Recommendations for a bank or savings accounts that allow deposits originating from outside the UK

BullfrogsAndMice

Hi.

I'm looking to draw upon the knowledge of anyone browsing these forums who may be a lot more fluent in "how things work" than I seem to be with regard to bank accounts or savings accounts that allow deposits from both UK and non UK sources. The account, be that a normal account or savings account, would need to have the following ...

• Ideally be located in the UK and owned by a UK resident, but non-UK options are considered as long as they are open to UK residents.
• Any kind of account, current / savings / etc, can be considered as long as it fulfils the criteria listed.
• Allow incoming deposits from the US and the UK with ideally no fee or minimal fees applied.
• Allow occasional withdrawals / transfers of some of the funds with little or no penalties, perhaps once or twice a year at most, with some years potentially having no withdrawals / transfers at all.
• A decent interest rate would be beneficial, but not a deal breaker.

I am making enquiries on behalf of a friend from the angle that that want to start saving some of their income somewhere that their partner cannot unlawfully force them to give it up. They have no people in-country that they trust enough to help them with this, ergo the need for the account needing to be able to be owned and operated by someone from the UK. The context of the situation is not important here, except to say that they have been coerced to give up their saved monies in the past, and literally moving some money each time they are paid into an account not in their name is a last resort in an untenable situation. Without going into further detail, they would not be capable of challenging their partner legally without their home situation changing for the worse.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Isthisforreal99

If you are thinking of opening an account yourself to help your friend, my advice would be don't.

Brie

You should be supporting your friend to get out of an unhealthy relationship rather than potentially committing fraud.  My opinion only of course.

flaneurs_lobster

If you were to give honest answers to the usual questions that are asked by the account providers when an account is applied for then I don't believe that any would open that account for you.

Ergo, any advice that is given would be tantamount to advising you to commit fraud and therefore not acceptable under the rules of this forum.

danny13579

Are you proposing that someone (e.g. you) opens an account in their name so that a friend of that someone, (e.g. you) who's in an unhealthy relationship can hide away some of their money in that someone's (e.g. your) account?

What if the friend's partner sees the bank statements showing the money being moved into that someone's (e.g. your) account and it makes the relationship even more toxic for that someone's (e.g. your) friend, not to mention putting that someone (e.g. yourself) and the friend in danger and at risk of both being blackmailed by the partner for fraud?

What if the bank asks that someone (e.g. you) to provide proof of the funds going into it? That someone (e.g. you) could end up with a lovely CIFAs marker for years and unable to get any bank account, not to mention the possibility of that someone (e.g. you) getting a criminal record.

It's a crazy idea. Find other ways to help your friend, such as helping them contact a domestic abuse charity.

lr1277

There is one possible way forward that has many ramifications. Whether it is suitable in this scenario I don't know.

There is The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 which outlaws coercive behaviour. I found some details by googling the phrase:

Uk law on emotional abuse

Whether your friend goes down this path is upto to them. 

grumpy_codger

BullfrogsAndMice said:

...bank accounts or savings accounts that allow deposits from both UK and non UK sources. The account, be that a normal account or savings account, would need to have the following ...

...

• ...
• ....
• Allow incoming deposits from the US and the UK with ideally no fee or minimal fees applied.
• Allow occasional withdrawals / transfers of some of the funds with little or no penalties, perhaps once or twice a year at most, with some years potentially having no withdrawals / transfers at all.

I think ALL UK current accounts allow incoming deposits from UK and from abroad, including from US. Some may charge a fee for incoming international transfers. And they allow withdrawals. Most allow international transfers. Currency conversion rates are generally poor, but this can be dealt with by using https://wise.com/. Generally, the money can be kept in Wise in various currencies, but there it doesn't have FSCS protection.

friolento

Non-residents cannot get UK accounts. 

They might be able to open offshore accounts, offered by the likes of Lloyds or Skipton. These are subject to different legislation than UK accounts 

sheramber

lr1277 said:

There is one possible way forward that has many ramifications. Whether it is suitable in this scenario I don't know.

There is The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 which outlaws coercive behaviour. I found some details by googling the phrase:

Uk law on emotional abuse

Whether your friend goes down this path is upto to them. 

Friend is not resident in UK

gt94sss2

friolento said:

Non-residents cannot get UK accounts. 

It is possible for non-residents to open UK accounts.

However, in this case, I would suggest the OPs friend gets assistance from a domestic violence organisation.

Having an account "owned and operated by someone (a third party) from the UK" would suggest money laundering even if that is not the case and raise all kinds of red flags even if that is not true.

There is no reason why the person can't operate their own account directly/need to involve a random 3rd party.