Best new first bank account

Expat1992

I have just moved to London from abroad and I need to open a new bank account. I have seen a lot of offers that give money to switch from an account to another but I didn't find anything for people who open their first bank account.



1)Is there any offer worth to consider for 1st bank account?
2)How long do I need to be client of bank 1 to get bonus from bank 2 if I switch to them? For example, if I open today an account with bank 1, I deposit some money, and I switch tomorrow to bank 2 do I get any bonus or not?


Regarding my economic situation, at the moment I have 2/3k pounds in a TransferWise account and I will have an annual income of 50k pounds (gross).


Cheers

Ben8282

You won't get any offers of this sort and in your place I would stop thinking about such offers and concentrate on actually being able to open a decent bank account with no credit history in the UK.
Also when you get a bank account keep it to build up a history/relationship with the bank and don't even think about switching for offers anytime soon both as you will probably be rejected for the new account without a credit history and in order to maintain a bank account for a period of time to show some stability.

Difficult to recommend a specific bank. Look around and choose the one that takes your fancy, go in and see what they can offer you in your situation. You may initially only be offered a basic bank account but as presumably you have a job in the UK and your salary will be paid into the account, after a few months of your correctly maintaining the account and of your salary being regularly received you will be offered something better.,

colsten

In addition to what Ben8282 said: Give Starling or Monzo a try if you can live without bank Branches, and do app banking only (my personal pref is Starling).

Otherwise try Lloyds. Or google "new to the UK".

johndavid29c

Don't give monzo ago as suggested above. If something goes wrong the lack of branches allows monzo to hide away with your money and no answers. Stick with a real bank. Plenty to choose from.

Willing2Learn

johndavid29c wrote: »

Don't give monzo ago as suggested above. If something goes wrong the lack of branches allows monzo to hide away with your money and no answers.

It doesn't make any difference whether there is a branch or not. If the account is suspected with being involved with money-laundering or other criminal activity, then the account will be frozen while the National Crime Agency investigates.

I do prefer having a branch though. It is just nice to have that face-to-face interaction.

[Deleted User]

Ignoring the above...

Monzo or Starling would be an ideal first account especially if you don’t have much UK history behind you.

Failing that you should get a basic account with a high street bank.

Ben8282

Open an account with a high street bank.

Willing2Learn

To be honest, if was my first account and I was only going to have the one current account, then I would probably choose an account that paid me cashback and/or interest on my credit balance.

So from the above parameters, I would be going for an RBS/NatWest Reward account, Santander 123 or 123 Lite account.

PRAISETHESUN

Having been in your shoes myself I can attest that opening a bank account after first moving to the UK can be difficult at the best of times. At best you'll be eligible for Basic bank accounts only, most of which are exempt from many of the switch incentives that go around. I usually recommend Monzo or Starling as their address requirements are less strict - most people can easily prove their identity but have trouble proving their address without UK utility bills, banks statements, etc. Otherwise grab all the documents you have (from local council, HMRC, Home Office, etc) and see if any of them fit the ID requirements of any banks near you - most banks have some flexibility on what alternative documents they can accept.

As for incentives, there aren't any banks that will offer an incentive just to open an account with them. The CASS system forces you to close your existing account, forcing you to use the new account and only the new account, making it much more attractive for the banks to gain your custom this way by paying you to switch. As long as you stay within the terms of any offer though, then as soon as you get paid your bonus from bank A you could immediately close the account by switching to bank B, and continue until all the available incentives have been used up - if you really wanted. I'd advise against this at the moment however, since your primary goal should be to build up some credit history, and opening and closing accounts in rapid succession usually doesn't demonstrate the stability most lenders are looking for.

System

I would recommend Metro bank - they have lots of branches open late and will give you your card/ setup internet banking all in branch.

Failing that probably Nationwide or Barclays as they both have decent basic accounts should you not be eligible for their full current account.

trient

I was going to suggest Metro Bank as well. They will open a current account with no UK credit history (it’s a regular account, not a basic one - which they don’t do) and as a (pretty useful) bonus you leave with your debit card, as opposed to waiting for a week to receive it in the post.
As long as you have a branch nearby..