I'm British in Poland and I think that it's time to go back to the UK!

Reading this thread it strikes me that surely the best position to be in is to marry or live with a native Pole. Then that person can liaise with all the officials, thus circumventing the anti-foreigner attitude that you have encountered.

hi avalon

thx for your very interesting information,i am british and live and work in poland and haveing the same sort of problems..credit cards,car insurance (rhd car),phones ect..i am lucky because my girlfriend speaks good english and has been wonderfull helping me with the bank,post office ect..i have been here now 3yrs on/off working...2wks uk/2wks poland but decided to move here fulltime last oct 09

RIGHT..1 so i need to read up on my rights and confront them with the facts and laws
..........2 is it possible to get car insurance here for my uk car
..........3 is it possible to get credit card ect

any information you can help me with would be gratefully recieved
have read comments on here and some i have to agree with,but if we want these things we all have to stand up and be counted,thats what made britain great a long time ago and needs to be done again

Errm - I can't remember how it is I've got a pesel, NIP, karta pobytu
Haven't got a credit card though - we only need one for hire car deposits and we use my wife's. I could get one, but as I don't need one ...

Get yourself the EU residence permit and a PESEL, as well as a NIP. You'll be treated (almost) as a Polish citizen then. Without the EU residence permit, forget it.


No. Poland doesn't allow the registration of RHD vehicles. It is possible if you know the right people in the right place - if you're in Poznan, I can recommend a particularly dodgy geezer who can get it done.


Of course. But again, the EU residence permit is what opens doors. You won't have many problems with the EU residence permit - you might get isolated bouts of stupidity, but with it, there's very little that can't be done.


Trust me, if you take this attitude, you'll get nowhere. There is a defensive mentality engrained within the Polish collective mindset, and if you go around demanding things, you're not going to get anywhere fast.

I know that dnz isn't the biggest fan of Poland but I wonder if he still stands by his statements and has been able to overcome some of the obstacles. I like his honesty and hope that he has pushed hard to get what he was after.

1) I wouldn't bother, Poland is only in the EU simply so it can distribute its population throughout Europe and also so it can get EU funding which it can waste on train tunnels to small for a train and the lke.

2) Yes, Insure through CIS in the UK, you get extended continental cover for an extra 30 quid a year. Gives you a full year overseas.

3) Its possible but due to Poland being full of Poles they will make it impossible. As mentioned above the EU membership only applies when Poland is recieving handouts. You should expect for the person in the bank to make up excuses or even blame communism which ended 20 years ago. Failing that the blame will go to the Germans or the Jews.

Dnz has a point. There is a large element of selfishness in Poland's being in the EU but we can hardly blame them after they were dropped in communism.

Yalta and Tehran were a disgrace.

The problem with Britain is that you often have to carve out your own openings. If I returned, I'd likely look at ways to become self-employed. I've learned how to manage my own affairs with the help of my able-bodied wife. I've travelled widely and know the ropes.

I would be more than happy to give back my share of EU handouts, unfortunately no one wants to inform me how much that is and what's the procedure to give It back. I think I will organize a crowd demanding that information, maybe then the EUnuchs will react.

Down with NATO! DOWN WITH EU!

There is a guy called Jacek Kotra that could help you, Greg. He deals in that sort of thing.

Filios, you are sporting a cause you know little about.

This is a thread for Brits thinking about returning, not you.

I got a joint credit card with my GF. We were offered it, didn't even ask. I just had to show my passport.

Thanks:)

In answer to your question I never managed to get a credit card in Poland and as i'm leaving in a few weeks I never will. (Funnilly enough I managed to get an Aussie one applying from Poland over the phone)

I managed to get a Pesal, well I think thats what it is, A scrap of calligraphy paper with a random number on it.

Regarding a phone contract I could have got one in the end but I simply didn't bother chasing it as i knew I was going to be here for 2 years.

Still having difficulties here with living a normal life and as both me and the G/F are English I guess that we will always have difficulties in Poland.

Ironically it seems that in my new home Australia, Things are over easy and everything can be done remotely before I arrive. Credit card, Bank account, I even called BMW to enquire about financing a z4 with only a 10k deposit and they would have done it there and then so long as i faxed them ID and they contacted my employer in aus to verify everything.

One extreme to the other. Perhaps one day Poland will bring itself out of the dark ages and accept the fact that the european union isn't just there to prop up its economy and they will be expected to give something back.

The architecture in the cites here is stunning but the lax attitude of people and the sheer incompentence shown by people in all aspects of life somewhat ruins the place.

But at least the dentists are good, eh? :P

Oh well, opening a bank account in the UK involved three visits to the bank, each time with a different letter, because they couldn't get in their heads that I live in halls and DO NOT HAVE TO PAY FOR ELECTRICITY SEPARATELY!

Yeah that one was good :) Just hope tha bastard heals quickly

Yeah, it would be interesting to know their net gains under the EU. Yeah, the Pesel has really done little or nothing for me.

My guess is that there was marked opposition to Tusk's proposed streamlining. It's a bit like the situation in Britain some 25 years ago where people denied voting Tory in the polls but, come crunch time, the truth came out. It's the same here by way of analogy. They secretly like all these rules and they have become a way of life for those involved with it. It gives them sth to moan about.

