Bank account advice needed

summerbee

My British mother in law lives in the USA (as a legal resident, she still only holds UK passport) and owns a second home here in UK. She wants to open a bank account to pay council tax/utility bills from and also to withdraw money to spend whilst visiting here, and to transfer money to myself (I've been helping oversee bills etc for now so she owes us money she'd like to pay back). She has visited a couple of banks but she gets confusing conflicting answers and none of them ever seem to have come across this situation before. Does anyone have any advice on what she is able to do in terms of opening a current account or even where to go to get trustworthy advice? We aren't talking investment/savings, just a normal account with a sort code and debit card!

Thanks in advance. If this is the wrong forum please let me know-not experienced at this!

bellagio_2

needs to be a uk resident to open a current account although banks will have offshore options for people who live or work overseas.

xylophone

https://www.bba.org.uk/customers/personal-banking/current-accounts-personal-banking/bank-account-access-in-the-uk-for-non-residents-2/

summerbee

Thanks for the link xylophone-it seems you need a minimum of £25,000 to open those international offshore accounts unfortunately and my mother in law has nowhere near that much, only a couple of thousand maximum. I didn't realise it would be so hard as a UK citizen to pay UK bills and UK people!!

xylophone

I wonder could she open a sterling account in the USA and arrange to pay her bills and you from that?

grumbler

I am likely to get shot to pieces, but personally, if having a home in UK, I wold not say anything about USA when applying for an account. Council tax bill and utility bills constitute sufficient proof of UK address.
Later I would inform the bank about moving to USA. Many banks allow expats keeping their UK accounts.

xylophone wrote: »

I wonder could she open a sterling account in the USA and arrange to pay her bills and you from that?

Why does it have to be a £ account? Most bills can be paid by a card, and the only a £ account can possibly do is to save a little on currency conversion.