RetireJapan

I just heard about this opportunity to fill gaps in the NI contributions history. Welcome! Great that you are taking steps to improve your UK state pension, and especially given that you are intending to use this special extension period! I am racing to get this done in time ... Forgive me for aski...

Late reply, but just to add that as a voluntary contributor, your wife should also be eligible to contribute to the 'additional pension' (fuka nenkin), which is a relatively small but extremely efficient boost to the pension: https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/Fuka_nenkin

I hope I'm not too late to the party on this one. According to my records with HMRC, I have three full years of payments or credits. Two of these years were while at sixth form, so I believe they are credits and not payments. If this gives me the 3 years necessary, I’ll go ahead and apply to pay fo...

I kind of have the opposite experience to some... tried to close an account before ending UK residency via branch visit, but they messed it up and kept mailing me for half a decade. Periodically tried to resolve; then their rules tightened and was happy for the account to become automatically culled...

An SAR to request a copy of the correspondence they claim to have sent is a possibility if the letter fails to materialise. But, RJ himself says that the current timeframe is within their parameters. (Re RJ's point that HMRC mail sometimes comes from other countries; my former university has been do...

That's frustrating. I think many people experience what could be termed communication anomalies with HMRC. Two months sounds excessive... something may have gone awry there. One thing the Student Loans Company (SLC) does well is send correspondence via secure electronic messages in addition to hard ...

Sorry to hear about the accident. Glad to hear that neither rider had significant injuries. Great that the boss was able to give assistance in getting the bike to the bike shop and you to your home; it demonstrates some degree of willingness to smooth out the situation. Some good responses here alre...

Wise writes eloquently on how they keep your money safe: https://wise.com/help/articles/2949821/how-wise-keeps-your-money-safe We’re licensed to hold your money and, as part of keeping it safe, we follow strict rules set out by the regulators in the countries where we operate. As of 30 September 202...

Thanks to all respondents for thoughts. Lots of links, ideas, etc.

I will prob sell.

The wise.com multi currency accounts get the thumbs up from many forum members: https://www.retirejapan.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2976 https://www.retirejapan.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1515 Wise has published a decent blog about the UK state pension too: https://wise.com/gb/blog/uk-state-pension#:~:...