New to the UK? Try Lloyds Bank

gdawe5

As a long-term Santander bank account holder, I thought it would be easy to apply for an account for my wife who is new to the UK, without a job and not on benefits.
- After an hour long face to face and 2 week wait, she was turned down.

A couple of months later, I tried Lloyds. She could submit her details online, even take a selfie to prove who she was and it took 1 day to approve her!

gettinnerdy

Same with Barclays plus she would get a contactless card.

Much better.

radoslaff

gettinnerdy wrote: »

Same with Barclays plus she would get a contactless card.

Much better.

Actually the OP never said that his wife was approved for a basic account as you assume. I think she has contactless card now because you can't apply for a basic account online so she's probably got Classic which goes with a contactless card.
And besides, my similar personal experience from early 2016 with both Lloyds and Barclays shows that the OP is absolutely right.

zerog

Santander is still stuck in the mindset of a building society, which it was until 7 years ago

Lloyds has been a bank for over 100 years

colsten

gdawe5 wrote: »

take a selfie to prove who she was

I'd be rather wary of anyone who accepts a selfie as proof of ID, lol! I am sure though that this is not what Lloyds use the selfie for.

badger09

colsten wrote: »

I'd be rather wary of anyone who accepts a selfie as proof of ID, lol! I am sure though that this is not what Lloyds use the selfie for.

I'm glad it wasn't just me who thought this amusing.

It reminds me of something my dad told me when he was a driving examiner. Before he started her driving test, he asked a young lady if she had proof of identity. She pulled down the mirror behind the driver's sun visor, looked at it and replied 'Yeah, that's me' :rotfl:

radoslaff

badger09 wrote: »

I'm glad it wasn't just me who thought this amusing.

It reminds me of something my dad told me when he was a driving examiner. Before he started her driving test, he asked a young lady if she had proof of identity. She pulled down the mirror behind the driver's sun visor, looked at it and replied 'Yeah, that's me' :rotfl:

Hahaha, that was brilliant! I wonder what happened next then. :rotfl:

eskbanker

zerog wrote: »

Santander is still stuck in the mindset of a building society, which it was until 7 years ago

No, Santander was formed as a Spanish bank in 1857 - granted, much of its UK operation stems from its 2004 acquisition of Abbey National (which had been a bank since 1989) and they took on some of the business of Bradford & Bingley (bank since 2000) but it's stretching the truth somewhat to claim that Santander was a building society 7 years ago in 2010!

PeacefulWaters

zerog wrote: »

Santander is still stuck in the mindset of a building society, which it was until 7 years ago

Lloyds has been a bank for over 100 years

Santander was founded as a bank 160 years ago.

Abbey National, which Santander bought, was the first building society to become a bank. 28 years ago.

Lloyds a Bank was founded over 250 years ago. Bank of Scotland, part of Lloyds Banking Group, has been around since 1694.

Eco_Miser

zerog wrote: »

Santander is still stuck in the mindset of a building society, which it was until 7 years ago

That date suggests you are thinking of Alliance & Leicester, which stopped being a building society in 1997 - 20 years ago.

As already pointed out Santander has been a bank for 160 years, and Abbey National became a bank 28 years ago.