account and not a resident for 3 years

Hellion

My gf has a problem where she has to open a bank account and deposit a large cheque (approx £15,000) but has not been a uk resident for the last 3 years. Bank accounts we have looked at all ask for a 3 year UK residence and proof of address. She is living in Spain at the moment(although she is a British citizen) and will be moving back here soon. She wants to open a UK bank account in her name to deposit the cheque but as I mentioned they all seem to ask for this 3 year residence.

Does anyone have any suggestions on this matter?

Thanks in advance

Paul_Varjak

If Spain have a reciprical arrangement with the UK it may be possible for her bank in Spain to arrange with an English bank to set-up an account before she comes to the UK.

jonesMUFCforever

If she is a british citizen did she not have a UK bank account before moving to Spain which she could now use?
Eric

grumbler

3 years residency condition sounds very strange. As far as I know as soon as she comes back to UK and has proofs of address and ID she can open current account. I know a lot of foreign citizens (PhD students) that opened current accounts just a few days after arrival to UK.

jonesMUFCforever

Grumbler
A lot will depend on her status as a citizen now ie is she back for good or just temporary measure?
If she is just opening an account just to clear a cheque for £15k they may be suspicious, she could for example get the cheque converted into euros and paid into a Spanish account.

grumbler

ejones999 wrote:

A lot will depend on her status as a citizen now ie is she back for good or just temporary measure?

Citizenship does not matter. As long as she can prove her UK address (usually by utility bill, letter from Accommodation Service for students, ...) she can open an account.

ejones999 wrote:

If she is just opening an account just to clear a cheque for £15k they may be suspicious, she could for example get the cheque converted into euros and paid into a Spanish account.

If she had £15K in cash this could be suspicious. I do not see anything wrong in depositing cheque and transferring money elsewhere.

Hellion

She hasnt moved back yet, although it will be permenant. She wants to deposit the cheque(sterling) into a UK account to avoid such things as transfer fees and exchange rates , etc.

Problem is as she isnt living here yet(well not officialy) then there's the problem of opening a UK account to deposit the cash into. The cheque needs to be put into an account in her name for some legal reasons.

She has no proof of address or no UK record of bank accounts for the last 10 years, and no credit history, etc. If she is living with me then will some sort of letter from me be sufficient as proof of address? Or would it be possible to open a joint account with just my proof of address?

grumbler

This could be more difficult than you think. Just read this THREAD :eek: . You can try to change one of your utility bills (temporarily) to her name to 'fake' proof of address.

She could also check Citibank (Spain). Here in UK Citibank does not charge for depositing USD and Euro cheques.

jonesMUFCforever

Have a look at british bank websites that offer overseas / offshore accounts. With a sum like £15k they should be able to open account that is accesible in UK until such time that ID and address is such; that you can transfer to a UK account.
Don't know how they will deal with the cheque (you don't state whether it will be drawn on UK or not) but I would recommend that if possible you pay a small charge and get the money electronically wired to your account.
Eric

newfoundglory

The 3-year rule generally applies to accounts with credit facilities (eg, accounts with cheque guarantee cards + overdrafts), but not to basic banking accounts and those without credit facilities and overdrafts. For these you should just need proof of ID (eg passport) and address (eg. inland revenue). A bank account of this type will also probably take longer to clear the cheque to ensure its not returned unpaid. If she is a british citizen then she should make sure she is on the electrol roll at the address where she is living, which banks can also use for identification requirements.

Due to money laundering regulations its very hard to open an account before you are actually in the UK!

If the bank is suspicious of the cheque, and you are able to provide evidence of the reason/proof of the transaction, you could always offer to provide it. A bank isn't there to stop genuine financial transactions from taking place.

catkins

I have been through this myself. I moved to France after living in England for 40 years. Abbey National would not let me keep my english account with them. When I returned to England after 5 years I had terrible trouble opening an account and had to wait until I had received gas, electric, water and phone bills in my name. These together with my passport managed to get me a basic Halifax account.

BUT now my husband has returned to England and cos all the bills are in my name he is having trouble opening an account. Been informed today by Co-op bank that a Carte de Sejour (French identity card) is not a valid document even though their list of acceptable proofs of identity includes "EEA/EU member states identity card". This beggars belief.