Look here first -> Banking in the UK

I had an interesting experience opening up a bank account that i thought i would share. I went to RBS bc that's where my boyfriend has his account. They took my passport, a bank letter, evidence of me finding work with my UK address and old bank statements but it wasn't satisfactory. They needed more evidence of my address here in the UK so we had to go the council and add me to the house council tax. Thank goodness it was right across the street from the bank. Now we're waiting on getting a little council tax card before i can get a bank account opened. So, i'm without a bank account and hoping i can take money out using debit bc it didn't work last time i was here! Whoever was able to just walk into a bank and open up an account easily was lucky! They are becoming stricter!

RBS is very strict I had an account with NAtwest for 3 years (Natwest is a part of the RBS Group) and RBS still made me wait almost 6 months to get a debit card.

You are definitely right about strict but I didn't have a problems getting a debit card with RBS once I opened my account. I am just waiting for my pin number which is in the mail but there's a Royal Mail strike right now. I am not sure how long I will have to wait if i want to get a credit card. I know that might take awhile.

Oh dear, I was hoping to use RBS because my friend works for them :\. HSBC sounds like a good idea, have them do some of the work from here ^^

It's no problem but just make sure that you have a bill that you can show them with your Scottish address, valid passport and evidence that you are looking for or have found work in Scotland. That's all they need. Once that is shown, it's easy! It was just longer for me bc I didn't have a utility bill. I finally received my pin number for my bank account and now i'm waiting for a verification code for digital banking (online banking). Good luck!

My experience was easy peasy.

When I applied at Barclays (Strood, Kent). I brought in my job offer letter, my TD Bank statement, Passport, my current Master Card,Ontario driver's licence and the manager did a credit check on the spot and voila I had an account.
I was told I'd have to wait a year for a UK credit card though. My Canadian credit card expired and they (Bank of Montreal) never warned me they wouldn't renew it.

Luckly, if I need to get somethings on credit my British husbnd does it for me and I just pay him the money insted. Come January 13th it will be a year am here so I will be able to apply for one shortly, wow where has the year gone

My experience with UK banking was quite good as well, I am with Lloyds and it was troubleless to open the account and get a pretty good service at my branch.

Lloyds was easy because you didn't need a proof of UK address to open the account nor any specific documents other than the passport for Canadian.
Lloyds had an agreements that enable canadians (and a certain number of other nationalities) to open an account with only a passport.
Other banks (NatWest particularly) I had visited previously immediately turned me down requesting particular paper or a renting contract which I didn't have.

I got to create my account with my passport - driver license and employment letter. I did it at my local branch in Poole.

If you're a teacher, I can help you get a bank account from Canada, so you avoid this whole process. It's quite simple & can really make your life easier once you arrive in the UK. Just look for Classroom Canada on google and track me down through there - there's no charge to you either.

Cheers,
Victoria

Hi Everyone!

Another banking idea - HSBC has banks in Canada as well as the UK. While they can't do an automatic activation of a UK account, they do start processing your account activation here, and then when you arrive, you go to a branch, flash your passport and something confirming your current address (offer from an employer, UK driver's license, NIC, Gas/Elec bill or Phone bill, and it's all set up for you on the spot.

Since I'm planning on turning in my BC Drivers license for a uk one, I'm going to use that, plus my passport.

Hope that helps!

I was just googling looking for banking info, and came across http://www.google.tracked.traveltowork.co.uk/ and wondered if anyone else has seen and or heard of it. Apparently they say they can open a bank account for you in 5 days? I'm just curious, sounds almost to easy to be true, but then they do want a credit card number. Also, did anyone keep their canadian accounts, I have a high interest savings account and was hoping to keep some my money in it earning interest as a bit of a fallback. Or for special occasion. I'd want to transfer money every month or two to it, but that could probs get expansive to do. I shall have to ask my bank! Was hoping to do online transfers