Joint accounts where one holder is non-UK / on a visa

sghughes42

I've been looking in to opening a joint account as my Taiwanese fiancee is about to move to the UK to join me. I'm with Barclays at the moment and their website seems to suggest both account holders must be working and UK residents. I'm not sure if by UK resident they mean just living here, or actually have ILR.

Is this typical? Are there accounts where only one of the holders needs to be working and the other can be their partner / spouse?

Also, any recommendations on a good joint account that meets these needs? I was considering one of the Nationwide ones but need to do the sums to make sure the benefits outweigh the cost - in the long term the travel insurance will, but until we get married and get the spouse visa we won't be doing much travelling abroad.

Another question, is there anything stopping us having two joint accounts? I was thinking one to pay the bills and another for spending. That way I can transfer enough of my wages to the 'bills' account to ensure everything is paid and then transfer an agreed amount to the 'spending' account for my fiancee to use.

jonesMUFCforever

For a standard/packaged account they will credit score.
From what you have posted it is likely that she will fail the credit score and they may reject your request to open/make the account joint.

They may offer her a basic account.

Only Barclays can really tell you what will happen.

sghughes42

OK, thanks. I believe she already has a UK account - she was a student here for 6 years but has been away for almost 2 years.

How long is it likely to take for her to get enough of a credit rating to pass the credit check, and if she applies and fails how much of a black mark will that be?

When she arrives I'll take her in to Barclays and Nationwide and we can discuss it and see if they can give a sensible answer in branch. Was hoping to start the process online before she arrives but doesn't look like that is an option.

jonesMUFCforever

Normally 3 years as a resident here is required by some banks before they will consider a normal account with credit facilities.
Do you actually NEED a joint account?

sghughes42

I guess that we can manage without one, but it will be so much easier to have a joint one, otherwise I'll for ever be transferring money to her account or having money tied up in her account to be sure of her having enough rather than just having one 'spending' account that either of us can access.

You say an account with credit facilities, what about one without an overdraft? Or do normal bank accounts always come with an overdraft these days?

Three years seems a bit steep, especially as they could recover any losses from me if it came to it.

Presumably that also means I won't be able to add her as an additional card holder on my credit card?

One last thought, do banks differentiate between non-UK nationals just resident here and ones married to UK nationals? I guess I can see the point for non-UK nationals without any ties here, but in this case she has a strong link to the UK. Is there any scope to sign an agreement promising to stand guarantee for her, a bit like I've had to sign for her visa?

alimahat

Hi,

I was in the same situation two years ago. Went in to Halifax which is my main bank and they refused. I then went to Santander and was able to open a joint account there even though she was at the time on a spouse visa with no problem. She had since started working and has now got an account in her own name.

Archi_Bald

Have you considered a savings account with a card? Such as the YBS cashminder http://www.ybs.co.uk/savings/easy_access/cash_transactor.html, or I think TESCO does something similar.

grumbler

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Normally 3 years as a resident here is required by some banks before they will consider a normal account with credit facilities.

May be for 'some', but for most banks it's certainly not 'normally'.

InsideInsurance

There is no universal definition of "resident". Generally governmental departments etc tend to consider a period of over 6 months as you being resident. There is no requirement for you to be free of immigration controls (ie ILR or equiv) to be considered resident. There are examples of others wanting longer or shorter periods before you are considered resident.

Banks can ultimately make up their own rules about who they accept or not and it does seem to vary by product. My wife is/ was a non-EU national and didnt work at the time she was temporarily added to my Barclays account.

They did do a credit check but they advised with the Premier account at least then as long as there were no CIFAS, defaults, CCJs, IVAs etc then it would be fine no matter if she had an excellent or poor reference.