UK bank needed for an expat.

greeny

greeny

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I'm looking to open a new account to put some meagre savings into in the UK. Most stipulate that you must live in UK or at least have an address and utility bills to prove address which I don't have anymore. I'm resident in Portugal. This has been discussed before but not recently as I'm aware of and times change and banks change rules. I'm looking for one of the "standard" high street type banks and not the new ones like Revolut or wise as their savings pots are all invested in stocks and shares when you dig into them and as they say "value can go down as well as up" and I don't want that risk. I just need a current account and a saving account if possible.
 
You will struggle.

Since we left the EU, EU rules mean that UK Banks can't operate in the EU. You might get away with it if you open the a/c whilst in the EU and then move abroad ( but some will close your account even then) but very unlikely they will open brand new accounts, especially for low value transactions - it;s not worth the risk to them
 
Friends in Spain (resident) have all had accounts closed by UK banks. They maintained these to access cash on return visits. As said, UK banks aren’t licensed anymore to operate in EU or for EU residents. Strangely, I have a Spanish account but am a UK resident.
 
You could try HSBC, which operates a global account. Don't know whether it would suit you, but they do make a point of being international. I bank with them because I do business in Hong Kong, and there's no problem with me having accounts in both UK and HK.
 
Unfortunately that's pretty much what I thought. I'm going to give HSBC a go and see where it takes me. Fingers crossed.
 
One of the major downsides of Brexit ( or upsides for the money manipulators who wanted it) is we are outside the EU financial regulation system so it is very hard if not impossible to do what you want.
I used to have a French Euro account but they closed it last year. When I started planning my current continental sojourn,I knew I would need to be paying for a lot of things in Euros so tried to set up a new one. This because even more important when I decided to buy a boat in the Netherlands. My FA managed to do some juggling with offshore bonds to pay for the boat without too much of a hit but I then spent a further 15k Euros on upgrades which I had to pay exchange.
After much trawling around I have managed to get an Irish bank to give me a Euro account using the address of a rental property I have in Belfast and for the rent from that property to be paid to that account and to be my ‘spending money’ in Europe. I’m still getting fees on other things - I’m buying a new autopilot and it’s six and half dozens whether it’s better to buy in France and be charged currency fees or buy in U.K. and pay import fees.

Brexit,, bah!
 
I have a traditional UK account and Starling accounts with both GBP and Euro. I find Starling very easy to deal with, efficient and I have converted and made a 6 figure Euro payment with them. I did use a UK address for both, but I think you do not need that for Starling.
 
Starling requires you to have a UK address, as do all the others. Most specify UK resident and will require sight of passport to open.
Some, eg HSBC, have international accounts but T&Cs apply.
Do you have a friend or family member whose address you could use.
 
greeny said:
I'm looking to open a new account to put some meagre savings into in the UK. Most stipulate that you must live in UK or at least have an address and utility bills to prove address which I don't have anymore. I'm resident in Portugal. This has been discussed before but not recently as I'm aware of and times change and banks change rules. I'm looking for one of the "standard" high street type banks and not the new ones like Revolut or wise as their savings pots are all invested in stocks and shares when you dig into them and as they say "value can go down as well as up" and I don't want that risk. I just need a current account and a saving account if possible.
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I share your pain. We’ve had issues with this; my wife had closed her uk account and they wouldn’t let her open a new one, nor would my bank allow me to add her to my account as a joint account holder. They rather grumpily said that I could keep mine as if had it so long, and suggested we open accounts with Lloyd’s offshore banking in the Isle of Man.

I pointed out to them that us opening an account in a tax haven would be like a red rag to a bull to the French taxman. I don’t particularly have anything to hide, but nobody wants to invite an audit from the taxman.

Depending on the sums involved, we have found revolut and wise to be excellent for juggling currencies, and to be fair, most of what I have historically used my Lloyd’s account for is just as easily dealt with via revolut.
 
PlanB said:
Do you have a friend or family member whose address you could use.
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The problem with this is the money laundering regulations require banks to validate addresses. So if you are on the voters roll somewhere and pay some bills then no problem. if you just use a friend / family address then the bank will be unable to locate you on the voters roll and if you then can't provide a utility bill in your name they will refuse to open. Banking for the mass market is a volume game with relatively low margins. It's simply not worthwhile for banks to develop products for small niche customers.
 
Thanks everyone for the answers/ suggestions. I do have a UK address I can use but no utility bills so they won't accept me as a customer. Somehow Nationwide cottoned on to me and wrote asking for me to confirm my uk address and supply utility bills which of course I could not do. The letters went to the UK address so I didn't get them in time and they froze my account before I knew it. I am now going through the lengthy procedure of getting access again and then will have to move the money somewhere else. If all else fails I will move it to Portugal bank but the investment rates are cr*p over here. Current account is no problem as I can use Revolut or Wise, its just the savings I am looking for so would make sense to just have the one bank if possible.
 
Revolut currently paying up to 4,75% on sterling deposits, but I wouldn’t put more than €100k with them (as that’s the maximum protected amount AIUI).
 
AntarcticPilot said:
You could try HSBC, which operates a global account. Don't know whether it would suit you, but they do make a point of being international. I bank with them because I do business in Hong Kong, and there's no problem with me having accounts in both UK and HK.
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Thanks for the suggestion. HSBC look like they're the only one that offers it. You do have to jump through a few hoops though to get the ID and address officially notarised it seems but I'll see where it takes me.
 
Frogmogman said:
Revolut currently paying up to 4,75% on sterling deposits, but I wouldn’t put more than €100k with them (as that’s the maximum protected amount AIUI).
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Yes I did look at them but it is invested in stocks to get the return and 4.75 is the headline rate but it is variable and dependent on returns. I don't want to gamble this money right now. Otherwise I would have used them no problem.
 
greeny said:
Thanks for the suggestion. HSBC look like they're the only one that offers it. You do have to jump through a few hoops though to get the ID and address officially notarised it seems but I'll see where it takes me.
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The last time I had anything to do with HSBC the commission rates for currency exchanges were 6%.
Beware.
 
greeny said:
Yes I did look at them but it is invested in stocks to get the return and 4.75 is the headline rate but it is variable and dependent on returns. I don't want to gamble this money right now. Otherwise I would have used them no problem.
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Revolut metal currently pays 4% on savings, cost of the metal is £160 per year, with a bunch of extras thrown in, leaving £4k in the savings covers the charge.

You do get uk bank account numbers with a £ account set up.

I've used it both ways, as a Spanish resident & later as a UK resident.

Apart from the faf of having to empty the Spanish based account & close it to be able to open the UK based one, they have no mechanism for moving funds from one Revolut entity to another.
 
westernman said:
The last time I had anything to do with HSBC the commission rates for currency exchanges were 6%.
Beware.
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I pay a flat fee equivalent to about 60p per transaction when transferring money between my HK and UK HSBC accounts, no matter how much. Between HSBC and other banks it's a normal rate. But, of course, it's basically between different aspects of the same global entity. So, no commission for transfers between HKD and GBP.
 
Frogmogman said:
Revolut currently paying up to 4,75% on sterling deposits, but I wouldn’t put more than €100k with them (as that’s the maximum protected amount AIUI).
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Haven’t checked recently, but previously Revolut was NOT covered by the FSCS scheme. Hence I have a Revolut card but keep savings elsewhere.
Very recently got a UK Banking licence so hopefully will,have FSCS covered savings schemes soon - but check before invest.
 
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