Our last BAW! feature dealt with opening an account if you are in the UK for work. But what if you're a student? Does the same process apply?
Well yes and no.
If you are a student opening a bank account you will still have to supply some form of ID (passport w/ visa), proof of address (certified copy of acceptance letter or similar such document). But you will also have to have some cash to open the account and to prove that you can support yourself. This can be in the form of student loan checks.
Again, the four major banks (Barclays, NatWest, HSBC and Lloyds TSB) will
require these basic things but may also have some additional requirements, so I'd be sure to confirm their eligibility criteria and requirements before I showed up for opening an account. Please note that when looking for information about student banking you will need to look in the International Banking sections of these websites. Any mention of Student Banking on the main pages applies only to permanent UK residents.
Again, most of the difficulties with opening any account here are due to administrative flakiness. I've done a bit of research and it seems that the worst offends of student bank account flakiness are Barclays. They seem to have a habit of either misplacing people's student loan checks or taking their sweet time to deposit them. Also unfortunately with Barclays, you can't get a debit card until your student loans have cleared. But you can't check to see if the funds have cleared unless you have a debit card. It creates a fun game of which comes first, the debit card or the cleared funds? And it can last FOUR months!
Don't want to wait four months? Then I'd try opening an account with the other three branches. And yes, this includes NatWest who seem to be rubbish at opening a regular current (checking) account but seem to get it right when opening a students account. (Just as long as you bring a certified copy of your acceptance letter!) Lloyds and HSBC seems pretty straight forward regarding opening student accounts. I've not heard any horror stories about using either of these. In fact, the person that I interviewed about her nightmare with NatWest, went straight to Lloyds and was able to open an account within days.
A good alternative to all of this banking drama can be to not open an account at all. If you have a Bank of America account you can use any Barclays ATM free of charge. So as long as you keep funds in you BofA account, you can have access to British sterling. Of course that becomes a pain, if you want to pay bills etc. However as the UK is quite old fashioned, you can pay all of your bills here in cash by depositing cash directly into the companies account. They all have one. Just check your utility bill the next time you receive and it and look out for their banking details.
I vowed to the tellers and managers at NatWest that I would NEVER and I mean NEVER use their ridiculous services and would ACTIVELY promote whichever one of their competitors would take my money and let me set up an account (to which the bright people at NatWest proceeded to rattle off a list of banks whom they consider to be their competitors for this purpose).
ReplyDeleteSo true to my word, props to Lloyds for implementing a system for new accounts that is upfront, having something more than fluff in their brains, and not being daft bureaucratic numbskulls... read my praise here: http://tinyurl.com/ygwk56n
P.S. - We may NEVER know what the requirments are for opening an account at NatWest. Literally, whatever 'official' list of requirements they have on their website is an utter and complete lie - their requirements are a moving target that depend on the day, colour of the teller's top, and whatever absurdities they decide to invent and print out on an unofficial Word document. One day you need just a letter from the school. The next you need a letter from your school that state's your birthdate. Then the *next* you need a letter from your school stating you birthdate, passport number and oh yeah, an appointment at the City branch because they only deal with international student accounts on days that start with a T between 2-3 pm (Icelandic time).
ReplyDelete"Where does it say that?"
"Why, right HERE... on this unofficial Word Document that I just typed up and couldn't even be bothered to print on letterhead."
Ha. Clearly. I'm still bitter about the days of my life that NatWest wasted for their own absurd amusement. Is NatWest even really a bank? My theory is that they're actually a front for government psychological experiments on the public's willingness to believe logical fallacies and mental resliency and tolerance levels.
BOTTOM LINE: Unless you like feel participating in the new wave of real-life theatre of the absurd... DO **NOT** GO TO NATWEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yea. Out of the three people that I talked to about NatWest. Only one, and I suspect its you Ferris, had a really bad time opening an account. The other two lavished them with praise. So I'm conflicted...
ReplyDelete