From the age of 50, I've been receiving another small pension from another pension provider, one who is kind enough to have arranged annual payments to save me heavy transfer charge deductions. Seemingly the SPPA isn't set up through Citibank to do that. Why the hell not?

It all sounds highly, complicated, getting your hands on your private or state pension ,Foxy. Now I don't know, and you obviously know more about the logistics of it all than I do, but i just put it to you, have you cut all ties with Britain, don't you have, or can you not get, a bank account in Scotland, is it? It seems to me that most pensioners these days get it paid straight into their current accounts. I've used a British bank debit card a lot in China and I know it doesn't cost me anywhere near the transfer charges you are paying. Also you can keep an eye on your account by means of online bank account, as long as you use the virtual keyboard for entering passwords-I forget what they call that in Windows, but I do remember it's in Win 7, all programmes- accessories...ease of access....and now I remember 'on screen keyboard' called onboard keyboard in Linux; otherwise, hackers can read your normal keyboard-especially in China and in Windows. By the way my bank in England sent replacement debit card to me in China. Have a jolly weekend.