Refused a Halifax Easycash Account?

book12

ruzku wrote: »

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.

Those accounts can only be openend by post or online.

When having that bank accont, you are not allowed to use certain the branch counter to pay in money, withdraw less £300, or make a routine enquiry.

Other basic bank accounts are better than the Halifax one.

rb10

book12 wrote: »

When having that bank accont, you are not allowed to use certain the branch counter to pay in money, withdraw less £300, or make a routine enquiry.

... because they have machines that you can use to pay in both cash and cheques - which are credited to your account instantly, and you can use an ATM to withdraw <£300.

ruzku

Hooray
Account has been opened. No problems at all. Whole process took less than a week though done through the post and online.

I would really recommend this account to people in my position - coming to the UK from abroad with little or no recent credit history and not appearing (yet) on the electoral roll. I'm sure other accounts at other banks will do this too, but in my experience at least Halifax did everything quickly and efficiently, and, most importantly, opened an account with no hassle. This morning I got my account details, info on online banking, and my debit card (no pin yet though).

Thanks to everyone who replied, and in particular to rb10 and jfke whose advice and experiences were much appreciated.

finder

ruzku wrote: »

Hooray
Account has been opened. No problems at all. Whole process took less than a week though done through the post and online.

I would really recommend this account to people in my position - coming to the UK from abroad with little or no recent credit history and not appearing (yet) on the electoral roll. I'm sure other accounts at other banks will do this too, but in my experience at least Halifax did everything quickly and efficiently, and, most importantly, opened an account with no hassle. This morning I got my account details, info on online banking, and my debit card (no pin yet though).

Thanks to everyone who replied, and in particular to rb10 and jfke whose advice and experiences were much appreciated.

Hi

That is quick! I put an application online 2 weeks ago today and the account is still not open! Did they let you verify your identity on the branch? Because that is what it is still holding my application!

Thanks

MoneySavingSpender

Being on the electoral roll (have you told your Council you are in a UK Resident, most Councils have a "Moving into XXXX Council" and a "Moving out of XXXX Council" forms you can download and post.

And having a credit history of some kind at that address helps, be even just a normal BT phoneline or a mobile phone of some kind, lots of basic services/products will activate this for you.

Not having that bare minimum will result in being refused for ALOT of financial products imo.

ruzku

finder wrote: »

Hi

That is quick! I put an application online 2 weeks ago today and the account is still not open! Did they let you verify your identity on the branch? Because that is what it is still holding my application!

Thanks

No, I sent copies by post, but I had been into a branch a couple of times - I don't know if this somehow sped up my application. Have you still had no reply?
I still have no PIN, and am still waiting for my online banking password, but hopefully these should arrive sooner rather than later.
The important thing was to get an account, obviously.

A general housekeeping observation about this thread and this forum: (Just my personal opinion of course!)
While it is obviously fantastic that people want to help others out on this site, and this is what makes these forums so good, I do find that it obfuscates the issue when people make generic statements about the wider issue or give general advice which is not immediately relevant to the problem at hand. These forums (fora?) work best when people who have analogous experiences or some kind of other relevant knowledge answer the question: so many of these threads degenerate into lists of bank accounts available or links to pdfs about basic bank accounts. 99.9% of people will have read all of this before coming here, and will be posting because this generic information is not adequate for their precise situation.

On that note, therefore, I would reiterate what I said before:
My experience: Halifax opened me a bank account even though I am not yet on the electoral roll and have no recent (or even not that recent) credit history, following an extended period of residence abroad - factors which would cause me to fail the electronic 'identity checks' that banks do via credit reference agencies: Halifax are content were content to verify my identity by other means: Photo ID and utility bills for proof of address, although I think merely the former would have been sufficient. They did this quickly and efficiently with no problems.