Refused a Halifax Easycash Account?

ruzku

Dear all,
Having used this excellent forum several times in the past, I am now making my first post.

I was wondering if there was anyone out there that has ever been REJECTED for the Halifax Easycash Account (their basic account).

Background to question: Having recently moved to the UK after a long time abroad, and having a shaky, but not terrible, credit rating from when I lived here before I need a bank account here. I certainly don't have a good enough credit rating for an ordinary current a/c at the moment, but am not far off in terms of credit score. I am worried about jeopardising this by applying for too many basic accounts and thus lowering by score by a thousand cuts. I applied to the Co-op, and much to my amazement (having been assured that I would be accepted by about five people who worked there) I was rejected for their basic account. I now think that this might be because I am not yet on the electoral roll in the UK (although I have registered to vote recently - it just takes time to get onto the actual register).

So, has anyone ever been rejected for the Halifax version?? as far as I understand they need no proof of address if you have photo ID (which I do), so not yet being on the electoral roll would seem to be no problem.

Any other words of advice for someone in my position? I have 4 and a half grand in recent wages waiting to be paid into any lucky bank who will actually accept me...

Thanks all

(sorry for the long-winded message)

I'll post back with my experiences in any case, as this is always the most useful thing an OP can do in my experience!

rb10

You should only be rejected from this account if you are either currently bankrupt (and undischarged), or have a history of fraud.

They do not credit check you for the Easycash account.

The easiest way to apply is probably online. If they ask you for ID, then you can take it into any Halifax branch.

pmduk

Many banks will check your ID electronically, which may cause problems as you're not on the electoral register.

rb10

pmduk wrote: »

Many banks will check your ID electronically, which may cause problems as you're not on the electoral register.

This will not cause any problems at all with the opening of the account, and will not cause you to be declined.

All that could happen is that they request that you either post ID to them, or take it into a branch.

ruzku

Cheers rb10,
As far as I understand, you apply online and they send you a request for ID and proof of address which you then send back. I'll do this all now.
I'll post back how everything goes
If you don't mind me asking, how do you know that not being on the electoral roll won't harm my application? I do think this was the reason I was declined for the Co-op account. In any case, thanks a lot.

Would still be interested to hear if anyone has been rejected for this account. (Apart from for bankruptcy or fraud maybe)

fawinds

ruzku wrote: »

Cheers rb10,
As far as I understand, you apply online and they send you a request for ID and proof of address which you then send back. I'll do this all now.
I'll post back how everything goes
If you don't mind me asking, how do you know that not being on the electoral roll won't harm my application? I do think this was the reason I was declined for the Co-op account. In any case, thanks a lot.

Would still be interested to hear if anyone has been rejected for this account. (Apart from for bankruptcy or fraud maybe)

When I applied for this account in 2008 I wasn't on the electoral roll neither had any credit history.

All they asked from me was a photocopy of my passport. No proof of address at all.

More recently I opened another Easycash account for my wife and all she needed was a photocopy of her Spanish ID card.

book12

Try other basic bank accounts, here's a list of them: http://www.moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk/pdfs/bank_accounts.pdf

Out of the list in the link, I recommend Barclays and Natwest/RBS. They are better than the Easycash account in my opinion.

jfke

I was in a similar situation when I came to the UK from a period living abroad. I'd been working in a new job for three months and they were paying me in cheques that I just had stacking up. I tried a variety of banks, including my first go at the co-operative, and I kept getting turned down for the current and basic accounts. I tried Santander , then Abbey, as a last resort and they came up with the goods by agreeing a basic account for me. I did it in branch and I just supplied my passport as proof of ID.

The benefits of tolerating Santander's total disregard for customer service is that you can progress through their banking system fairly quickly. I moved to their instant plus (now defunct I think....) Visa Electron account very soon after opening the basic. I was told to apply for the current account after I built up a history of depositing £1000 in the account each month but I kept forgetting as the widespread acceptance of Electron meant I wasn't in too much of a hurry to upgrade.

I eventually did this in December or November last year when I finally went into the branch to change my address. It took 5 minutes to do and my Visa Debit came about 100,000,000 years after they said it would.

There has been talk of their basic account card becoming a Visa Electron or that funny new Visa Debit equivalent (fully authorised?) somewhere on these boards so that would be even more advantageous.

Beware though, as soon as I stopped being a simple user of the bank account in terms of depositing cash and thenpaying for goods and services....I began to understand the barely restrained hatred people hold for Santander. They pretty much suck at everything.

hermum

Why don't you go into a branch with your £4.5K & i.d. Would probably make it a lot quicker. At least then you could prove that you would have money going in.

ruzku

Okay, well I've applied for one now. Comedy interactions with hilarious staff in branch: telling me to send photocopies of my passport to Leeds because they couldn't open that kind of account there and then. All done now.

Thanks, Hernum for your advice - I might end up just walking into a bank with a load of cash and saying, 'Look, do you want this or not?' (it will be well over six grand by the end of this week) if Halifax for some reason don't want me!

Let's wait and see.

Thanks all for your help.

jfke

I turned up with 3.5k of cheques to cash but that didn't seem to cut any ice with some banks. The Co-operative must require a super clean and long credit history...or to be born abroad as my partner and her sister came in fresh off the boat and opened up current accounts...where's the justice!