Opening a bank account

I've read a couple thread here on the difficulty of a non-resident or even on ILR to get one. My husband and I are looking into different options aside from the usual banks and have come up with other options like -

HSBC Premier account
Offshore UK account

Has anyone tried these and would it be able to help me in getting a UK bank account without having to go through all the trouble that the others have experienced?

You can do quite easily as long as you have ID.

I had Lloyds account. My wife opened Lloyds too no problem as I already had an account there.

Barclays wanted more ID such as a driving licence, which she never had. Get a driving licence. A provisional would have been acceptable.

I have heard it said that HSBC are very good under such circumstances.

When my wife arrived we had a little difficulty, like many do, but what I did was add her name to an account that I had set up in my name for the purpose. Initially ID and proof of address were a problem, but over a matter of a couple of weeks we got there in the end. We havent done it yet but aimed to remove my name from the account eventually
Ours is an offhore UK account BTW.

What kind of ID do they need? Would a passport suffice? My husband and I are looking into buying a property this year but I am not yet a resident or have an ILR. Is it possible to get my name on the property documents as well?

My husband is with Barclay's right now and it's just really rubbish. He's abroad more than half of the time and even if he informs the bank, they still block his debit card because of all the "suspicious" transactions abroad. We have completely stopped using that and I ended up getting him a supplementary card from my Philippine credit card.

JohnAsh, what were the requirements for your UK offshore account? Is it easier to get comapred to a regular one? HSBC Premier has a big maintaining balance (Php4,000,000) but would be a recognized HSBC Premier client worldwide and supposedly be able to open an account easily in the UK or whatever country there is an HSBC in.

If you have an account with HSBC here, you can ask your Premier associate to open a similar account with a branch close to where you will live in the UK. There will be a minimum deposit. You will be able to manage all your HSBC accounts online and transfer funds between them (free for Premier).

I was jesting a little on the UK offshore account. I live in the Isle of Man which is an offshore banking type economy. And we have an account here with the Isle of Man Bank.

The main requirement other than ID is proof of address. If your name is on the deeds of the property then I am sure you will have little difficulty. Also get your hubby to get your name on some of the utility bills i.e. phone, gas, electricity. You will find them useful for your ILR application too. We had to provide a utility Bill with my wifes name and her (our) address on it.

When my wife first arrived in the UK on a ILR I got her onto my account (Santander) with no real problem using her passport as ID. The problem occured when trying to get her own account as the banks often want 2 forms of ID (primary, passport and secondary, household bill etc). The problem being to get onto a household bill you need a bank account and to get a bank account you needed a house hold bill!! In the end we got her one at Nationwide. A noraml Flex account I think.

Yep. Thats how it came across to us. The one bill we got sorted quite easily, fortunately, though we had to wait a few weeks, was the phone bill.

Council tax paperwork is another way to go. You know you can count on the council to get you on to their council tax register soon enough LOL

First one we got was a Boots advantage card / account for her!!! Then I think I got her on the electric bill as well

With a HSBC Premier account, will I be able to skip providing a UK ID to open a UK account? This is such a big selling point my associate friend is telling me since he knows I will be moving to the UK in the future.

Oh I see, is it then possible for a foreigner to own property in the UK? In the Philippines, foreign nationals can only own condominium units and not house & lot.

I do have a Harrod's Rewards Card and a Boots Advantage card. Does that count? LOL

This is what I have heard. My employer uses HSBC globally for himself and his business and he advised me take out an HSBC account in this manner to get around this problem. Micawber also recommends the same.

My current landlord is Egyptian.