Bank account for ex-pat, from abroad?

chris_aaaaa

My recently widdowed step-mother needs to arrange to receive uk pension.

She lives in Turkey, has done for several years, so no uk addr or credit history.

Is there any uk bank likely to allow online opening with scans of passport?

Even if they took in the money and held it until she could visit uk that would do.

(I will do a cross post to ask about the mechanics of pension paid to foreign account)

xylophone

https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-if-you-retire-abroad

"Your State Pension can be paid into:

a bank in the country you’re living in"

colsten

All UK current accounts can only be applied for by UK residents. If you tried to be clever in some way: what would she do if her account got locked and she'd be asked to present ID in person in a Branch?

diamonds

xylo is right, generally the exchange rate goes in favour as the £ is generally stronger than most currencies, withdrawing money abroad on a UK card will mean charges generally and you need a UK address and basic check even for a UK prepaid credit card to get around withdrawl charges.

eskbanker

diamonds wrote: »

generally the exchange rate goes in favour as the £ is generally stronger than most currencies

That generally sounds like a very odd view of exchange rate fluctuations!

badger09

xylophone wrote: »

https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-if-you-retire-abroad

"Your State Pension can be paid into:

a bank in the country you’re living in"

xylophone

OP might be talking about an occupational pension, rather than state pension?

Some banks will allow non residents to open accounts, but they're aimed at high earners, or those with lots of cash such as this one http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/current-accounts/expat?HBEU_dyn_lnk=CurrentAccount_FilterTool_Offshore_FindOutMore_Button

Does your step mum know and trust anyone enough in the UK to have her pension paid into an account in their name?

I'm not advocating this is, but if DWP are prepared to pay state pension into an account in someone else's name, that might a solution?

grumbler

diamonds wrote: »

... withdrawing money abroad on a UK card will mean charges generally ...

Receiving money to an abroad account will mean possibly even higher charges while very efficient ways exist of transferring money abroad from UK.

missbiggles1

grumbler wrote: »

Also, receiving money to an abroad account will mean possibly even higher charges while very efficient ways exist of transferring money abroad from UK.

With the SRP (and many large occupational pension providers) it's generally considered much better to have your pension paid into your foreign account because of the better exchange rates available to institutions rather than to individuals. There are also usually no charges for doing this.

eskbanker

Parallel thread about the actual pension itself over on the Pensions board

diamonds

grumbler wrote: »

Also, receiving money to an abroad account will mean possibly even higher charges while very efficient ways exist of transferring money abroad from UK.

DWP I expect would have to swallow charges and pay the minimum State Pension rate minus Pension Credits which may not apply abroad also depending on recipients past contributions and age/child/marriage protections.


Transfer outside the EU its more complex than in, the only place to get person circumstance dependant advice for non EU payment would be DWP's International Pension Service


https://www.gov.uk/international-pension-centre

grumbler

They will make a £ transfer and can't swallow the charges of the receiving bank (at least for currency conversion) and, possibly, of the intermediary ones.