Americans Need Not Apply

[EC]

And who could blame them!

Around the turn of the last century signs like these cropped up all over New York, according to myth. The Irish, fleeing desperate times in their own country, were welcomed to the USA by a large copper statue of a lady, then told to starve quietly by an unimpressed population. Irish Americans have been getting their revenge for that slight ever since.

Still, that was a long time ago. Can't happen now, right?

Well, welcome to England. The land of green, gently rolling hills and fields, un-nervingly warm weather for a nation just below the Arctic Circle, and a quarrelsome, cynical people. Not a bad place to live, really. Unless you are American.

Been spending the past couple of days helping out a friend from the USA. He's a nice guy - know him from mutual time in Iraq. He's got some money set aside, a small, yet very decent regular income thanks to good stock picking by both himself and his parents, no real ties now his kids are grown and wife is deceased ... you know the sort of guy. They are not quite ten a penny, but not exactly uncommon, either.

He has decided he wanted to spend 6 months in the UK. Just wandering around the old country a bit, taking in the sights and sounds. To do that, it makes sense to have a base of operations. Rent a house or flat in a quiet area so he's got a place to come back to between jaunts (car is not a problem, he's borrowing one of mine for the duration - I were only going to sell it anyways.) So I take him to the local lettings agent. Branch of the biggest in the country - yourmove.com - and figured it would take about an hour, tops, to find him somewhere to call home.

Ha.

The agency had the perfect property - a small terraced house, Victorian, in a very quiet location yet within easy walking distance of the shops and public transport. Good price, good energy efficiency rating, available immediately. He thought it was perfect and sat down to do the paperwork.

That's when it happened.

"Oh. You are American. I'm afraid your bank history, credit history and independent income doesn't count. We can't rent to you." The lettings manager had gone from friendly to shut down in the space of about two seconds. "Can't your friend here co-sign for you?"

Needless to say, we made a dignified and hasty exit, retreating to a strategically located pub to regroup. He dove into his pint.

"You know, Mark? I have been a few places. Seen a lot of things. Never felt like a non-person before. My entire life just didn't count to her, did it? She didn't even look at my income statements and references."
"Nope."
"Bitch."
"Yep."

Now this is new. A company who manages rentals for a huge portion of the country and who is well known for managing rentals of swarm houses for Eastern Europeans turning down someone with a known, guaranteed income. Because they are American.

Thanks Obama.

[EC]

Posted this because - yes I am still hugely pissed off about it. I dislike intensely my friends being disrespected. Also, well you know the thing that happens during election years? "If X gets elected, I'm leaving the country" is something you hear from both sides of the political divide.

It may not be as easy as it sounds.

[EdinVA]

Posted this because - yes I am still hugely pissed off about it. I dislike intensely my friends being disrespected. Also, well you know the thing that happens during election years? "If X gets elected, I'm leaving the country" is something you hear from both sides of the political divide.

It may not be as easy as it sounds.

I would suspect that the reason is more an inability to guarantee payments vs just being an American.

[Oceander]

Actually, this has more to do with tax policy.  Specifically, the abomination known as FATCA, aka the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

How so?  Because the IRS has managed - mostly through terrorism - obtained the power to force all foreign financial institutions to divulge their American account holders and detailed information about that person and their accounts, and to register with the IRS and obtain an ID number.  This includes not just banks but all manner of organizations that are only tangentially related to what we would commonly think of as a "financial institution."

So many foreign financial institutions are simply closing the accounts of Americans (technically, "US Persons") and refusing to open new accounts for any American, although possibly some will give you a basic checking account; they don't want to even give you a savings account.

Who's at fault?  Primarily the tax-ravenous democrats, but plenty of republicans went along with FATCA as well.