Going slightly off piste today and wondering about pensions. As far as I can remember, I’ve still got a few years before my private one kicks in, I think it was 67 at the last count. Age that is, not years to go.
No idea what age I might be able to delve into any UK pension (or Greek one) that I may have paid/be paying into, 97 probably, if there is such a thing as a pension by the time I reach any kind of claiming age; if indeed I reach any kind of age.
But I have been seeing a lot of adverts recently for a company that tells me that, as an Ex-pat, I can claim my (private) pensions early, or move it overseas, or do something wonderfully handy with it – as long as I use their company of course, and I have never heard of them, so I shan’t even fill out an enquiry as I know it will only lead to hours of boring phone calls trying to sell me a product I don’t really want. But, maybe someone reading this knows about what ‘deals’ (for want of a better word) might be available to UK ‘ex-pats’ living abroad, in Europe, who have private or other pensions that that can become better off by doing things with them. And perhaps there’s also someone who can put those words in the correct order and make sense of them.
If so, feel free to email me and I’ll share the info. Please do not phone me about it. There are two reasons I ask that. 1) I hate speaking on the phone, and 2) the phone is currently unplugged so it won’t get answered anyway. Oh, three reasons… 3) My mobile is also playing up and turns itself off when I try and answer it, it apparently hates phone calls more than I do. Oh, four reasons… 4) I don’t want to talk about pension advice, I’m just interested to read about it and share reputable links with the blog readers. So, any ideas via email with handy links would be great. Thank you.
And talking of unwanted phone calls, I’ve already had a few from my mobile provider since I cancelled my mobile contract the other week. I went to the Wind shop in Yialos and Mr Wind there took me through the whole process, and my contract ends in March. He was very intrigued to see my sim card which is now nearly 13 years old and still working. I have a temporary one now and will change that for the new pay as you go one in March. But the call centre somewhere rang me out of the blue to find out why I was leaving my contract, so I told them: I was paying them more than I use, and they magically come up with a better offer. But I still wasn’t interested. So they came up with one that sounded like they would pay me to use their network. But I still wasn’t interested. If I’d wanted a new deal I would have asked for one thanks, so please get off the phone.
All this does mean that all my old numbers are on the card that is now out of the phone. I could out it back in and transfer them mover via the PC but I have packed the lead, so that’s not going to happen. So, if you text me and I reply asking ‘who are you?’ that’s the reason. If you want to text me saying who you are, I will save the number to the phone. But then again, the phone screen is playing up and I will need a new phone soon, so… oh forget it! Forget phones. Lets’ stick with emails and face to face shall we?
There, that’s my Tuesday morning ramble. Off to get on with the rest of the day now, though I have no idea what’s in store…
