Bank Accounts for New Arrivals in UK

eastberks44

Hi,

Could anyone here help us with a problem?

I have been a good customer of Abbey National / Santander for nearly 20 years, but when I asked them to add my Hungarian wife as a joint holder they turned her down on the grounds that she has not got any credit history in the UK. This has been very upsetting for her and has cast doubt on our plans to settle back in the UK and escape the mistreatment and poor service we get in Eastern Europe.

The manager suggested we try one of the other big banks such as HSBC, Lloyds TSB etc who do offer accounts to immigrants. I have looked into these but they charge fees of £8 a month for minimum 12 months which works out at nearly £100.

She does not need to borrow money only wants a simple bank account with a card to pay for everyday shopping and online purchases. What is the cheapest option for which she is reasonably certain to be accepted?

thanks,

Julian

onefortheroad_2

eastberks44 wrote: »

Hi,

Could anyone here help us with a problem?

I have been a good customer of Abbey National / Santander for nearly 20 years, but when I asked them to add my Hungarian wife as a joint holder they turned her down on the grounds that she has not got any credit history in the UK. This has been very upsetting for her and has cast doubt on our plans to settle back in the UK and escape the mistreatment and poor service we get in Eastern Europe.

The manager suggested we try one of the other big banks such as HSBC, Lloyds TSB etc who do offer accounts to immigrants. I have looked into these but they charge fees of £8 a month for minimum 12 months which works out at nearly £100.

She does not need to borrow money only wants a simple bank account with a card to pay for everyday shopping and online purchases. What is the cheapest option for which she is reasonably certain to be accepted?

thanks,

Julian

try natpest i just ask online for you and got this reply


Mike Lord: Thanks for that, if you have not been a resident in the UK for three years, we can usually offer a STEP account, this offers normal banking with debit cards for example, however there is no borrowing available on that account.

heloid

I think it's either a basic account or pay £8 per month for a normal account (personally I recommend HSBC)
For me HSBC had a presence in New Zealand so I got them to open an account from there (had to make initial deposit of £500 though) and avoided the passport service completely.

nzseries1

eastberks44 wrote: »

This has been very upsetting for her and has cast doubt on our plans to settle back in the UK

Honestly, I'd try not to take it too personally. Every migrant has this problem when they come here. I know I did. Once she gets a bank account (which will happen by the way) it'll all be forgotten.

My sister was able to open a Halifax Easycash account 2 years ago with no credit history and no proof she even existed here except her passport. It's a basic bank account, but comes with a debit card.

Just make sure you specifically specify that you want the Easycash account, or else you'll be given the standard bank account forms and then declined.

eastberks44

Thanks to everyone who has replied so far.

We have tried to open a Natwest STEP account but with no success so far.

They require proof of identity which was no problem but also proof of address which is the sticking point. We have many documents that could prove beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law that we are living where we say we are living (tenancy agreement, child benefit notice, letter from the council etc., etc.) but none of these are on the approved list that the bank will accept. Those that are on the list (mainly utility bills) are hard to get when you have taken advantage of every supplier's offer of cheaper paperless billing.

The problem is the bank say we are not on the electoral register.
I called the electoral services dept who confirmed we are on the register, and that the information was sent out to all of the credit reference agencies on April 28th. But the information coming up on the bank's computer screen says that my wife is not listed at all, and I am still listed at an address where I moved out more than 6 months ago. Unless the right information comes up on the screen, the bank cannot process our application.

Someone, somewhere along the chain has not done their job and I need to find out who. The bank would not put me in touch with anyone technically involved with their IT system to find out where the data is being picked up from, but did say it was not coming from the credit reference agencies because this is not a credit account.

Does any one out there have inside knowledge of how Natwest operates in this regard, and who I can nail?

thanks

Julian Edmonds

eagleeye

Hi
Try HSBC basic bank account or ask llyods to do the free basic account.If you have got spare money then just tell llyods tsb that you would like to deposit the money (about 2500 gbp)as well then they might do it straightway.this trick worked with my friend and then after 2 days he returned the money to me.

chexum

eastberks44 wrote: »

The problem is the bank say we are not on the electoral register.

If both of you have just registered (a couple months ago) it should indeed be available to check. Mainstream banks generally use a combination of Experian and Equifax to check for not just the credit history, but the electoral presence as well. If you didn't specifically asked for the rolling register, it's possible that it will be published only as part of the annual canvas at the start of Dec (deadline ~today), and it will only be visible 6 weeks later (i.e. end of Jan).

Have you seen yourselves on the annual canvas forms in Aug/Sep, and made sure they are returned/confirmed?

The best would be to check the credit reports, and see if anything is there. The usual culprits are address formatting mismatches (flat 1 30 bank road vs. 1 30 bank road, etc...) which prevent the electoral information from being checked. If she doesn't have any banking arrangements (cards/cheques), you may need to purchase postal orders and use those to pay for the paper reports. You can then contact the CRA that doesn't have the correct information - if you are sure the details are correct.

