Moving to the UK, help me setup decent banking!

pj9380

Hello!

I'm moving to the UK and one of the first things I’m doing is researching bank accounts. I am moving from another EU country.

I hope you’ll excuse the wall of text .

I’ve opened bank accounts with:

• First Direct
• HSBC
• Barclays
• Nationwide
• Monzo
• Lloyds (this one is not yet actually open because they need me to first start my job… but anyway I’ll open it when I can).

Now I am no stranger to having a lot of bank accounts (I already have Revolut, EU bank account, Wise and N26) and I opened all of them so I can experience first hand the apps, websites, statement features, etc.

Now here is my use case: 

1. I want 1 “main” bank account where I get in my salary paid in (based on salary I’d qualify for premier banking at any bank if that matters)
2. One bank where all the Direct Debits (bills, rent) comes from (this will need to be a joint account with my wife, makes it easier for management)
3. One bank for daily normal spending (right now I am using Monzo for this).
4. One bank that serves as ON and OFF ramp for crypto. I did not realise the UK is so strict with crypto deposits / withdrawals, unlike my country where I’ve done 10s of K in transactions with no issues and no account blocks.

For (4) I’ve read that the most crypto friendly banks seem to be 1. Monzo (and Revolut but it’s not a bank yet in the UK) and 2. Barclays. Lloyds does not have an explicit policy on crypto or limits, so it’s up in the air.

By “crypto friendly” I mean that they do not have a cap on deposit/withdrawals to crypto exchanges (e.g HSBC has ~2k limit up to 10k a month I think). 

Second, I want to keep my salary / bills account “clean” and with no danger of being blocked / under review due to crypto transactions since that would be a serious inconvenience (I’ve read plenty of horror stories on people not making rent as their bank was under review for possible money laundering).

Initially I thought I’d make HSBC my “salary account” which with having local branches there’s somebody I can talk to if something goes wrong, First Direct my bills account, Barclays my crypto account and Monzo my day-to-day spending account. I would then transfer the 2k in and out of Lloyds to qualify for the Club Lloyds features, I’d qualify for HSBC premier and their insurance due to salary being deposited and Barclays already offered me a primer account (subject to 40k being deposited over 12 months though).

I’m looking at this a bit more long term though and I’m seeing some cracks :

1. HSBC’s customer service on the phone sucks, their app is not the prettiest / or with most functionality. But the biggest pain is their whole App / Secure Codes operation. I’ve read that if you lose your phone or need to change phones you have to stay hours on the phone with someone to reset it which I’m not looking forward to… (I just switched iPhones so I know what pain banking apps can be).
2. First Direct answered my phone instantly, so that’s good. Their phone migration options seem to include the fact that you might not have access to your old phone. The trouble here is that this bank has no physical branches, so similar to Monzo.
3. Monzo is probably the best bank I’ve tried so far. Easy to open, support was helpful and didn’t make me jump through hoops. They are also crypto friendly but unfortunately have no physical branch so can’t use them as my main bank IMHO. Their app is probably the best.
4. Nationwide I discovered uses a card reader for a lot of operations… this is simply unacceptable… I wish I knew before opening this account. They are among the highest rated “traditional” banks with branches and their average branch google maps rating is the highest among all other banks I’ve looked at. It just sucks they have a card reader which since I travel a lot would really hamper me.

To make matters more complicated, I also need a way to setup automatic conversions from GBP->EUR and send the EUR to my EU country. Any idea if any of these banks have automated facilities for that or do I need to do it manually?

Thanks!

gt94sss2

You have opened quite a few accounts for someone new to the UK!

My advice for what it is worth:

1. Use the HSBC Premier account as your main one. You will get free family travel insurance through this. 

HSBC also offer a Global Money account which makes it easy to send money overseas (or you can use Wise etc).

Their customer service is fine imho and they are currently testing an update to their app.

2. You may not know but First Direct is actually part of HSBC. They are primarily a telephone/online banking with an excellent reputation for customer service but you can use HSBC branches for basic transactions. Most UK banks also allow you to deposit cash/cheques and make withdrawals at Post Offices.

3. Both HSBC and First Direct have a similar security implementation. It's actually quite easy to use and better than many other banks which still rely on physical card readers. You can also install their apps on 3 phones at once and easily transfer between new phones when needed yourself using a QR code.

4. Consider the option of 2 accounts at the same bank. One for income and one joint account perhaps. You don't need to use a different bank for this if you don't want too.

5. As a spending account consider Chase as they pay 1% cashback on most things.

6. I would use a different bank for crypto. I am not qualified to recommend one but I believe many use Revolut.

pj9380

gt94sss2 said:

You have opened quite a few accounts for someone new to the UK!

My advice for what it is worth:

1. Use the HSBC Premier account as your main one. You will get free family travel insurance through this. 

HSBC also offer a Global Money account which makes it easy to send money overseas (or you can use Wise etc).

When I read something like this post it makes me want to reconsider   https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6580821/hsbc-global-money-account-dispute#latest

lon_don

pj9380 said:

When I read something like this post it makes me want to reconsider   https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6580821/hsbc-global-money-account-dispute#latest

If you are with HSBC Premier, you might have access to a live Premier relationship manager, which would in theory make it easier to solve disputes like this (the gentleman in the thread is probably not a Premier customer)

pj9380

lon_don said:

pj9380 said:

When I read something like this post it makes me want to reconsider   https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6580821/hsbc-global-money-account-dispute#latest

If you are with HSBC Premier, you might have access to a live Premier relationship manager, which would in theory make it easier to solve disputes like this (the gentleman in the thread is probably not a Premier customer)

I guess I'll have to find out 😅