Opening A Basic Bank Account purely online

hvaghela

Hi, I'll try and keep this short - i'm looking for advice on which Basic bank account can be opened completely online WITHOUT a trip to the branch or a phone call to a call centre.

So here is the rest of it: my cousin from Europe has just moved to the UK (thus no UK credit history) to work for me at my company. He has mild learning difficulties and social anxiety. Thus he can't really do call centres and face to face chats at branches with people he doesn't know. I want to pay him into his own bank account so he has financial independence. A basic bank account would be great for him but he wants to do it all virtually (he has the appropriate IDs). I just tried to open the Barclays basic current account with him, but for the proof of ID bit it said make an appointment at a branch - this got him quite anxious. 

Any help would be great.
Thanks.

colsten

Is he on the electoral register? Has he tried online-only banks such as Starling or Monzo?

jonesMUFCforever

IMO for an account to be opened online the bank needs to verify the customer electronically. If this does not happen then all the bricks and mortar banks will require sight of ID and confirmation of address.
There should be no reason why you could not attend with your relative at an appointment.

hvaghela

colsten said:

Is he on the electoral register? Has he tried online-only banks such as Starling or Monzo?

No not on the register, but good call on the online banks - we hadn't thought about those.

colsten

hvaghela said:

colsten said:

Is he on the electoral register? Has he tried online-only banks such as Starling or Monzo?

No not on the register, but good call on the online banks - we hadn't thought about those.

Do get him on the ER asap. 

It's not legal to not be on it, anyway https://www.gov.uk/electoral-register

born_again

hvaghela said:

colsten said:

Is he on the electoral register? Has he tried online-only banks such as Starling or Monzo?

No not on the register, but good call on the online banks - we hadn't thought about those.

Just be aware that might lead to him having to do a facetime chat with them.

Matt8888

As far as I can remember, I opened a Virgin Money account completely online. I was pleasantly surprised at just how quick and simple it was.

jonesMUFCforever

Matt8888 said:

As far as I can remember, I opened a Virgin Money account completely online. I was pleasantly surprised at just how quick and simple it was.

I assume you are a UK resident probably on the electoral roll and you were electronically verified.
Please go back to first post and tell us how the OP 's cousin would get on?