Personal bankers

[VectraMan]

I went to visit my bank earlier, to see one of the personal bankers. Next to me was a young woman from Uganda who didn't speak much english, trying to open an account, and the poor woman from Barclays was trying to explain to her concepts like "mother's maiden name" and "three previous addresses".

Then a big argument broke out behind me, with someone who was an employer trying to help his Korean employee get a bank account. The poor guy from Barclays was explaining that without any proof of address there was nothing he could do, and the employer was explaining that the Korean guy was staying in a company owned flat so couldn't provide any utility bills. He also said (quite loudly) "He lives in the UK, he pays tax in the UK, how the hell can he not be able to get a bank account?" Fair point.

You have to feel sorry for everyone involved, and it occurs to me that these people must have to deal with this tulip all day every day. They must have been really pleased to see me: a British person, with an account, who wanted something simple.

Sign of the times?

[DodgyAgent]

I. They must have been really pleased to see me:

Is that a first?

[MarillionFan]

Where do you live? Brick Lane!

[milanbenes]

much easier to open an account on the mainland - good thing


much harder to get overloaded with credit on the mainland - good thing


when I saw this thread I thought you were talking about private bankers

guess you're not there yet

Milan.

[AtW]

I opened my bank account in the UK back in 1994 when I was here for a few weeks studying in a school of English (yes, they did not do a good job, though they were nice people): I opened account with £1 even though I did not have permanent address here, yet alone long term visa - I have not used this account for some years, but when I got back I started using them and stayed with the bank for a long time.

Now this ****ing Govt made the rules that supposedly target money laundering and you can't bloody open bank account even for your relative, ffs, you can't vouch for someone with your money even - you can't open bank account to put few grand in it, yet someone like Abramovich can come out of nowhere and pay few hundred million pounds for a football team, or some young chap who is son of a guy whose bank went bankrup in Russia in 1998 leaving tens of thousands of people out of their money can buy TVR just like that. Or you get lots of IPOs in London whose main goal is to launder money that owners otherwise would not be able to take out of their native country easily.

F****s, the whole lot of them.

[Euro-commuter]

I opened my bank account in the UK back in 1994 when I was here for a few weeks studying in a school of English (yes, they did not do a good job, though they were nice people)

Who, the English teachers?

[Euro-commuter]

Who, the English teachers?

Sorry mate, just kidding.

[Troll]

Sign of the times. I bet if the poor bank teller complained about the diffculties she was having getting her customers to understand her she would be hauled up for racism.

People from Africa are hard to understand if you don't talk to them all the time to get used to their thick, mumbling accent. I had my Nigerian neighbour in last night because she left her keys behind. Although she was impeccably mannered and gracious for my help, by allowing her to wait in my flat, until her boyfriend showed up with spare keys, I still found it pretty hard work having a longish conversation with her. Still, she probably finds me hard to understand too?

Did she not start rambling on about her dear departed uncle who worked for Shell Nigeria and had stashed $15,000,000 in a bank account that she needed heldp recovering?

[Magnus]

I'm not from the UK but I contracted there in '98. When I first arrived I needed a fixed address or a job to open a bank account (probably both) -- or a reference from a company. So I used the company that I had just bought to contract through as the reference, and walked out of the bank with both a business and personal account, each with ATM card. No questions asked.

[Ennui]

There have been a lot of changes since '98.

Even so, I walked into Barclays in Chelsea in 1997 with a cheques for £6.5K and all the identification they claimed I needed and they still would not let me open an account.

Two weeks later and another branch of Barclays and they couldn't do enough for me. It all comes down to whether the person you're dealing with really wants to open an account for you.