Bank Accounts

[kasta]

I went to an HSBC here and they gave me a 'Letter of Introduction' that they claim will get me a bank account once I am there.

I had asked about them opening one for me and they said they can no longer open them in England or in Hong Kong due to changes in the respective countries banking laws.

I am still going to try the BT thing and have HSBC forward my mail to my UK address.

Hopefully one of the above will do the trick!

(I tried NatWest.. they were so not helpful to me.)

[Canada1972]

When I arrived here 4 years ago I was told by every bank that I couldn't get an account with out a letter of reference from my bank in Canada. small problem in that I had closed my Canadian account over a year previously when I moved to Ireland.

In the end, the Natwest gave me an account once I had a letter from my employer telling them that I really was who I said I was, and that I really lived where I said I lived.

The letter of introduction from your bank should be enough to get you an account over here, but failing that, I know that one of my Australian friends had her bank forward her statements to her british address, and that's all she needed to open her account with Lloyds TSB.

[kasta]

Well I am covering all of my bases.

1) Letter of intrrodution has been acquired.

2) Water bill has been put into my name.

3) I am about to head out to my HSBC branch to have them change my address to my UK one.

Hopefully.. there is not some sneaky way they can deny me an account this time!

We shall see this week as I arrive tomorrow

[vandoo]

They only deny the bank account if you can't prove who you are or where you live. Our banker explained that it is some sort of money-laundering law.(although I can't imagine how it helped prevent money laundering by having me pay my estate agent £2,600 in £20's bundled in a paper bag)

They only want a bill in your name to prove your address. If you have a tenancy agreement with your name on it and your passport, HSBC will accept that. We had the bank account 12 hours after we had an address. The banker did say, though, that the letter of introduction from our last bank helped speed up the review.

[CareBear]

Hey it's me again. When I was finally able to open a bank account, I was only given a basic account with no extras. I then applied for a Smile Account. An online banking company, in 1 week I had a 500 pound overdraft, switch/VISA card and a current account. You can only apply for this account once you have a regular UK bank account.
You can apply at www.smile.co.uk
They are great and have won lots of awards.

[wanderlust]

apparently tenancy agreements don't prove anthing. it has to be a @&**# bill with your name on it. though i haven't tried hsbc, yet.

p.s. i heard that a little crying helps too.

[Blue and White Army]

I went to the trouble of having RBC sending me a "letter of introduction", but in the end it was useless! All Nationwide needed was my proof of address here in London.

[CareBear]

Yea, everywhere wants a bill with your name on it, even the library and Blockbuster Video. But if you have an HSBC account in Canada just get them to send your statements to you in the UK. And then apply for an HSBC account in the UK. That is what worked for me.
Also I had my RBC statement there when I applied for my UK account and she said that would work if I had my bank card, but I didn't. Yea and crying helps.
And then the library and video store also think the HSBC statement is from the UK and you can use their services without a bill in your name. Sneaky...I know. PS Mobile bills don't work anywhere.