RetireJapan

Ooooh, update. Just tried again and it kind of worked.

Logged into my UK bank via the HMRC site, and it seems to have worked except I needed my card reader to confirm the transaction (which is at home).

Will try again tonight. Exciting.

By "pay online" you mean by credit card? I haven't seen this option, but I was able to make voluntary contributions via UK bank transfer for a hodgepodge collection of years of varying amounts. This is also how I intend to pay going forward. Yes, going through the website without having t...

So close. I just logged in to see if I could pay online, and you have to lie to do so (say you were not abroad during the time periods in question (if you were abroad, you could be eligible for class 2 payments so need to call them, but I know I am not). However, the final payment page is coming up ...

This banking closure issue ( along with the uneven distribution of index linking of the UK state pension for those of use living overseas depending on the country where one lives* ) - is one of the key lobbying issues of the British Overseas Voters Forum www.bovf.org.uk . If the BOVF can reach crit...

I have all three but mainly use Rakuten, largely out of laziness 😂 The zero yen conversion from dollars to yen that Rakuten offers is very appealing too. I think Prestia still allows you to have USD remittances sent to your account free of charge so I’ll probably sell off a good chunk of my holding...

Shonai Bank has no penalties for early repayment, but...

https://youtu.be/EedWDRcqBVI?si=8gU1s3NZjQAPLz7J

Past performance does not guarantee future returns (in fact, it might make them less likely). Sounds like your wife was very lucky this time. In similar situations my parents in law were put into Turkish Lira bonds, with less desirable results. See how that fund is doing in 5, 10 years time compared...

I have all three but mainly use Rakuten, largely out of laziness

No, but I would like to! I clearly don't qualify to pay Class 2 under the posted rules, as I never worked in the UK but came here straight from uni...

My answer is pretty tough, but the only recommendation i can give if you are under the age of 50 is learn to trade against the indexes on cfds or future contracts. It will take a few years to learn your edge, but with Micro contracts and online firms you can seriously decrease the risk. When you ta...