Barclay's International

Hi!

Has anyone opened a Barclays International account? It says you need a job paying a minimum of £24K OR a minimum deposit of £5,000. I certainly don't have a job paying £24,000 (I don't even have a job in the UK yet and it won't be that much either) but I have the £5,000 that I can put into it.

Does anyone have any experience with opening an international bank account with them? Is it worth the potential hassle?

Hi there - I don't have any experience with Barclay's however I do have a contact at Lloyds, who put up a special account that CanuckAbroad.com users can take advantage up - check it out here, and send them an email or give them a call for details. I'm sure they can point you in the right direction!
http://www.canuckabroad.com/internation ... shore.html

thanks for the reply. I have contacted Barclays and Lloyds to try and determine my best options. Llyods I need to put a minimum of £25,000 or have an annual income of £50,000. When I was talking to the guy at Lloyds (who was very helpful)and said that there was no way I could meet any of the requirements, he said that I could get a parent to co-sign for me for which they would combine both annual incomes. I was also told that I could use it as a stepping stone - open the bank account from Canada, throw some money in it and build up a rapport with Lloyds, then open a UK account once I'm there and transfer the money from the international account/close the international account without a problem. I mentioned that people on this forum said that they had opened a Classic Account but he had said that they had to get the international account first before getting to the UK.

(so some helpful information for anyone looking to open a bank account).

Oh boy....banks...what fun!! I have to say that so far both banks have been helpful. Now to try and make a decision.

Hi,

I was wondering what you ending up doing?!
I'm leaving for the UK in less than 10 days and don't know what to do in regards to a bank account!

Thanks

Well they ended up declining me for an international account. I think it was because I said I was moving in the next 3 months and didn't have a job lined up. I've since tried opening just a cash account but I'm working on 3 and a half weeks with Lloyds...ugh!!

Hi Lynz, I have a Barclay's international account that I opened a few years ago. It is an "offshore" account located in the Isle of Man (where I've never been, as I opened the account from London, Kingsbridge). I do remember there was a minimum deposit to start with (in the few thousand pounds, which I had) and a requirement to deposit a minimal amount per year - which may have been 500pounds only. But there was no fuss, no aggravation about it. I have not even respected this requirement as I was ill for 3 years in USA, and not able to deposit any funds to it. My balance was very low and I've only replenished my account recently. There wasn't any problems.
The only problem was that the account used to provide 6,5% interest and now the interest rate is way down. Bummer.
You could inquire about the offshore accounts - they are on several location - Gibraltar, Jersey, Isle of Man, and accessible to foreigners or non-UK residents.