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Comment by dijit | Hacker News Reader

HSBC were the ones who blackholed my request to open a new account for monthly rent deposits (because I was going to be co-living).

It was months of back and forth before they finally told me that I had offhandedly mentioned my salary and they wanted proof of that. Despite never needing proof before, and despite them being the bearer of my bank account so they could see this. I had to refuse to leave the HQ on Fleet Street for 4 hours before they even told me that.

They wouldn’t accept my payslip pdf as proof. So I walked across the street to Barclays and opened 3 accounts on the spot and never looked back.

Ironically to this topic, I had to close that account when I left the UK because I didn’t have a UK address. But HSBC handled my case really badly, I nearly lost my accommodation because of their opaque stalling (I need to prove direct debit before move-in). So I would never go back.

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HSBC are notorious bastards and I fired them ages ago.

They transferred £2000 out of my account randomly one day with no cause or explanation when there was £118 available in it. The next day they froze the account and a specific contact at HSBC forced me to make a repayment arrangement for the money. I refused and opened a dispute and it took me 14 months to get it back and all fees incurred for entering an unarranged overdraft. It ruined my credit rating for 3 years. Every contact I made with them was handled by someone utterly incompetent or disinterested in solving the problem even when I involved a solicitor.

Never an apology, never an explanation, never a true resolution.

NEVER work with HSBC. ALWAYS keep your finances distributed between multiple accounts.

With Santander mostly now who so far, touch wood, have succeeded in not fucking anything up. Halifax as a backup.

Diversifying your banking lowers your risk or being locked out of an account, but increases the risk of data and identity theft somewhat, as various digital copies of your IDs and other data now reside on even more servers, creating a larger attack surface in case of a breach of one of the banks.

It's fine. The credit agencies already leaked all of everyone's info so we don't have to worry anymore.

Working in the sector it’s everywhere already even if you have multiple bank accounts or not. The banks are by far the least of your worries.

I went through a bad mental and financial episode 15 years ago and was really struggling to keep my account in good order. All the advice I heard was call your bank, explain your position and they will help you sort it out.

So I did that and the way HSBC helped me was to immediately cancel all my cards so I was left high and dry. Since my problems had only just begun I realised my credit record was still good and opened an account with Barclays the next day who were more than happy to issue me cards and a line of credit.

The moral of this story is that if you have financial problems do not tell your bank.

They'll only help you if you qualify for a product they can sell you.

The core business of banks is trading money-right-now for future-money and vice versa.

So if you have the type of financial problems where you need money-right-now but have some good future-money to offer in exchange, they'll be glad to help you make a deal (and vice versa for investments), and you should absolutely talk with your bank about such problems.

However, if you have the type of financial problems where both money-right-now and future-money are lacking, then yes, no bank is going to be helpful there.

> ALWAYS keep your finances distributed between multiple accounts.

always get biten in the hand, when the bank you trust with 90% of your savings decides to lock your account or wtv

never again, keep it distributed as much as possible

Opening a bank account as a fresh immigrant before the age of neobanks was a nightmare. In my desperation I even called a private bank in Jersey only to be told a need a whopping 5M pounds deposit to open an account. After visiting 20+ branches in person in London, one manager took pity on me and opened a business account. I had all paperwork fully ready, they just weren't interested, or at least I wasn't aware of the 'dance' required to open an account. You couldn't just walk in an open one. You needed an appointment for another day.

The hard part opening a bank account in UK as a fresh immigrant is providing a proof of address. The easiest way is to show your NINo paper (SSN equivalent). It will take you about 3 months to get that paper, so you need to manage somehow without a UK bank account during this period.

I had no problems, opening the account online and only showing up to the branch for the final papers, but I had that NINo paper. Maybe you chose the "wrong" banks? Some like Lloyds are much more accommodating to immigrants and have few requirements.

My experience was exactly the opposite. Being a new immigrant in UK, Barclays handed me a list of required documents and also made it clear I needed a NI number (UK tax number) before I could open an account. At this point I did not have an account I could get my salary paid in.

Walked across the street to HSBC and all they needed was a letter from my employer and I had my account in a few hours.

In the EU, you have a right to open a bank account:

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/financial-pr...

Sadly, Boris fixed this for the UK.

Same in Canada. The regulation is called "access to basic banking" [0]

[0] https://cba.ca/newcomers-to-canada

"....if they meet the identification requirements set out in the Bank Act."

Not sure I see a difference?

Identification does not require a fixed address, and it's not like the UK "no fixed address bank account" discussed in the original article can be opened without a proper ID.

Understood, but the challenge of getting documentation for ID can be as significant as having a permanent address.

Sure but this is for citizens where I'm guessing OP was on a working visa.

The first line in the link says it’s for anyone residing legally in the EU. Not just citizens.

In the USA, you don't have a right to a bank account.

In most cases, unless you bounced a check (There is a separate system banks use on checks. It not tied to credit agencies.) you can get an account by walking in with any check, or money, though.

