Provident Fund payout practicalites
 

Anyone with recent first or secondhand experience of this?

Neither method on offer appears tremendously attractive. If you have been here long enough to remember a time when it was a good job, your payout will be anywhere from 2 to 4 million dirhams.

If you take it with your last check, what exactly can you do with it? If I understand correctly your salary bank account will have been closed by then. So? Run down to NBD at the Bouncy, take 3,000,000 in cash, port it across to the wicket at Rostamani to buy a wire transfer and hope for the best? Not tremendously tempting.

Or. Take it from the Trustees direct. A "3-5 week" delay waiting for 3,000,000 while, should anything with the transfer go even slightly off the rails you are 1)not an EK employee 2)not physically in Dubai 3)not an account-holder in the fund. Thin recourse. Not tremendously tempting.

Observations and recounted experiences greatly received.

Fingers Crossed!
 

Dropp I'm T-2 days

I too had/have concerns; I elected to have it transferred direct to an account out of the country of my choosing. The form to do this, makes a big disclaimer to the effect if I have screwed up the banking details then they will not be held responsible.

Thus I visited the Provident Fund dept at EGHQ and grabbed a telephone number of a lady whom was very helpful on the matter, just in case things go off the rails. Really p1ss poor insurance but little else in the way of alternatives!

That said, come my last day (Sunday) I will visit her again as now that payroll have 'cleared my final cheque' it is my understanding the release of my fund is also issued by EK. I will be ensuring that has occurred.

Not really an answer for you but my 2 cents worth.

I took a cheque in Dirhams. (With some difficulty) with the help of a friendly bank manager, I opened a AED account. I deposited the cheque into that account. It cleared within 14 days. I then did an exchange through a 4x broker. That only took 3 days. But you have to find people who know what they are doing. Hope that helps.

I went for the direct transfer to my bank in Jersey - took about 6 weeks but had no problems at all.

I bailed out back in June and my provident cash was in my UK bank account exactly one week after my last day of employment.

Jolly - that was via the Trustees or was it via collecting a cheque at the office on your last day and wiring it to yourself from a bank or exchange house here in Dubai?

It took 3 weeks to my european bank account.

Dropp - I just filled in my UK bank details on the leaving portal page for them to pay it direct to my bank account.

I went with option 2. My LDS was 14/12 and received my USD in my account yesterday, the 24th.

Merry Xmas

Don't you get robbed on the exchange rate and/or bank charges if you do a bank transfer direct to a non-USD account?

I was offered a 0.3% spread on my conversion which was reasonable I thought - I could have got 0.2% if I had shopped further but working with the trustee's seemed to be more tidy.

A question from the ignorant...
 

For those transferring cash back into the UK from their Provident Fund payout, is there any tax liability under the current regs?

You can open a US$ account in the UK (or elsewhere) and leave the Provident Fund payout in US$ until the exchange rate is to your liking.