threlly

hi there,
i am moving to oz in 4 weeks and hope to start renting in sydney in july/august. i have read on here that i need to get a reference from my bank to say i have been a good account holder etc. i have therefore contacted the bank and spoken to several managers about why i need the reference. they have been very unhelpful. they will not write me a reference, eben though i have been an excellent customer, and will only do it to a named person and i dont have a name of a landlord yet as i am still here. any advice on what i should do. the banks are really annoying me. they have also said that it will cost me £10 to close my account with them (this is Barclays by the way)
cheers for any tips on ways round this - i suppose i could make a name up here, or have it sent to a friend pretending he/she is a landlord-what do u think?

natty

bloody banks- i know what you mean.
I rang my bank today about getting a monthly mortgage statement from them as they only issue yearly ones and it doesnt show it month by month.
They said it would cost me £20.00 !!!!!!

Nat

pandya_m

Nat I guess its norm. now...
Even Indian bank has gone the same way they all charge even to sign a document to attest. To get a statment its money that counts....

baconmaster

Barclays are a bunch of b*stards, I used to work for them, I have a number of accounts with just a few pence in that'll be costing them money to keep open and send bank statements, cards etc. When I issue a cheque on my account, I tear off a very small portion of the bottom right hand corner of the cheque so the cheque will hopefully jam in one of the numerous machines it goes through in the clearing system and cause them even more hassle than when I was an employee. Don't close the account, leave a small amount in it and get them to send you regular statements in OZ, in time the cost of the post will be more than £10 pounds to them.

pandya_m

Hey do you have something vigilance dept. or customer feedback (anonymously) to register complaints. Try those techiniques.
I swear I tried in all major cities in India and couple of times in US, trust me it has made wonders.

I personally feel that teaching them through complain is a harder way then going for a mischief way...
Its an experience and a suggestion.

Jamiem

I like your style ;-)

another (not so happy) barclays customer

Stormz

Geez! We`re with Barclays too. Guess we won`t bother closing our account, and just keep a pound in there or something. Bastards.

Stuff their reference, just show whoever in Oz your last 6 months bank statements.

biggy

hiya
we didnt need to show anything like that to get our rental place, we did however need to fill in a form and get someone at hubbys work to sign it saying that he did work there.

we too tried to get a letter from our bank (Bank os Scotland) and we were also refused, aparently it is their policy NOT to do this, as if they write saying yeah these peeps r great....always managed their account well etc etc it leaves them open to being sued in the future......should u prove to be a bad payer etc etc

wmoore

Mrs M was talking to someone from our bank (Royal Bank of Scotland) recently and asked if they could write a reference. They said "sure, just let us know when you need it".

CORKER

Don't close your bank accounts, just leave a penny in them..if they charge to close them...Think how much it will cost them to send you a statement every month....

LindyLoo

Royal Bank of Scotland gave me a reference without any hassle. That's the friendly Scots for you!

Original Post - just show them your bank satetments, if they are in order! It's just to prove that you can manage your money and have the funds to pay the rent.

wholeworldwindow

We had lots of character refferences (from jobs ect...) and we showed them a print out copy of our new Oz account statement - with all our transferred funds in it. Once they saw we had the rent in the bank they were happy - and that was with no UK i.d or any jobs in Oz yet! We move in next week! (and we beat off loads of other applicants as we all raced to fill in the form once we had all seen the property!) I guess seeing the hard proof of cash in the bank enough of a garuntee! Good luck!

Stu.E

I've never heard that but then I don't read that much stuff on here. Me & the better half simply rocked up to the Real Estate with a 'To whom it may concern' letters from our previous employers confirming length of service/previous salary and a letter from our previous Landlord in the UK. Got a place no problem. We even offered to pay 4 months up front if it made a difference-it didn't but we paid it anyway.

Phoenixuk2oz

We had the same probs with our bank in UK. Amazing how little they help when there's nothing in it for them

Anyways....what the Real Estate is really interested in is your account history i.e are you overdrawn? Are your bills paid ragulaly? Do you have savings? etc, etc, etc.

We just provided a 12 month bank statement to the Real Estates which demonstrated all the above...and they were more than happy with this

Hope this helps and good luck

JackTheLad

Make sure they have absolutely no charges if you do that, and no remaining DDs or outstanding cheques.

Otherwise, you may leave a few pennies in your account, only for the charges or 1 single DD or cheque to tip it into the red, incurring more charges, then interest on the charges then charges for the letters to tell you you are overdrawn (which you won't get, cos your in Oz) and then interest on those charges, then charges for hiring debt collectors to track you down, and 10 years from now you'll get a knock on the door from a debt collecting agency saying you owe Barclays 10,000 pounds!!

Ok, thats probably a bit of an exaggeration, but I'd still just pay the b*ggers the closing fee, maybe enclosing a letter telling them how badly they suck, and move on.


Cheers,
JTL