Note that the electoral information is only a part of the ID puzzle - it will only be useful for online applications if she has at least 3 years of address history as an UK/EU registered voter. The branch doesn't really accept it as any proof.

Other than that, she may need to wait until some proof of address becomes available - if she starts working, a letter from employer works for some bank managers (but it's up to their discretion), if she already does, the NI letter should count as well, similarly for the child benefit notifications, but I guess it's not in her name as she doesn't have an account... Or change one of the utilities to paper billing and add/switch to her name as appropriate.

As a last resort, you may want to exchange her license (£50) or apply for a provisional one if she didn't have one back in the old country. Though the provisional one sometimes is not as welcome.

I've also heard Lloyds is less picky for applicants with reasonable, but not to-the letter proofs of addresses in person, but will push the fee-paying accounts, which you can simply say are not suitable until she's working or can use those benefits fully.

eastberks44

Hi Chexum,

Definitely asked for the rolling register - we each got letters from the council confirming that we were added to the register as of April 28th, and then voted on May 6th. And later received and returned the annual canvass form, which had our names printed on it.

Also I have an account with Experian which I check every month, and that has me listed at the correct address, so I assume they would have my wife's details as well. Should I check the other credit reference agencies as well, and how many of them are they?

These are the documents that we have taken to the bank and none of the were accepted:-

The aforementioned letter from the council
Confirmation of child benefit, with her name, address and date payments started.
Confirmation of National Insurance number, with her name and address on it.
Council Tax bill with her name on it but with one letter wrong.
Tenancy Agreement naming her as a permitted occupier.

The only other bills I get in paper format are BT land line (once in 3 months) and water (once in 6 months). I have called BT to add her name, and there is a bill due around now, but it is pot luck whether it gets spelt correctly.

regards

Julian

chexum

The electoral roll should be OK then, but to be sure, you may want to check it for her name separately with Experian *and* Equifax (the paper based statutory report, don't bother with subscriptions, scores, trials, or online access - they would need a card anyway). But again, it's much more important for access to credit, should not matter as much for the first account (although normal accounts will unavoidably have "shadow" credit, unarranged overdraft, so it may be the basis of a decline).

Any typos may be looked at suspiciously in this fraud-filled climate, but if she has an up-to-date passport and ID card, and the child benefit confirmation, it should be sufficient for santander according to the required ID list they publish, so something fishy may be going on.

The url is ugly, google - "proof of id site:santander.co.uk" to check.

The same list for Lloyds seem to include the confirmation of the right to a benefit as well.

http://www.lloydstsb.com/stand_alone/proof_id.asp

At this point, I'd just say ignore Santander at this point - maybe they have flagged the name as already having an application declined, preventing repeat applications for a few months. Just bring the same stack of papers to a high street with three banks, one of them should be happy to open a simple account for her. Make sure all documents are original, and as precise and consistent as possible (forget the ones with a typo, or with a different address).

If still no luck, go to a neighbouring town, and with the same documentation, ask to open a "basic" (cashcard) account, which is not credit checked, and usually not upgradeable to a normal account (doesn't usually contribute to the credit file either). But at least a month (or a quarter) later, she'll have a previous bank statement as a better proof of address. Halifax easycash is one preferred by many.

I can't really understand why the child benefit documentation would not be sufficient for the address (if it's recent enough), but if you can't bring the IDs that the branch staff usually receives (as opposed to what they list as accepted), it may be up to a branch manager to make the leap. You could try preparing for the bank and print the list of accepted IDs, and if they frown upon seeing what you bring, ask what changed since they published their requirements.

(sok szerencs!t)

eastberks44

Hi Chexum,

I am now filling in the applications for the paper based statutory reports from the agencies (to find the one with the inaccurate electoral register), and notice that where the forms ask for previous address history, there is no room to enter a country other than the UK. so it seems you have to have six years of UK address history, which again means it's not available for migrants.

Can the agencies refuse to produce a "statutory" report for this, or any other, reason?

regards

Julian

chexum

For applications, some banks don't even have a way to enter foreign addresses as previous ones, others do, and may insist on checking it (requiring matching bank statements), but this generally doesn't work well for non-English speaking countries, this is another roadblock for newcomers - it's difficult to apply for new products without 3 years of proven residency. Some companies require only 2 years, and/or just two addresses, so moving can accelerate things, but only when a bank account conduct has already been reported for the previous location.

The CRAs don't record or check for non-UK addresses (maybe except for things like BFPO). Even with just a single address, they are supposed to show the actual file and the electoral status (even if the file is just a dummy). If they have any doubts about the identity, in the worst case, they require additional IDs or proofs of ID to be sent/faxed/emailed, but they should really accept those that you mentioned having.