UK bank account

[bixy]

A simple question, which I hope might have a simple answer, although I suspect not! A friend resident in France, no UK address, wants to open a UK bank account. Is this possible?

Patrick

[Lehaut]

Have tried to open bank accounts for our sons with both Barclays and RBS, with whom we have had accounts for ages. No luck, they want them to front up in the actual office in the UK before they would consider it. If there is another way without going to the UK to do it, would like to know how!

[Nell]

You can open an off-shore account from a French address e.g. Isle of Man. The questions is what type of account? I have opened a savings account from here, but not sure about requirements for a current account.

[Jazzer]

A normal part of account opening procedures is to obtain a credit reference, and search against the postcode. Neither of which is possible for someone residing outside the UK I seem to remember that a basic current account must be available to everyone,but again I don't t think this would apply to non-residents.

[mint]

OP, you asked for a simple answer, so here it is, in a word, "No".

 

[PaulT]

If you look at the various banks online information you will see that being a UK resident is always a prime requirement for opening an account.

[EuroTrash]

Off topic but just wondering why anyone would want a bank account in a country where they don't own property - bearing in mind that you have to declare all overseas bank accounts to the fisc when you submit your income declaration, or risk a 1500 euro fine, and an overseas account for a person with no obvious overseas connection might get their little beady eyes looking very closely.

[Doodle]

I had been trying to do the same last year with no success. In the end I wrote to HM Treasury asking why I could not seem to find any bank/building society that would allow me to open a UK account with a foreign address. Hope the link may be of some help. Chris

The reply came back as follows:

1 Horse Guards Road

London

SW1A 2HQ

Public.enquiries@hm-treasury.gsi.gov.uk

27 March 2013

Dear................

Thank you for your email dated 18 March about access to banking. As it is not practical for Ministers to respond to all the letters they receive, I have been asked to reply on their behalf.

You have raised concerns about access to banking services in the UK for non-residents. There is no legal or regulatory barrier to banks providing services to non-residents.

Whether an institution is willing to provide such services may partly depend on a firm’s target market and whether an applicant can present themselves at a suitable branch to make an application in person rather than remotely.

Although each individual is best placed to decide which bank account is best for them, you may be interested to know that the British Bankers’ Association provides information on their website (http://www.bba.org.uk/media/article/bank-account-access-in-the-uk-for-non-residents) intended for non-residents who are trying to find a suitable onshore account.

Yours sincerely,

Daniel Beswick

Correspondence and Information Rights

HM Treasury

[idun]

 My son wanted a UK bank account, he is a french resident. When he was in England, we went along with him with as much ID as we could muster.

The person we saw was a former colleague of mine, at that very same branch.

In the end she said that we had too much ID. That I could not say he was my son, that would not wash at all. We did manage to open an account that day, which contrary to what we had thought has not been really used since.

I too contacted the authorities and in fact there is nothing stopping the banks opening account but fear. The banks are so afraid of opening a dodgy account that they tell their staff to tell would be clients things that are simply untrue, as they infer that these are government rules they are citing. In my house we call these things lies, but there you go.

What riles is that IF we had been say from the biggest country in the world and had billions, I wonder just how many questions would have been asked AND if they would have even wondered where all that money came from. Maybe I am being unfair, but I can but imagine that the managers would have been rubbing their hands in glee rather than asking anything at all.

[AnOther]

[quote user="knee gel"]Hope the link may be of some help.[/quote]Not really, basically it's just sends you to the offshore branches of the relevant banks and you've always been able to open an A/C with them.

[bixy]

Thanks for those replies - much as I suspected. I find Eurotrash's question a bit odd. I'm sure there are plenty of French residents who retain UK bank accounts (as we do). For visits to the UK, for buying presents for family and friends there, for ordering stuff to be sent over, subscriptions to various bodies, journals etc. it is very useful to have a UK sterling account. Many people like us have income paid into a bank account in the UK, and yes we do declare all our accounts and all our income to the French fisc!

The friends I was enquiring about had an offshore checking account with the Coop, which is now closing its offshore operation. As I write this it occurs to me that they could get a similar account with another offshore bank.

Patrick

[AnOther]

[quote user="bixy"]I find Eurotrash's question a bit odd.[/quote]

x2

There

could be an number of legitimate and innocent reasons for a British

expat resident in France wanting or needing to open a UK bank A/C.

Being of British origin is about as good a tie to the country as I can think of and if you have nothing to hide then suggesting that the simple act of opening and declaring an A/C would of itself make

you a target for the French tax man is paranoid if not peurile.

[Lehaut]

x3

Both our sons get money for their birthdays from older UK based relatives, nearly always in Sterling. They need a bank account to pay that money into. Nothing odd about that.

