Current account for new arrivals

amidon7

Hi everyone,
Just found this wonderful website and forum and after looking through a few threads to find out if my issue has been dealt with before, decided to dip my toe in and make a posting.

So here's the deal. My partner and I are moving to Scotland (Glasgow) as I have been offered a job there for 3 years. It would seem from the info on this site that opening up a current account would be quite a harrowing process as we are completely new to the system. Does anyone have any advice for us? Are there any banks that make it easy for professionals who have never had a UK bank account or UK financial history? I guess a joint account would be ideal as we don't BOTH have to go through the process. Is this likely to be harder or easier than getting a std current account? I have a letter of offer which states my salary (23k :rolleyes: ). Would this help?

Thanks very much in advance.

grumbler

Hi. Welcome to UK and MSE!

Have a look at 'New in This country...Please advise ' thread. There are some further links inside ...

P.S. I think, there is no a big difference between joint and single accounts. If your spouse is not employed it is probably worth trying to open joint account.

amidon7

Hi Grumbler, thanks for that.. I already have an HSBC account in Australia - I'll ask them whether they can give me a letter of introduction to facilitate opening a current account with HSBC in the UK. Worth a try, I reckon ..