Britain’s largest credit card company, Barclaycard, has written to some 39,000 expats who have not used their card in at least six months to say that they must now provide a UK address or face losing their card.
Manoj Piplani, managing director of Barclaycard UK said: "We periodically review accounts, both in the UK and internationally, and if we become aware that a customer hasn’t used their account for more than six months, we'll close their UK Barclaycard account, after giving them time to make alternative arrangements.
"To minimise inconvenience, we are only closing accounts that have not been used at all for more than six months. The vast majority have been inactive for over three years."
Mr Piplani added: "While our cards can be used in most countries in the world, our terms and conditions make it clear that customers should have a valid UK address. Although we can support overseas addresses on a temporary basis, our accounts are not designed to be registered to permanent overseas addresses.
"Customers overseas who do not use their accounts, but would like to keep them open, can do so by providing us a UK contact address for the account."
Barclaycard said that if cards are withdrawn from customers who cannot provide a UK address, it will have no effect on their credit ratings.
