Keeping an English bank account

[friedparsley]

4 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Not any longer, they don't.   You used to see that service offered by many banks, but the new money laundering laws means they're not allowed to open bank accounts for foreign residents any more. You've got to be in the country.   When you arrive, they will open an account on the strength of a British passport, but they won't give you access to the account until you provide proof of a permanent address.  

Yes you are right.  I was thinking even as I was typing, that I had not seen the posters the banks used to have in their windows, for some time.

[ramot]

5 hours ago, friedparsley said:

The RBS is giving us hassle about our account that we have had with them for over 40 years and 30 of them in Australia.  They want our Australian tax file numbers and certified copies of our passports. So far I haven't got round to it, but they are sending an endless stream of ratty letters.  I have declared this bank account on my Australian tax return some time ago, and they don't even want to know now as my balance in the RBS is beneath their reporting limit.

I am disinclined to go to the trouble the RBS want us to go to, as several years ago they lost  a large sum I was transferring to Aus.  Just dissapeared into thin air and they washed their hands of it. After a lot of detective work I discovered that their foreign dept had not filled the transfer form properly. I still have a copy. They just stopped in the middle of the transfer.  Even when I got the money about 7 months later they did not even give an apology.  After that I used a forex company to make transfers without trouble.

So I am inclined to tell the RBS to go and get ##**#  with their request.    It all originates in the USA, they are paranoid.

Apart from that there is no trouble about keeping your UK bank account open.  Many Australians open a UK bank account from here, if they are going for an extended holiday in the UK.

 

We have had the same requests from our UK banks, it seems quite normal just a pain.

Another reason to keep a UK bank account is if you are eligible for a UK state pension, many of us have it paid into our UK bank, and if you intend going on holiday there fairly regularly it's a real bonus having some extra money there to spend.

If you do keep a UK bank account make sure you pay a few pounds in regularly, to ensure it's kept open.

 

 

[Ken]

I'm getting a deluge of letters from HSBC demanding I complete certain forms for them providing personal information including employment details or my account "will be restricted". Since I don't have an account with HSBC the restriction doesn't concern me very much. My 7 year old son (they're also demanding his employment details from him) has a Child Trust Fund which HSBC manages which is why HSBC has my contact details but since he can't touch the money until he's 18 it's already as restricted as you can get.

I did at first assume this was a phishing scam but investigated and found that HSBC really are gathering this information from their clients. Consequently I have replied to them when they've provided an international reply paid envelope to explain why they're not getting this information but it makes no difference as they keep sending out the identical letters.