Many of our poor are stuck with Payday, with their outrageous fees.

Some homeless shelters offer p.o. boxes. Very few sadily.

All the Covid fun money blown out of tee shirt bazokas to fraudsters, and big healthy businesses; none went to people without an address. None.

It’s easy to say that poor people make (or are forced to make) terrible financial decisions. But that may not entirely be the case and we may be missing some of the advantages of those decisions. See for example http://www.businessinsider.com/check-cashing-stores-good-dea...

Cashing a check takes 6 weeks in the UK. Not many people can wait that long for their salaries to show up.

> In most cases, unless you bounced a check (There is a separate system banks use on checks. It not tied to credit agencies.) you can get an account by walking in with any check, or money, though.

ChexSystems is a credit agency. They just specialize in one data point (as of now).

UK law requires its 9 largest banks to offer fee-free basic bank accounts[1]. While that's not the same as a legal right to an account, it ensures people with poor credit history have access to banking -- it's pretty inclusive but IIRC does require an address -- the 'no fixed address' approach fixes that.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/basic-bank-account...

This sounds good in theory, but the way it’s implemented in Poland is a bit of a joke. The basic account must be your only bank account in Poland. You need to visit a bank branch to open it (for any other accounts, you can usually just take a selfie and a photo of your ID card), banks tend not to promote its existence and hide it in unguessable places on their websites, and there are some other random limitations (eg. no e-government access, no Google Pay). The basic account is free, has a free debit card, and has five free operations and five free ATM withdrawals. But normal accounts with cards cost nothing if you have some minimum usage, standard transfers done in online banking are free, and withdrawals in the bank’s own ATMs are usually free too.

The effect? Less than ten thousand basic accounts existed in 2020, two years after their introduction. (source in Polish: https://serwisy.gazetaprawna.pl/finanse-osobiste/artykuly/14...)

Banks routinely offering a better account than basic minimum is to their credit and expected in an even slightly competitive sector, not a joke at all. That in other countries it needs to be legislated is weird.

The "you can be refused an account if you do not comply with EU rules on money laundering and terrorist financing" line is key here; this requires an address. This is also what leads to the catch-22 of "you need a bank account to rent something" and "you need an address to get a bank account".

Things are a lot easier now with IBAN though, and a bank account is less of a hard requirement than it was 15 years ago.

I had the same problem with Barclays (a long time ago...) when moving to the UK, they wouldn't accept a letter from my employer and they wouldn't accept a rental agreement either as proof of address. Solution: the confirmation letter that I received from the NI people was finally good enough, so I could open an account only a month after I'd moved to the UK! Btw. the NI number is a must anyway, so it's just that it takes some time until you get it.

This is a direct consequence of there being no official central registration of one's address in the UK, unlike in many other countries. You might call Austria bureaucratic for example, because you have to register within 3 days of moving (and another registration is necessary within 4 months), but then you get official papers that prove your address, so this never becomes an issue here, unlike in the UK.

Is the NI really a must in UK? I have heard of people working there that are working only for a few years in academia who don't have an NI - or at least so they claim.

I lived there just fine without one. I wasn't working, but rented a house and opened a bank account, I don't remember ever being asked for one.

Yes, of course, if you have the "money-honey", you don't work or expect maternity or jobseekers allowance, and you are not interested in state pension, you can get by without one :)

I just checked, and for healthcare you don't actually need it in the UK. In other EU countries you usually have to pay health insurance for yourself if you are not working (sometimes a LOT of money), but not in the UK.

I got a letter threatening me with a fine if I didn't register to vote, and I needed a NI number to register.

yes but you're taxed at some 'emergency tax' rate which is really high.

Same. Barclays gave me an error in their app at the end of their account opening process, telling me to take an appointment at the branch, but telling me I can’t take an appointment, then sending me a welcome email. I tried calling them but I can’t get beyond their voice recognition system that doesn’t understand what I call about, and this is their premier banking experience. I must say that I have no idea whether I have an account with them or not right now.

I also helped a friend who just arrived in the UK. The procedures are completely circular. You need a proof of address to open a bank account but you need to have a bank account to do anything that will give you a proof of address.

As for natwest their account opening procedure involves printing a blank pdf form, filling it by hand and going to the branch with it. Welcome to 1999!

> Barclays gave me an error in their app at the end of their account opening process,

Don't take this personally, every Barclays customer experiences random error messages as an everyday benefit of banking with Barclays. The only good thing I can say is that they still have physical branches where you can walk in and talk to a person who is usually nice and helpful.

You can exchange your drivers licence and a tenancy agreement and those take care of the proof of address.

Isn't that the whole circularity problem - in UK often you need a bank account before you can get a tenancy agreement.

When I opened an account with Barclays as an exchange student I was given a signed and stamped letter by the university and told to go to a specific Barclays branch nearby and ask for a specific person who would help me. I thought the whole circularity of the thing was just absurd, especially when on the other hand I could pay with contactless on the tube (very advanced at that time).

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