Well, the identity theft protection part took approximately three minutes: the guy examined, then photocopied, my passport and utility bill. That was it.
I do understand the reasoning behind most of their procedures, but it doesn’t prevent it from being a royal pain in the arse for the consumer.
…and, may I add, much more of a pain in the arse in the three other places I’ve lived in over the past few years - Hong Kong, the US, and Ireland.
What a coincidence – I just moved to London from the continent yesterday, and today I tried to open a bank account. None of the banks I visited let me have an account, because I had no utility bill in my name. Asking for a utility bill from me is ridiculous because I’m living at the organization for which I’m volunteering and do not and will never have a utility bill to pay. The bank refuses to accept a letter from the organization explaining the matter, nor will it accept the official EU unemployment form I have addressed to me at my London address.
The situation will soon be critical for me because I am supposed to be receiving an unemployment benefit. The Department of Work won’t pay the benefit unless I have a bank account, and the bank won’t open an account for me. Trying to get the bank and the Department of Work to talk to each other has so far been fruitless.
I believe you can some kind of a temporary account with the Post Office for this purpose.
They’ll also accept a bank statement to your UK address from your foreign bank - try changing your address with your continental bank and get them to send a statement. That’s what my missus did in the end.
Wow, I can see why I’ve been getting warnings about this! Sounds like it will be interesting. I think I’ve definitely got an advantage having a relative willing to say I’m living with them (with appropriate bills and such).
Reading what you’ve said, I guess a credit card is out of the question, damn. (It’s hard to pay for things on the net (e.g. tickets) without one.)
Keep your Aussie card open. That’s what I’ve done with my Visa from Ireland.
But seriously, use an Aussie “set up your account in the UK” service before you go, and save yourself a world of pain.
Try Citibank. I had a UK current account with them as well as a business account, and setting up a foreign account would have been as simple as picking up the phone. I do caution that I never had the opportunity to put it to the test.