Do you keep an account back home, and why?

Kept mine specifically for one recurring subscription that only accepts home-country cards. Otherwise it’s completely dormant.

Same, mostly inertia if I’m honest, but it hasn’t cost me anything to keep it open.

Closed mine eventually and didn’t miss it — felt like a genuinely good clean break once I was fully set up locally.

Mei, for retirees I'd say keeping the home account isn't inertia at all. It's plumbing. Our UK pensions are paid into our UK account, our daughter pays us back for things through it, the odd subscription insists on a UK card, and the tax office writes to us at that address. Closing it would have created ten small problems to save one small annoyance.

A few things I learned the slightly hard way:

• tell your bank you're moving abroad before you go, not after. Some banks have rules about customers living overseas, and it's much better to find out while you can still walk into a branch
• keep a way to receive their security codes. More on that in Jake's thread, which I suspect will be busy
• update your address with them properly, even if the post goes to a relative. A bank that finds out on its own is a bank that freezes things

We move a fixed amount across every month and leave the rest where it is. Boring, but it hasn't let us down yet.

We kept our Ukrainian account because it's the easiest way to support family there, and some payments are only possible from inside. It isn't a safety net for us, it's a bridge.

Kept mine for Indian investments and family. The rules for non-residents are different, so I had to convert the account type, which nobody mentioned when I left.

Polish account still open, mainly because my parents send the kids money for birthdays and they'd never learn a new app.

US account is non-negotiable for me, my salary lands there. mexican account for rent and tacos

I kept my Brazilian account for two reasons. Some official things at home are much easier with a local account, and my mother can pay into it when she wants to help with something without anyone paying international fees. The downside is that I have to keep an eye on it from abroad, and my bank there sometimes blocks logins from a foreign location, which led to one very long phone call. If you keep one, check how they handle access from abroad before you actually need it.

Italian account still open, used twice a year. It costs nothing, so why not.