Best current account for non-UK citizen

wenlockpippin

Hello all,

Hope someone can advise here!
I have two close friends who are married and living in the UK. One is Canadian, he has lived here for the last 6 years studying but has now finished his phd and is employed on a temporary basis. He plans to apply for citizenship or similar when he qualifies. His wife is Portuguese and is still finishing her thesis, therefore is a student.

They seem to be having inordinate amounts of bad service from banks, mainly my female friend. She has a student account with Natwest, who refuse to give her a cheque book and routinely charge her £25 to transfer money at the branch to her husband's HSBC account, because she cannot use the online (she says they haven't given her any info to register or log in). Also she cannot get an overdraft they say because she does not own property in the UK (although she does in Portugal) , and they keep sending account info to her Portugese address not the UK one, although she does live here permanently.

Anyway they are in tight financial circumstances, and I recommended that they set up a joint account somewhere new under her husband's name as he is earning.
My question: Does anyone know of any good banks/accounts for people in their situation, especially considering the nationality issue.
She would also like to have separate savings accounts in her own name, and private from her husband.

Thanks very much for any help!

Wenlock

Scousebird_2

HSBC Passport looks really good

Or

Natwest Step Account

msaquib

Just be aware HSBC passport changes a monthly fee.

M

gt94sss2

wenlockpippin wrote: »

Anyway they are in tight financial circumstances, and I recommended that they set up a joint account somewhere new under her husband's name as he is earning.
My question: Does anyone know of any good banks/accounts for people in their situation, especially considering the nationality issue.

If the husband is happy with HSBC, its probably simplest if they open the new accounts at HSBC as well - just apply for their normal free current account..

Regards
Sunil

PBA

For your Portugese friend, she should have less of a problem as she's an EU citizen so can register to vote, and being on the voters roll helps enormously with getting a bank account. However as an international student she may only be able to get a basic account until she finishes uni and starts working.

Your Canadian friend won't be able to register on the voters roll, and assuming he hasn't got a credit history that will make it harder for him to get a new account. As he already has a relationship with HSBC it would be worth asking them if they'll upgrade his account & offer a credit card. If they won't, he could pick someone else to get a basic account with then upgrade it after 6 months of his salary going in.

Scousebird_2

msaquib wrote: »

Just be aware HSBC passport changes a monthly fee.

M

Yeah but look at the benefits....it's a tailored service so you know it's going to be good (eg, they have bi-lingual advisers who can help customers...not many banks are willing to offer that)!

Voyager2002

It sounds as if the problem with NatWest is that their records show her as living at her address in Portugal (I have experienced a similar problem). I suggest that she goes into a main branch and checks that their records give her UK address as her main one and sole correspondence address.

Once that has been sorted out they are likely to agree to upgrade her account to a standard current account, complete with cheque book and on-line banking facilities.