Whether Santander are comfortable with that set up is another matter.
 If however they want to tell Santander they live in the UK and their main residence is your address, that's fraud and the bargepole is a good suggestion.

[Deleted User]

pramsay13 said:

It wouldn't bother me if a close friend wanted to use my address for credit card application or otherwise although I suspect it won't work in practice.

Suspect it would bother you when you end up with a CIFAS marker for fraud and have all your accounts closed down

pbartlett

The problem with this is that I know you want to be helpful but it is, in fact, application fraud. I assume that your friends are going to put your address as their permanent UK address and then sign the declaration at the end of the form saying everything is truthful, knowing full well that it is not.

On a purely practical level, as part of the application process Santander will do a credit check for them against your address which presumably will find no record of them living there.

Belenus

Thanks everyone, you have mostly confirmed what I initially thought. After discussing this with my wife and showing her your responses we have both agreed that we want no part in it and she will refuse the request.

She will pass on the suggestions about mail forwarding etc.

Thanks again.

callum9999

Deleted_User said:

pramsay13 said:

It wouldn't bother me if a close friend wanted to use my address for credit card application or otherwise although I suspect it won't work in practice.

Suspect it would bother you when you end up with a CIFAS marker for fraud and have all your accounts closed down

That's very obviously never going to happen.

In the very unlikely circumstances that Santander decide to do some investigating into whether the friend is actually living with the OP or not (that's a completely normal living arrangement after all) and somehow discovers they aren't, it will be the friend getting the CIFAS marker.

There's nothing fraudulent about letting someone use your house as a mailing address, and given its illegal to open someone else's mail, Santander couldn't possibly expect you to know what was happening.

Though that all being said, it's obviously perfectly legitimate to not want to help the friend misrepresent their residency status.

eskbanker

callum9999 said:
its illegal to open someone else's mail

That's an urban myth if stated in those unqualified terms, the relevant provision of the Postal Services Act 2000 actually stating that "A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person’s detriment and without reasonable excuse, he opens a postal packet which he knows or reasonably suspects has been incorrectly delivered to him".

callum9999

eskbanker said:

callum9999 said:
its illegal to open someone else's mail

That's an urban myth if stated in those unqualified terms, the relevant provision of the Postal Services Act 2000 actually stating that "A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person’s detriment and without reasonable excuse, he opens a postal packet which he knows or reasonably suspects has been incorrectly delivered to him".

I did actually check that before posting and didn't consider this a "reasonable excuse", but have since seen that it is deemed correctly delivered if it's delivered to the printed address (i.e. you can open up any letter with your address on it for any reason). I stand corrected - thanks!

MalMonroe

I was wondering what would happen when Santander tried to match up your friends' names with your address. . . but I see you have decided to politely refuse their request, which is probably for the best all round.