Does anyone know of a UK based bank or building Society that will open an account for someone living in France.
We are hoping to move back to the UK in the next year and would like a different bank to my existing one in order to deposit a reasonably large sum of UK sterling to earn interest there. It seems pointless to transfer it to France in euros only to transfer it back later on. The interest rate on the only option open to me with my existing bank is very low, almost negligible.
I rather think it is is tall order but thought I would ask just in case.
Thanks.
EDIT.
Thanks to everyone who has taken an interest in this post (no pun intended) it has brought forth a minefield of informtion but having considered it all, I have decied to stick with Skipton as I do not have to jump through any hoops to open a new account.
I am trying to cut down on admin which seems to grow by the day, so why take on more if I am not gaining anything.
I think banks will be difficult but you could look at National Savings and Investments. Their direct saver is at 3.3% and there are higher rates on offer if you can tie your money up for a year.
The chat line just close the enquiry but I have just found the details about the easy access accounts so I will have a read and see what I can find out. My existing UK bank will only pay 0.01 interest which is almost immoral and I do not want to tie the money up for a given period even if the returns are better.
I’ve done it too. Also with a view to moving back.
It’s the only way to open a savings account in the UK if you’ve already left. And of course you must keep your existing UK current account as a “feeder” account for NS&I.
Slightly off topic but as regards sending euros, I just noticed yesterday that the Soc Gen now lets me send up to €10k myself via the app. And that I can increase this to 1.5 times the default ceiling, after which it reverts to €10k. Don’t know if other banks have taken similar steps. For a while there Soc Gen customers could only send up to €6k. Or even less in some cases.
Am very glad about this because it saves me having to deal with the blonde Rottweiler at the guichet.
Their 3,3% offering is very favourable compared to the bank savings account we hold which only pays 2,06% at the time of writing.
However, I’ve hit a bit of an impasse as it seems that as a non-UK resident one’s initial signing up has to be by post & then it’s just for a low grade savings offering. Once you’re in their system you can change/add the better paying online only accounts.
As other’s have said this does all seem very clunky & I’m mentioning it in case I’ve got it all wrong. Can anyone help to clarify things?
It’s a couple of years since I did it but I do remember that I was pretty much able to open a Direct Saver account over the telephone. I think the very nice lady gave me my NS&I number there and then.
The ID verification was done after the phone call - using a one-time link that they emailed to me. With this, I was able to upload the necessary supporting documents.
We only ran into problems with sending stuff by post because I made the mistake of opening a JOINT Direct Saver account. And the verification for the second account holder, my husband, had to be done by post.
Once the Direct Saver account is operational you can very easily open savings bonds with no malarkey.
Are you sure they’re insisting you sign up by post even for an account in one name? If so, they’ve changed the procedure since I did it.
That is all very good information & kind of fits with the way the website application process tries to push me. Thank you.
…which is kind of weird, if they accept one applicant via uploaded documents. I would want it to be a joint account, but will ask when I call them in case things have changed. Having recently sent several official things by tracked post to the UK, I’m getting very hacked off at the cost
Seriously, do not open a joint account. In that case you will definitely have to send everything by post and it takes AGES as there are different steps - getting the NS&I number, getting the Direct Saver account operating.
From the website I don’t think anything has changed so - weird though it may seem - if you open separate accounts you’ll be able to do it over the phone and then upload the ID stuff using the link they send you.
The appeal of a joint account is that it would be accessible by the other party if either of us turn up our toes unexpectedly, but at the moment the better interest rate is a winner.
I had the same concerns. But I still think it’s best to just to split the money and have separate accounts. The surviving spouse would get the other half eventually.
Also, I’m not sure whether it was NS&I or the Nationwide but I was a bit taken aback recently to discover that even with a joint account, they might need grant of probable before releasing the funds to the survivor. So it might be worth asking NS&I about that. I had naively assumed a death certificate would be enough.
It was around that point I gave up and decided to move to Norfolk.
