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Tips on preparing to move home

Tips on preparing to move home

Old May 2nd 2022, 4:36 am
  #16  
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Default Re: Tips on preparing to move home

Originally Posted by Helen1964
Very canny move on your part! I don't know of a single bank that would do that now.
You're probably right Helen, things seem to have tightened up a lot.

Back in 2015 when my husband (UK/Aus citizen) and I were visiting the UK to buy a property for our upcoming move, we went into a Halifax branch to see if we could open a bank account. My brother in law, who lives in the UK, was with us. Halifax opened a savings account for my husband with his UK passport and my brother in law's address. I was quite surprised, but we were upfront that we didn't live in the UK and they were the ones who suggested using his brother's address.

The only thing they wouldn't do was put my name on the account as well to make it joint, but they did that once I got my spouse visa and could show them my BRP and ID.
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Old May 3rd 2022, 4:44 am
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Default Re: Tips on preparing to move home

Like you, Spouse of Scouse, I have a bank account dating back from years ago. From my school days actually. It's just a current account but I'm grateful for it all the same.

The combination of not being able to open a bank account without a utility bill or similar as proof of address and the difficulty of securing a long-term rental with the result that your only option is to stay in an Airbnb - meaning you won't have the utility bill needed to open the account - must be creating a bit of a Catch 22 for some people.
As I've said before I'm a big fan of the Wise Borderless Account but it's not a real bank account and I would be very loath to use it for, say, holding the proceeds from a house sale in the country I was leaving.

So I guess the solution would be to
1. open a Wise account before you leave France/America/Australia etc
2. if you've sold a house, leave the proceeds in your foreign bank account for now
2. book an Airbnb in the UK
3. once ensconced in the Airbnb, either find a long term rental and pay the deposit and fees using your Wise account OR buy a place and transfer the funds straight from your foreign bank account to your solicitor in the UK.

There's always HSBC International of course but I've never really looked into that.
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Old May 3rd 2022, 6:09 am
  #18  
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Default Re: Tips on preparing to move home

Originally Posted by Helen1964
As I've said before I'm a big fan of the Wise Borderless Account but it's not a real bank account and I would be very loath to use it for, say, holding the proceeds from a house sale in the country I was leaving.
Be aware that holding money in a Wise account for longer than 3 days (if more than the free allowance for each currency) incurs a charge if in Australia: https://wise.com/help/articles/5Sle9...1cmJnbIVNGsm3h
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Old May 3rd 2022, 9:27 am
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Default Re: Tips on preparing to move home

Originally Posted by Helen1964
Like you, Spouse of Scouse, I have a bank account dating back from years ago. From my school days actually. It's just a current account but I'm grateful for it all the same.

The combination of not being able to open a bank account without a utility bill or similar as proof of address and the difficulty of securing a long-term rental with the result that your only option is to stay in an Airbnb - meaning you won't have the utility bill needed to open the account - must be creating a bit of a Catch 22 for some people.
As I've said before I'm a big fan of the Wise Borderless Account but it's not a real bank account and I would be very loath to use it for, say, holding the proceeds from a house sale in the country I was leaving.

So I guess the solution would be to
1. open a Wise account before you leave France/America/Australia etc
2. if you've sold a house, leave the proceeds in your foreign bank account for now
2. book an Airbnb in the UK
3. once ensconced in the Airbnb, either find a long term rental and pay the deposit and fees using your Wise account OR buy a place and transfer the funds straight from your foreign bank account to your solicitor in the UK.

There's always HSBC International of course but I've never really looked into that.
Hi,

We opened a UK HSBC account whilst living in Perth, Australia it was quite easy to do we made an appointment with HSBC Perth and they informed us of what to bring to the appointment and as soon as it was opened we transferred money over whenever the rates were good (we did this with Ozforex) it was really easy to do and took the stress off the long list I had made for our return to the UK. Good luck ps we also had a mortgage in principle already set up with Halifax Building Society which we also set up whilst in Australia
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Old May 18th 2022, 12:54 am
  #20  
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Default Re: Tips on preparing to move home

Originally Posted by brits1
Hi,

We opened a UK HSBC account whilst living in Perth, Australia it was quite easy to do we made an appointment with HSBC Perth and they informed us of what to bring to the appointment and as soon as it was opened we transferred money over whenever the rates were good (we did this with Ozforex) it was really easy to do and took the stress off the long list I had made for our return to the UK. Good luck ps we also had a mortgage in principle already set up with Halifax Building Society which we also set up whilst in Australia

We also set up a bank UK account through the HSBC here in Canada. It was simple enough!

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