shirl

Hi All

Who has opened a bank account in the UK recently and how many hoops do you have to jump through? I have an old dormant account with about 10gbp in the old Alliance and Leicester Building Society which I believe is now Santander, will I be able to resurrect this does anyone know. It would make life so much easier as we won't have any bills in the uk for quite a while as we will be staying with a rellie to start with.

Thanks

Hotscot

Do you have any means of sending cash into your old account, if it's still active?
I think that would help.
I'm in the US now, have been for 12 years. I informed the Nationwide but they have no problem with where I chose to live. They keep my account open.

shirl

Yes I could put a few thousand dollars in if needed I suppose. Do you think this would help, I need to resurrect the account first though! Am I right in thinking that they cannot just close an account just because you have not changed your address or seen any activity on it for a few years and maybe had statements and stuff returned to them no longer at this address!

Hotscot

First I would gather the data to try and access the account online. If you have the account number and address when you first set it up that may work.

They may have closed it or set it dormant without the activity, you won't know in advance, but at the same time they may activate it again easily.

Spacecake799

Hi,

My son returned to the UK in March last year. He had money in a Coventry Building society account from when he was a baby. I had lost the book.
We have been in NZ since Nov 06.
He went to the building society with some id and they found his account and sent him a cash card and new book.

Hope that helps.

Carole

shirl

Oh thanks Carole, that sounds positive, hope I can re-get my cash cards and such like on my return. Maybe I should start the ball rolling now before we get there and give them this address and then change the address when we get to the Uk.

Spacecake799

Hi Shirl,

Im not sure if that will work. They may want proof of address in the UK. My son did have to wait a short time so he could get a relevent letter before going to sort it. It was very easy then.
I have kept my barclays account open and have small amounts of money deposited into the account for birthdays.
as my son now lives with my sister she has used my debit card to pay for things.
Can anyone help with such things?
Also, we have recently opened a HSBC account here and then through that one in the UK. We now have an account in the UK open and cash cards here ready for our return.

Carole

Sue

My son recently started university in the UK and we struggled initially to open a bank account for him. We started off getting him a HSBC International student account but he wasn't allowed a cheque book etc and there is a £8 monthly fee. But after a bit of research we found that Santander offered a great student account so went to them to try and open an account for him. Turned out he had an old Alliance and Leicester Bldg society account that we had completely forgotten about, which he only had £3 in. So because he was already in their system it turned out to be a breeze to open an account for him. He ended up with a free student account, free insurance for his computer/phone etc, and even a small overdraft (which he's been warned on penalty of death not to use ... lol ) As he did not yet have a permanent address he just used his Grandparents address and the bank was fine with that. So if you can't resurrect your old account it may be worth seeing if you can open an account with Santander themselves based on the dormant account.

shirl

Thanks everyone, I think because I still have money in Alliance and Leicester I will go that route first, then if no joy will try HSBC.

Belles30

Hi Shirl,we are enquiring about the same thing at the moment.I had an account I had left open with Nat West some 15 years ago.I called them the other night and gave them my details ,alas my account had been closed because of lack of use.My husband called the Northern Rock,they had closed our account but were willing to reactivate it so hopefully we can send over some money so we can take advantage of the current exchange rate between £ and aus $.
Good luck .

shirl

I did read somewhere that they were not allowed to close an account without your permission merely make it dormant. Anyway, the main thing is that we both get to have bank accounts back in the UK hopefully without too much hassle.

Alfresco

Yep, go with that.

Brigette

This is a hurdle that I will have to overcome. Having never had an account in the UK, not sure what hoops the banks will make me jump through

shirl

Yes I walked into a bank here in NZ and came out an hour later with everything I needed! so easy here shame all banks are not the same the world over.

Brigette

Exactly Shirl! It is on my to do list once I arrive. The list grows longer each day