Open a UK bank account

Hi. Welcome to this five minute presentation about opening a bank account in the UK. My name is Charlotte. I as the advice place. The Advice place is an advice service for all students at Edinburgh University. We're run by Edinburgh University Students Association. This is what I'm going to cover. Why you might want to open a bank account in the UK, bank, what kind of account, and what you'll need to open the account. 

So the benefits of the UK account would be that when you're in the UK, you can make purchases or withdraw cash without getting charged, without incurring any fees. You can also easily set up a direct debit from your UK account to pay bills. If you intend to work in the UK, you normally need a UK based account for your wages to be paid into. Also if you have a UK account once you've moved your money into this country, it won't be subject to any currency changes outside of the UK. So it might give you a bit more peace of mind. There might be other features of accounts in the UK that you could benefit from. Sometimes banks will have budgeting tools and apps. There might be other deals on other products that you might want like insurance, or it might have features such as being able to lock your card, if you can't find it, or you're not sure you've lost it. So there are different banks that you can choose from. Some of them will be based in the UK, some of them won't. So your home bank in your country that you're already banking with might have branched in the UK, or they might have a relationship with one of the banks in the UK. Sometimes that can make it easier to open an account. And some banks will be just UK based and won't operate outside the UK. 

There's also a lot of online banks now. Some of them will operate in different countries. They can allow you to have more than one account in different currencies. Some of the international banks will also offer that. For example, you could have a Euro's account and you could have a pounds account. 

Now, the type of account that you can get in the UK is normally if you are coming as an international student, it will normally be something called an ordinary account or a basic account or a regular account or an everyday account, rather than a student account. Normally in the UK, student accounts are designed for UK residents who've had three years of residency in the UK and are getting government student funding. So if you're opening an account in the UK as an international student, it's often not a student account. It would often have one of these other names. So if the bank tells you you can't open an account, it's normally because you're trying to open a student account rather than a basic account, which you should be able to open. So when you're trying to open an account, you'll need to bring some documents, and this is something that you can start to think about and get ready before you arrive. So you can look at the different banks that you might want to bank with. You can read what kind of documentation they're going to want from you, and you can start to put some things in place to get some of those things ready. You aren't normally able to open an account until you are in the UK, but you can start getting your documents ready. 

So normally, they'll need to see proof of your identity. They'll need to see proof of your UK address. So if you're not sure where you're going to be living in the UK, that might be something that will delay you. They'll need to see some proof of your student status, usually, or your right to be in the UK. And then they sometimes will require some extra documents, such as bank statements from an existing account or sometimes a letter from an existing bank that you have an account with. So proof of your address. So it can be tricky if you're moving into shared accommodation or student accommodation to give proof of your address, and you might not be named on any of the bills, but you should have a tenancy agreement or student contract of your accommodation. If it's difficult for you to get those things or your bank won't accept a tenancy agreement, then you could try getting an existing bank that you bank with to send accounts your UK address, to send your statements, and then you can use those as proof of address. Similarly, if you're paying for a mobile phone or something, you might be able to get that to your UK address and use that as proof of your address. You can also apply to get a national insurance number in the UK. You need a national insurance number in order to get paid from a job. So if you think you might want to work, you can apply for a national insurance number. You will need to know your address by the time you apply, and it can take up to four weeks. But once you've got that letter from HMRC, which shows your address, you can use that for the bank as proof of your address. So some different options there. You normally also need to prove your student status or your right to be in the UK, so your biometric resident permit, identity card, or passport. Other potential issues that we get questions about is where students are starting there course, but they're still under 18. There are bank accounts you can open if you're under 18. It's easier if you're over 16, then you won't need your parents to help you open it usually, but if you're under 16, you probably will. We also get asked about Sharia compliant banking. There are banks in the UK who are completely Sharia compliant, and there are some banks that offer Sharia compliant products so accounts that you can open. 

So you can have a look for those as well, but there are products available in the UK. And that's just a little reminder about where I work. So I'm from the advice last. So if you have any further questions, you can get in touch with us using these details. There's always also some links to the websites where you can look at different accounts. Those links can be found on our website or on the university page by opening a bank account. Thank you.