UK Current Account for a Brazilian who now has permanent residence

ronbell101

My daughter in law has just moved to England on a  spouse visa and is living with our family with my son and is really struggling to get accepted for a UK Bank current account She now has a DVLA issued Driving licence but all banks are insisting on her producing a Utility Bill,HMRC letter,Bank Statement etc all forms for proof of address that she doesn't have she is authorised to  seek work but need a bank Account for any salary paid. They tried the high street banks for their Basic accounts and again  no luck even the app  based banks are saying no
Any one have any advice as to how we can get this sorted
Any help appreciated

colsten

To work in the UK, she will need a National Insurance number. The letter advising her of it should suffice as proof of address. https://www.gov.uk/apply-national-insurance-number

ronbell101

They thought that a drivers licence would be suffice, and, it was quick to apply and to receive a Driver's Licence which, it was but did not solve the current problem,the application for the national Insurance Number is currently being "processed"

colsten

Sounds promising then if she has already applied for her NINO.

Banks usually require 2 proofs - one with a photo ID and one for the address. They don't permit to use the same document (e.g. a driving licence) for both purposes. The ID requirements are almost always published on the websites of the banks. 

The other thing your DIL should do if not already done is to register on the Electoral Roll as banks will check it during the ID verification process.

yksi

1. She does not necessarily need her own bank account to be paid salary. My son was able to work here for six months using mine, and he worked for a major company plus a smaller company - both paid him just fine into my account. I suppose the employer could be nasty about demanding that it be hers, but our companies never even asked whose bank account it even was.
2. She does not necessarily need the NI to start work. She only needs to prove she is eligible to work in the UK. Unfortunately, many companies do not understand the law (Sainsbury's did not and were complete tosspots to my son). She must have the evidence to satisfy their "right to work" check which is laid out in law. In her case, holding a valid spouse visa is evidence of her right to work - but It would be useful to print some info off about this to give to a potential employer, because they can easily get spooked (there are big penalties if they employ someone that shouldn't be working so they get scared and say "no" rather than make a mistake). In my son's case he was taken on by presenting the letter proving that his NI was in progress plus the eligible document to prove his right to work in the UK.
3. If she really wants a bank account without satisfying the address part of the ID, she might be able to get a "non-bank" account such as Revolut, which provides you with a sort code and account number and functions just like an online bank. Pockit is another I believe (but their customer service is abysmal). Others might know whether Starling or Mondo would work?

jonesMUFCforever

Which banks have you tried?
All of the Lloyds banking group accept a photo driving licence and passport as ID.
So unless the visa in her passport states that she should not work in UK they should be able to opan an account for her.
If the visa states no work in UK I can see why they would not open an account.

yksi

The difficulty will be in proving her address. Even for a basic bank account you must have proof of a residential address. We tried with my son, and were told by Santander that new rules meant they could not accept the official letter about the NI being in progress, but it had to be the official NI letter itself. By the time he got that letter he had already received his pay without a problem so we didn't bother.

jonesMUFCforever

yksi said:

The difficulty will be in proving her address. Even for a basic bank account you must have proof of a residential address. We tried with my son, and were told by Santander that new rules meant they could not accept the official letter about the NI being in progress, but it had to be the official NI letter itself. By the time he got that letter he had already received his pay without a problem so we didn't bother.

First post - the OP 's daughter in law has a photo driving licence issued by DVLA - you can't get a better address confirmation.

yksi

jonesMUFCforever said:

yksi said:

The difficulty will be in proving her address. Even for a basic bank account you must have proof of a residential address. We tried with my son, and were told by Santander that new rules meant they could not accept the official letter about the NI being in progress, but it had to be the official NI letter itself. By the time he got that letter he had already received his pay without a problem so we didn't bother.

First post - the OP 's daughter in law has a photo driving licence issued by DVLA - you can't get a better address confirmation.

You'd think so but OP has stated it wasn't sufficient?

OP try going into Barclays with a printout of their own page at https://www.barclays.co.uk/current-accounts/what-do-i-need-to-open-a-bank-account/

Make it clear you want a Basic Bank Account, many banks conveniently forget to inform customers these things exist because they make no money for the banks.

jonesMUFCforever

yksi said:

jonesMUFCforever said:

yksi said:

The difficulty will be in proving her address. Even for a basic bank account you must have proof of a residential address. We tried with my son, and were told by Santander that new rules meant they could not accept the official letter about the NI being in progress, but it had to be the official NI letter itself. By the time he got that letter he had already received his pay without a problem so we didn't bother.

First post - the OP 's daughter in law has a photo driving licence issued by DVLA - you can't get a better address confirmation.

You'd think so but OP has stated it wasn't sufficient?

OP try going into Barclays with a printout of their own page at https://www.barclays.co.uk/current-accounts/what-do-i-need-to-open-a-bank-account/

Make it clear you want a Basic Bank Account, many banks conveniently forget to inform customers these things exist because they make no money for the banks.

I suspect (but could be wrong) that the real problem is not with the address but possibly what I hinted at earlier - if there is a no permission to work marker on the visa in the passport - then banks will not open an account.
You don't go into a bank asking for a Basic account - it is offered to you only if you do not qualify for a better account ( all banks offer free bank accounts which are full current ones).
There is also the problem with Covid in that staff are restricted about the number of people that they can see face to face - if bank staff ''know'' that a basic account will be offered then you may be correct in saying that they might be persuaded to go elsewhere.
If it was me I would apply online - the system would then tell them 100% what is acceptable for ID.

yksi

You might be right there - which should surely be the right to reside (her right to work is not the bank's business, but then we saw in the news recently that Brexit is causing a bunch of banks to advise overseas customers their accounts will be closed as they no longer reside in the UK). She might have documents above and beyond the passport which prove her right to live here.

I have a basic account from when I first arrived, and it has various limits on it, one of which is that it can't be converted to any other account nor ever have either a contactless card nor an overdraft attached to it. I think I got lucky that a bank employee took pity on me after the idiot bank across the road denied me an account when my hands were FULL of ID. I've only kept it as it's my oldest account because in all other ways it sucks but hey, it did allow me to receive my wages so that's something!