I have both my business and personal bank accounts with Citibank (the personal one has been open for about 12 years now). I recently applied for a credit card with them (for online purchases and to get the free airmiles they're offering). They said that first I'd have to show them documents proving my level of income (i.e. the accounts from my company) and that I pay my taxes on time (i.e. get a formal document from the tax office). I tried to point out that they can tell my income level from looking at my business account details and they can tell that I pay my taxes on time by looking at the transfers I make every month to the tax office. Apparently that wasn't acceptable for them and they are now refusing to give me a credit card unless I can prove that their own records are correct. I'm getting very very close to telling them to kiss my arse.

Its pathetic really.

All British expats complain about customer service in Poland. What the heck?

Its complete bollox how any bank works, all they care about is how much money you have going through the account - wages, tax, drug money it doesnt matter as long as its money. I never had regular wages or anything, but becasue i had relatively large sums of money going through the account they used to send me letters offering no questions asked loans of upto 25,000 PLN. It was literally just come into the bank with this letter, fill out a form and its yours.

I know this is an old thread, but for anyone in the same position, please don,t hold it against the Poles, history is against them and I,m sure that if you come back in 10 years it will be a lot better. Just think of trying to settle into a village in darkest Cornwall back in the 30,s..the mistrust, the resistance? would you even get served in the local shop..'furriner'!!!! I have lived in the Podkarpacie now for 3 years, still struggle to speak Polish and these people don't even trust the people from the next village, sod it they don,t trust anyone who is not immediate family!!! let alone foreigners...I love to shut down the local Biedronka....all I have to do is start speaking English to my wife....Mouths drop, grannies hold on to their crosses and breathe protective curses!! its a good few minutes before life gets back to normal.......My wife who is a Poles but spent 30 years in UK now goes armed with sheets of paper with laws and EU regs on them, resistance is useless, she always asks for the manager who lasts about 3 minutes and then she gets everything she wants...don't let underlings tell you that you have no rights, the bosses know all the rules and regs, they have just been able to bully the peasants for so long...needless to say my wife threatens legal action, EU courts of Justice and the miscreants then go out of their way to help her!!! I,ve seen her get her money back, travel money and money for a plumber to take a bath out that had a crack in it!!!! Living the good life like I couldn,t in UK!!!

Agreed couple years back uzad skarbowa summoned me for a company I had opened in 2000 and never did anything with ir ot filed tax returns for it.First interview they kinda threatened me and told me to get my own translator.After consultation with pals I went back for second interview and furiously told them that I am EU resident and I only speak english and they have to get the translator.Which they did for 3rd interview.

I just have to add that around here things haven,t changed much since communist days and I have seen local men when the shop manager appeared take off their hats and 'bow' to him.....for real..... all you have to do is mention this word 'kierovnik' and they are on their knees grovelling. Attitudes have got to change somewhat, these kierovniks are just ordinary people doing a job, they work for you, not the other way around is what I try to tell people here......I actually had someone come up to me and ask how I can talk to the local Mayor like he is just some other guy???? Well he is just some other guy!!! he drinks beer and goes to the toilet just like the rest of us...I,ll bet he has a favourite pair of slippers, but they treat him like he is some kind of god. (Now in Spain you have to treat the Mayor like he is god....(he can take your house and land if he feels like it!!!)...but then Spain is a very corrupt country...I mean more corrupt than Poles think Poland is!)

That's very interesting, and reminds me of how some of the staff used to behave at a Tesco in Hertfordshire.

Polish staff??? I assume??? if so must have been from this area.

You are all stupid! I am from Northern Ireland and have been living in Poland for almost two years. I got a bank account after a week, PESEL number after 2 weeks and after 3 months was able to take a loan for 7000pln. I found the customer service to be very good and have not any issues with anybody or felt that anybody has had an issue with me because of my nationality. I'm sorry but everything you have said is slightly retarded. Good luck back in England douche bag!

This post was from 2008. All that was originally stated was 100% true back then. Only recently has all of this become possible and it's now very easy to obtain PESEL's, register, take out a loan etc.

Yep - terrible back then. Still the customer service still stinks of arseholes today. On Saturday I wanted to buy a dog mat from Zoo Karina, the pet people. I told the girl that if it was the wrong size for the dog trailer I would bring it back and exchange it.

"We don't do refunds" she said, and was stoic when I said it was European Law to refund up to a week after purchase (cooling period?). She said that under Polish law they are correct not to give a refund.

Internet rulez then, and these shops will rightly cease to exist.
I hope DMZ is happy in Aus, and even though Avalon was a cantankerous nationalist, RIP

I didn't have a problem with customer service in 2016 or any problems except one....holiday not long enough. That seems to be the eternal problem.

@Dougpol1
Good luck with that, because made-up-by-you EU laws arent gonna get you anywhere.

Cooling period ONLY counts for Online purchases, not for purchases made in a shop. And its 14 days - if we want to be correct about it.

You can find EU regulations about it here:
"If you buy goods in a shop, you have no EU legal right to return the goods (for exchange or refund) unless the item is faulty. However, many shops voluntarily allow customers to return or exchange goods during a certain time period. Make sure you check the returns policy of the shop where you made your purchase."

europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guarantees-returns/index_en.htm

It doesnt matter on what forum you come and in what EU country, there's always people fighting for their non existent rights. Makes you look like an idiot tho