Job Discussion Forums

dragonpiwo · Joined: 04 Mar 2013 Posts: 1650 Location: Berlin

As of July 1st you can only get a mortgage in the currency of your salary. If you earn USD and your wife earns PLN, you can't therefore get a joint mortgage. Oh and wrt Sterling the mortgages are much more expensive even though you are borrowing GBP on which the UK bank rate is half of 1% and your salary is in Sterling.

Madness.

scottie1113 · Joined: 25 Oct 2004 Posts: 375 Location: Gdansk

Madness. True. Welcome in Poland.

sparks · Joined: 20 Feb 2008 Posts: 632

Banks rule here. I suppose you know that if you don't pay it they can take everything you own, sell it at a quarter (or some small percentage) of the value and leave you with nothing. Not just the house goes...

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Capitalism - red in tooth and claw ! Oh for the good old days of Gomulka !

dragonpiwo · Joined: 04 Mar 2013 Posts: 1650 Location: Berlin

And this being Poland, there will be a way around it.

dragonpiwo · Joined: 04 Mar 2013 Posts: 1650 Location: Berlin

1-If you don't earn in Zloty, the only foreign currency mortgage you'll get is a Euro or Dollar one. The latter will be phased out too.

2-If you are married and earn in Pounds a-you won't be able to borrow but your wife can and b-she will be able to borrow less because you will be seen as more expense unless you legally separate your finances.

3-If you work for a firm based outside the EU, you have no chance of getting a mortgage.

delphian-domine · Joined: 11 Mar 2011 Posts: 674

Maybe it might be an idea to try and get a mortgage through a UK bank instead? I know that PKO were definitely offering GBP mortgages for Polish properties at one point.

Try this - http://www.pkobp.pl/pkobppl-en/uk-customers/

dragonpiwo · Joined: 04 Mar 2013 Posts: 1650 Location: Berlin

I'll check it out DD but my UK bank has been trying to close my account for ages as I no longer live there and they've realised.

Don't think I'll be able to fob 'em of much longer.

Polish banks have nothing like the range of products I'm used to. I found a mortgage broker who knew more about all the credit rules than any banker I've had meetings with recently. Told me everything in 1 minute.

The bankers want you to open accounts then disappoint you over time. Millenium once told me that my new Karta wasn't the real Karta for example. With DB I have a Sterling account I can't withdraw Sterling from, so have to transfer it elsewhere. It's friggin' madness. I was with WBK for 16 years or so and they turned their nose up at a 'foreign' employer. I could go on. Someone you and I both know is a Sterling millionaire and can't get a Visa Card.

It's a horrendous place to be slightly unusual and or foreign.

sparks · Joined: 20 Feb 2008 Posts: 632

Sgt Bilko · Joined: 28 Jul 2006 Posts: 136 Location: POLAND

Surprised you're having problems with your British bank account. I can't open a new one at my bank or any other in the UK but I have no problems keeping the one I've already got (NatWest) and they send me a new credit card whenever the old one runs out.

Regarding Polish banks, I've never tried to get a credit card or a mortgage over here so can't comment. They all seem OK with what I want from them. Alior were the most customer friendly - a bit too much so. Thought I'd never get out of there when I went to open an account. Ing invited me in for a personal chat when my account built up to a nice tidy sum - mainly to try to sell me investments but it would have been interesting to see if they would have offered a credit card.

Talking of which, could you get one from somewhere like Tesco over here or would you face the same problems?

dragonpiwo · Joined: 04 Mar 2013 Posts: 1650 Location: Berlin

For me the country is just a shitty place to try and exist.

Master Shake · Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 1202 Location: Colorado, USA

My Polish banking experience has been far superior to any other country I've lived in. Here's why:

- Free wire transfers to bank accounts in Europe. (Try finding free international transfers in Asia or even in the US to other states - you won't)
- Fairly easy and straightforward to open an account
- Good customer service including free 24-hour hotlines with (occasional) English support
- Up until recently, you could set up lokata accounts which earned up to 8% interest. Try finding that in USD or GBP.
- Debit and/or cards are accepted almost everywhere & Paypass makes buying cheaper stuff a breeze
- Euronet ATMs are widespread in all major cities

I've never taken out a mortgage or applied for a Polish credit card, but for what I need, Polish banks are A ok.

Banks in SE Asia are a real pain. Some make up most of the rules as they go along (Thailand, Vietnam) and/or they are super strict about procedure and stingy with services like those I listed above (Japan).

I'd take a random Polish bank over a US or Asian one any day. (Tho they're all owned by the same parent companies, anyway...)

dragonpiwo · Joined: 04 Mar 2013 Posts: 1650 Location: Berlin

For me it's a case of 'I fought the law and the law won.'

The system is simply not set up for people who earn a different currency, work for a non-EU firm and just live in Poland.

Even if I were to become tax resident in Poland, I couldn't get a mortgage.

My Polish mate meanwhile has just got his British passport as has his Polish missus and kid. Go figure. He/They has/have no British relatives.

Some countries make it easy and some don't.

I'm sure a Pole earning a Sterling salary in the UK has no such problems.

delphian-domine · Joined: 11 Mar 2011 Posts: 674

All I can say is my own experience. Getting a mortgage and credit card was no problem at all, but I have a permanent umowa o prace and do something that is easily understood.

I'd agree that the Polish system and the country in general isn't particularly keen on interesting or exotic situations, but at the same time - we didn't see any large bailouts of banks here. I guess most people would rather have a strictly supervised banking system that doesn't allow chicanery at the expense of losing a few clients with money.

(slightly off topic, but the oddest thing in Poland that I've found is people wanting paid for documents, but refusing to accept anything other than a bank transfer. The transfer is free, but still - I don't get it)

dragonpiwo · Joined: 04 Mar 2013 Posts: 1650 Location: Berlin

DB warned me that Allior Bank is in trouble.

UK banks were exposed to US subprime. Polish banks weren't, it's that simple. It was a crisis in investment banking that buggered high street banking in other countries. The credit crunch is about liquidity caused by the fall out of that. Joblessness was a result of credit drying up and the ensuing recession.

Poland actually has a high unemployment rate. Polish banks are quite happy to loan someone who earns 50,000 PLN a 400K mortgage ie 8 times salary. You won't find a UK bank that does that even if you look pre 2008.