Basic Bank Account Thread

Cominghome

First time poster a little overwhelmed with all the info, so hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

Am a Brit, have been out of the UK for 10 years and coming back for a stint. Don't have a UK account and need to set one up, but also zero credit history. I have a passport and a rental contract, but no utility bills or other proof of address. All I am looking for is a simple account with debit card, no overdraft or credit card initially. Should be able to pay 1000 pounds a month through the account.

Which banks, if any, would offer an account and (here's hoping) is it possible to do this application online without visiting the UK and have the card sent to my UK address (am not going to be there for a few weeks)?

Thanks in advance.

savagej

Your passport and the fact you have been out of the country for that long will be enough explanation. Because you have a passport they will simply find your address using the post office database (or one on a credit reference agency that can come from either or both the PO or the local council). They wont need a separate proof of address, although you must do this by opening an account in person in a bank branch rather than on-line.

It would be a good idea to speak to your local council and have your name added back onto the electoral roll.

As for which bank it really depends on you, I would first apply for a regular current account and if that is rejected then I would ask for (or more likely be offered) a basic bank account and if that is rejected go to another bank.

The ones I would avoid are Santander, like the plague due to generally bad reports on customer service (no debit card on a basic bank a/c), HSBC (fine if you get a regular current account, but no debit card on a basic account), and LloydsTSB (fine again if you get a regular current account but if it is a basic account your debit card is restricted to ATM withdrawals at their own ATM's).

If you are opening the account in Scotland I would avoid LloydsTSB altogether as all of the branches, with the accounts, are being sold so you may have to open another account if you dont like what is offered by whoever buys them.

Barclays are fine IMO and the Co-operative, maybe not Halifax or Bank of Scotland for the moment as if it is a basic account it wont provide positive information to credit reference agencies which will help with future credit, Nationwide B/S are good. RBS and NatWest are likely to be fine but Northern Rock Current Account will likely give you a debit card that cannot be used outside of the UK. Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks both get good reports.

Think that about covers it.

Hope it helps.

James

elsiepac

Cominghome wrote: »

First time poster a little overwhelmed with all the info, so hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

Am a Brit, have been out of the UK for 10 years and coming back for a stint. Don't have a UK account and need to set one up, but also zero credit history. I have a passport and a rental contract, but no utility bills or other proof of address. All I am looking for is a simple account with debit card, no overdraft or credit card initially. Should be able to pay 1000 pounds a month through the account.

Which banks, if any, would offer an account and (here's hoping) is it possible to do this application online without visiting the UK and have the card sent to my UK address (am not going to be there for a few weeks)?


Thanks in advance.

Hiya, personally I recommend The Co-Operative Bank, their basic account is called a CashMinder and I have now been with them since Jan 10. I called late at night, in a time of great strife - you could say my 'enforced' LBM(!) and to be fair I never needed to see anyone, we did the internet banking setup over the phone, and I had my Visa Debit card in a week. I was sooo impressed, especially after the shoddy way FD kicked me out... grr :mad: Anyway, another bonus, whilst they operate a "three strikes and you're out" policy, I have missed one DD by accident - confusion over new mobile phone contract DD dates - and whilst I had a letter saying I'd been charged, it never materialised, and I rang to confirm and they said it had been waived as my "first offence". You can't fault them on customer service andthe internet banking is a doddle.

Good luck!

LC

saintscouple

coolesticeking wrote: »

Lloyds like most banks have two systems it's own internal scoring and it receives information from Experian etc. once a month on your conduct elsewhere.

Lloyds internal scores goes from 1 to 9 with 1 being the best and this is made up on how well you run the accounts and of course elsewhere.

A big problem is something called CPD "Credit Policy Decline" marker which can be placed on accounts - means if you have this on your account even if you had an internal score of 1 meaning the best of the best type of customer, you would be declined for any type of credit until this marker is removed.

Once you open the account ask them what your internal score is and see what they say.

If you run a Cash Card Account well, they will look into upgrading this after 6 months although it's not set in stone after 6 months plus.

Well we went in to branch last week to apply for an upgrade with the bank manager, he went through the system and it was reffered by telephone and then declined.
I forgot at the time, but called them today about internal credit score and was told we had a CPD 99 on our account and this is calculated not by how we run our account, but information they receive from credit reference agencies.

Since opening the account 6 months ago we have run through at least £1000 a month, have several direct debits all honored and never overdrawn, no charges.

Not sure now if it's worth going back to Natwest, where we still have our Step account open, plus a full account with a cheque book, but no overdraft.
It's just where we live we only have a Lloyds nearby, and the nearest Natwest is 8 miles aways in a town centre, which is a great inconvinence when having to pay in cheques.

coolesticeking

saintscouple wrote: »

Well we went in to branch last week to apply for an upgrade with the bank manager, he went through the system and it was reffered by telephone and then declined.
I forgot at the time, but called them today about internal credit score and was told we had a CPD 99 on our account and this is calculated not by how we run our account, but information they receive from credit reference agencies.

Since opening the account 6 months ago we have run through at least £1000 a month, have several direct debits all honored and never overdrawn, no charges.

Not sure now if it's worth going back to Natwest, where we still have our Step account open, plus a full account with a cheque book, but no overdraft.
It's just where we live we only have a Lloyds nearby, and the nearest Natwest is 8 miles aways in a town centre, which is a great inconvinence when having to pay in cheques.

It is a mixture of your internal behaviour with Lloyds TSB and also what they see from the credit feed they get each month - It applies more to the Classic and above accounts as the Cash Card account will always be CPD 99.

Most people find with Lloyds TSB who have the Cash Card account its easier to re-apply from scratch for the Classic account as it's very rare for them to upgrade a Cash Card account as you have found.

To be honest, why not keep both open? You can send Faster Payments to and from both Lloyds TSB & NatWest. That way you can keep paying in cheques without going miles just to do so.

TwistedPsycho

Hi Guys,

I am hopeful that someone can put me in the best direction as I did search the thread but got confused.

I have a current account already, but want a seperate basic bank account that I can service via the t'interweb and that accepts payments from an irish source (paid in euros) without charging me to accept them. There is nothing sinister in why, its just so I can keep income from self-employment seperate and ensure I keep the tax man happy!

I am assuming that most of the big groups do offer it, however I bow to your knowledge on who the better ones are.

stclair

Just to let you know as of 03/07/11 Natwest Step Accounts and RBS Key account will not be available to new customers:

They have now been replaced with the basic account and you are only able to use RBS Group ATMs to withdraw money.

http://www.natwest.com/personal/current-accounts/g1/other-accounts/basic-account.ashx#tabs=section1

http://www.natwest.com/downloads/global_options/docs/NatWest-Basic-Account-Visa-Debit-Card-Guide.pdf

http://www.rbs.co.uk/personal/current-accounts/g1/other/basic-account.ashx

http://www.rbs.co.uk/Downloads/global/docs/RBS-Basic-Account-Visa-Debit-Card-Guide.pdf

scoobydoooo

hi all, could anybody tell me which is a good basic bank account that isnt associated with halifax bank?.

stclair

scoobydoooo wrote: »

hi all, could anybody tell me which is a good basic bank account that isnt associated with halifax bank?.

I would recommend barclays cash account.

pmduk

My reading of stclair's links suggests that you can use non-RBS group ATMs but at a charge. These charges apply only to accounts opened from now, but not to existing account-holders