[EuroTrash]

Sorry if it seemed an odd question, no offence meant - it was prompted by a personal opinion because I came to the conclusion that UK accounts were more hassle than they were worth. If you could just forget about them until you needed them it would be OK but what with having to declare them every year and keep track of accounts and cards that I rarely used between them being issued and expiring, and then I discovered one bank had started charging me for having a dormant account, all in all I decided they were a liability. I do totally understand why they can be useful as you say if you have close UK connections but I've found I can easily do the few UK transactions that I do via my French bank or Paypal.

[mint]

ET, many of us have pensions paid in sterling and it is definitely useful to have a UK bank account.

Yes, I know you can have your pension paid in euros but that only goes for the state pension.  Other incomes, private pensions etc will not be paid without some extortionate, unfavourable rate of exchange or fees.

Moreover, I like to control when and with whom I exchange funds.  I could go for several months without having to change if the rate is particularly bad as I always keep a bit of surplus in euros.

The declaration is no bother at all.  Basically, we have kept the same bank accounts and I just photocopy the bank details from year to year and submit those with my déclaration.

Nowadays, the interest element is negligible and wouldn't keep my dog in biscuits and you do get a yearly statement of your interest from the bank, so it's just the one (very) small figure to convert and declare.

[vette]

I have had my Nationwide account for a long time, but when I moved to France I simply gave them a change of address and now my correspondence is sent to my French address. Nationwide have no problem with this.

Furthermore, I use my credit card to buy things in France as there are no charges and then pay it off from my current account each month using internet banking.

I do also have a CA account here for the neccesary bills etc.

[EuroTrash]

"ET, many of us have pensions paid in sterling and it is definitely useful to have a UK bank account."

Yes I realise that.

However it seemed to me that a person who has no UK bank account, or so it appeared from the first post, would not be in the position of having a UK pension or salary etc paid into a UK bank account. Otherwise they would already have one.

Sorry I spoke, clearly I was wrong but I can't wipe my post out.

[mint]

No, ET, don't be sorry you spoke.

We need different contributions on here.  Otherwise we would all be living in our own little bubbles (not difficult to do in tiny French villages) and know nothing about the points of view of others.

[woolybanana]

Why on earth listen to others' opinions?

[mint]

No, Wools, I am definitely NOT rising to your provocations![:P]

And I thought l'oiseau had succeeded in curbing your.....er....excesses?

[Doodle]

Ditto vette. When we took early retirement the OH's company (a building society) who he had worked for over 30 years would not pay his pension into a french bank account and so we opened a NW account especially as at the time the charge for withdrawing euros from an ATM in france through NW was next to nothing.

As vette said there was no problem with the change of address to a french address. However, they will not allow us to open a savings account. Furthermore, the OH's building society will not let us open a savings account with them even after 30+ years of service. Hence my reason for emailing HM Treasury.

We also do a lot of presents on-line as we have never been back to the UK in nearly 7 years - it would cost a fortune in postage if we sent items bought in france - another good reason for a UK bank account and ERNIE!

[woolybanana]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

No, Wools, I am definitely NOT rising to your provocations![:P]

And I thought l'oiseau had succeeded in curbing your.....er....excesses?

[/quote]

She encourages them!

[mint]

[quote user="vette"]

I have had my Nationwide account for a long time, but when I moved to France I simply gave them a change of address and now my correspondence is sent to my French address. Nationwide have no problem with this.

Furthermore, I use my credit card to buy things in France as there are no charges and then pay it off from my current account each month using internet banking.

I do also have a CA account here for the neccesary bills etc.

[/quote]

The point is, there is NO problem with KEEPING a UK account after your move here.  It's just that opening a NEW UK account once you have moved is impossible.

And knee gel, OH did manage to open a savings account with NatWest even after the move.  He had to talk to someone very nicely.

Plus I managed to open a savings account on line with Nationwide after our move.  To do that, I have to thank AnOther (Ernie) who advised what to do.  I know it was my own money but I still feel like I was walking through the green light at Heathrow for "Nothing to declare" when I should have been going through the red light.

[bixy]

ET don't worry about what you said. The whole point of this forum is to express opinions, ask questions, give help when asked. We don't want any unnecessary censorship. As you have seen a lot of people have retained UK bank accounts and perhaps now you can see why.

As for my friends, and the original question, I think they just need a sterling account to pay for odd things they need from the UK and to pay costs when they go over. If your income derives from the UK, as I guess is the case for many of us on this forum, it is madness to lose once on the transfer of funds over here, then lose again sending money back to pay for things. Hence the need for a UK bank account.

Patrick

[idun]

 Nationwide, well,  when we moved back I rather liked the idea of an account with them, but simply, they were awful with us and made it nigh on impossible to open an account with them. I would not dream of ever having anything whatsoever to do with them now.

And I don't know what else we could have done to open an account for our son, he was there in person. He had plenty of ID and yet, it was with a great deal of relutance and my old colleague spouting non sense that they opened some sort of very very basic account. We had been with the Midland (I worked for the Midland) and consequently HSBC for 40 years.