saoghalbeag

I've been reading the advice on here about ppl having trouble with bank accounts and realised I have some questions of my own:

I have 2 Bank of Scotland accounts from my time in the UK as a working holiday maker (I'm Australian). One card has just expired but the other is valid until next year. I kept them open as it was always my intention to return to the UK. Seeing the trouble British ppl have been having opening accounts I'm now convinced that it's in my best interest to keep them open!

How can I do that from Australia? Could I get a UK based friend to 'loan' me their address or is this criminal??? I was thinking setting up internet banking would be the best way - I have someone in the UK who owes me a lot of money and is having trouble getting it into my Aussie account, so perhaps he could put it in the Bank of Scotland and I could do it myself online?

I'm also (fingers crossed) heading over to the UK for Christmas and it would be fantastic if he could put the money in pounds into my BoS account and I could use it whilst travelling (wouldn't feel quite as painful as spending Aussie dollars!)

Anyone got any experience of this? Thanks!

dunroving

You could use a friend or relative's UK address, but my experience with Barclays was that they were fine with me having an overseas address. My replacement cards were sent to me overseas, and I was able to set up online banking, but I was not sent paper statements overseas.

LouiseD

When we left the UK we kept our accounts here open and just told them we were living overseas. They asked for a c/o address so we just used my in-laws. We cancelled all paper statements and everything worked fine.

When we returned we transferred most of the money we had in our ANZ account back to the UK account - I think they just charge a one off fee for this, regardless of the amount.

Fleaflyfloflum

I am positive it would be ok to use a friends address as i managed to open an account using my daughters address yesterday. Not sure if you read that thread.

As a side note, when i opened my account the manager told me that my husband, who is a New Zealand citizen, can use his passport as ID to get an account with them when he comes over in January, and the same applies for Australians too.

saoghalbeag

Being able to open an account with just an Aussie/NZ passport sounds great - and very unlike the usual stories about banking in Britain!! I got my original accounts opened no hassles as I was in a tiny Highland village and my boss knew the bank manager (poss. related??)

I tried to set up internet banking before I left the UK as I still had funds in my UK accounts and wanted to use them on the travel home (stopover in the US). Unfortunately the bank teller gave me some misleading info which meant I never had the internet banking set up. Will email Bank of Scotland and see if they can help me out re: internet banking. Would be good if I could use my UK cards whilst over there at Christmas - save the fees etc.

Thanks for the info!

quoll

Why not just let the bank know your Aussie address? Replacement cards would probably have been sent to the address you gave them when you opened the accounts. I have had a Co-op account for years and years and every year my card comes through the mail to me here in Aus without any hassles. I can access my account over the internet and can transfer funds directly from my Aus account into the Coop without leaving the house (shame I cant do it in reverse really!). I would always encourage you to keep a UK account open if you intend to go back for holidays. From memory, I set up internet banking over the phone from here.

saoghalbeag

Just managed to track down my bank mail in the UK (the joys of small village life - the mail wasn't even opened and she'd kept it all!) but still got to get round the annoying fact that Bank of Scotland do not have an email address I can send queries to. I guess I will have to throw financial caution to the wind and phone them!! The problem with setting up internet banking as I left the UK was that I needed to receive something in the mail from them and it had to be a UK address. I remember it distinctly because we were trying to do it on our way from Skye to Glasgow and flights to Australia. Skye branch told us it would be fine but by the time we checked into Glasgow to tie up loose ends they were telling us it wasn't possible.

Anyway, thanks for the info, will aim to at least change my address to Australian one over the phone and then try to sort it out in person when I go there...