Ever more difficult for foreigners to open bank accounts and savings accounts!

Miosotis

With the rise of AI it has at times become almost impossible for a foreigner, legally in the UK to open accounts anywhere. Even simple things like changing a nominated account has become a nightmare and, in my case, and I am sure in the case of a lot of other foreigners like me, with the right to reside in the UK, in my case for life, this has led to losing out on a lot of money! So far no one is interested in the subject! I have contacted Martin Lewis, my MP, who has contacted the Chancellor, FOS, FDA, TV shows, journalists, newspapers, you name it. I have worked tirelessly for at least 2 years now. Absolutely no one has shown an interest in this, but why are we made to lose out on interests we have a right to? As a financial expert told me, this will become ever worse, until we can't hold accounts in the UK anymore! As a comparison I asked my Welsh husband to open a few of the same account and it was baffling how he never had any problem whatsoever! How does Britain manage to get away with this?????? I suppose a lot of you are out there but simply give up on the best interest and try to find a bank that will still open an account for them, be it often at a lower interest. And why does no one care? This is blatant discrimination! 

A bit about me.... been in the UK legally for almost 12 years, come from Portugal, have two nationalities, and a long surname, like most in my country and many others! Other than that, never even had a parking ticket, so why am I a "persona non grata"? The Credit Referencing Agencies make it far worse, because it is all done by AI and if they perceive even a small (non-existent) discrepancy, they derail everything. With one bank the one way to unblock things was to appeal to the CEO, tell him my story, and he agreed to put a person on the case. Since then, when I open a new savings account with them, it is done manually. But I feel almost like a pariah? First number of years, when business was mainly done in the banks, I never had the smallest problems opening bank accounts, getting credit cards, any of it, now things get worse almost on a weekly basis! Thanks for reading..... would welcome your views on this and your experiences! 

surreysaver

What difference would AI make? Computers were perfectly capable of saying 'no' before AI

booneruk

I was going to say the same about AI - I doubt it has any influence whatsoever.

It sounds like you cannot be verified electronically by credit agencies. Maybe it is the long surname and variations you may have used that have caused confusion. Are you on the electoral roll? If so, does the name registered there match your accounts and the name you use when applying?

Have you had credit (credit card, loan, even a mobile phone or utility bill) with a clean record of repayment in the UK before? 

MyRealNameToo

Miosotis said:

With the rise of AI it has at times become almost impossible for a foreigner, legally in the UK to open accounts anywhere. Even simple things like changing a nominated account has become a nightmare and, in my case, and I am sure in the case of a lot of other foreigners like me, with the right to reside in the UK, in my case for life, this has led to losing out on a lot of money! So far no one is interested in the subject! I have contacted Martin Lewis, my MP, who has contacted the Chancellor, FOS, FDA, TV shows, journalists, newspapers, you name it. I have worked tirelessly for at least 2 years now. Absolutely no one has shown an interest in this, but why are we made to lose out on interests we have a right to? As a financial expert told me, this will become ever worse, until we can't hold accounts in the UK anymore! As a comparison I asked my Welsh husband to open a few of the same account and it was baffling how he never had any problem whatsoever! How does Britain manage to get away with this?????? I suppose a lot of you are out there but simply give up on the best interest and try to find a bank that will still open an account for them, be it often at a lower interest. And why does no one care? This is blatant discrimination! 

A bit about me.... been in the UK legally for almost 12 years, come from Portugal, have two nationalities, and a long surname, like most in my country and many others! Other than that, never even had a parking ticket, so why am I a "persona non grata"? The Credit Referencing Agencies make it far worse, because it is all done by AI and if they perceive even a small (non-existent) discrepancy, they derail everything. With one bank the one way to unblock things was to appeal to the CEO, tell him my story, and he agreed to put a person on the case. Since then, when I open a new savings account with them, it is done manually. But I feel almost like a pariah? First number of years, when business was mainly done in the banks, I never had the smallest problems opening bank accounts, getting credit cards, any of it, now things get worse almost on a weekly basis! Thanks for reading..... would welcome your views on this and your experiences! 

Wife moved to the UK in her 20s and before meeting me. She has no problems opening accounts in her name but is now a naturalised British citizen, registered voter etc. 

Unfortunately your post comes out more of a rant than actually dealing with what the issues are beyond the simple not being able to open accounts? You mention long names so are you running out of characters on forms? Whilst she had the typical dual surname both of hers were short so it wasnt a problem and she followed the British tradition when we got married of taking just my surname (though that causes other issues with HMPO) 

You mention your a dual citizenship, is one of those British? If not are you still registered to vote for local elections? 

Agree with others it has nothing to do with AI. CRAs and banks were using fuzzy logic matching and digital ID checks before LLM was even an acronym. 

clairec666

MyRealNameToo said:

Unfortunately your post comes out more of a rant than actually dealing with what the issues are beyond the simple not being able to open accounts? You mention long names so are you running out of characters on forms? Whilst she had the typical dual surname both of hers were short so it wasnt a problem and she followed the British tradition when we got married of taking just my surname (though that causes other issues with HMPO) 

I think it was the same person who posted a while back, and I recall the problem was due to their long name not fitting in the boxes yet problems arising if they tried to abbreviate or Anglicise it.

MeteredOut

This is nothing to do with AI. Banks have very tight governance in place and I doubt any yet allow AI to make decisions on whether a customer will be accepted for a new bank account.

But maybe you don't actually mean AI, as what many people call AI is simply is what used to be called algorithms or logic, and is still used in decision making, but that has been the case for years/decades.

eskbanker

clairec666 said:

MyRealNameToo said:

Unfortunately your post comes out more of a rant than actually dealing with what the issues are beyond the simple not being able to open accounts? You mention long names so are you running out of characters on forms? Whilst she had the typical dual surname both of hers were short so it wasnt a problem and she followed the British tradition when we got married of taking just my surname (though that causes other issues with HMPO) 

I think it was the same person who posted a while back, and I recall the problem was due to their long name not fitting in the boxes yet problems arising if they tried to abbreviate or Anglicise it.

Indeed:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6621146/complaints-against-the-gb-bank

dunstonh

If at first [your rant] does not succeed, try and try again.

eskbanker

Miosotis said:

I have contacted Martin Lewis, my MP, who has contacted the Chancellor, FOS, FDA, TV shows, journalists, newspapers, you name it. I have worked tirelessly for at least 2 years now. Absolutely no one has shown an interest in this

What does that tell you?

And I can't see these people being of any assistance anyway....

https://www.fda.org.uk/

Cisco001

Lloyds is quite easy to open.
I knew someone who lived oversea opened one without UK address prior moving to UK.

Emmia

Which banks have you tried?