Opening a bank account in the UK

**Diane** · 12-02-2010, 02:57 AM

I want to open accounts for the kids in the UK (stupidly, I shut down their Nat West ones before we moved!) so that my parents and varous rellies can pay Sterling in for them. All the banks and building societies in the UK have said they will need to see original birth certificates before they will open an account, certified copies not good enough, and I'm not overly happy about sending that kind of document in the post.

I spoke to local branch of CBA this morning, thinking they might be able to open an account for the kids in the London branch from here, but no go. Going to try ringing King William St and see if I get the same answer...

Anyone else tried and succeeded in doing this?

CBA say if my parents send a UK cheque here payable to the kids, it will be able to be paid into their aussie accounts, but I'd really like to have accounts for them in the UK that they can access when/if they go travelling there in the future.

**Stacey** · 12-02-2010, 03:17 AM

Hi Diane

Unfortunately I don't have any experience in this but can I ask how old your children are?

The reason I ask is that I would assume that someone will have to sign the application form to actually open the account in the first place and when I worked at Nationwide Building Society a number of years ago when a child reached 12 years the account was put into their name and they signed the app. If things still work the same now they would probably have to sign the app themselves if they are old enough.

If they are quite young and the account is to go into the name of an adult on behalf of the children then the adult would also have to provide id (probably based on your post I am guessing original documents unless maybe they are already a member of the bank in question).

If this is the case maybe your parents could open the account in their names on behalf of the children and you could send the children's original birth certificates to them by recorded post rather than to the bank directly where they are likely to get lost. That way your parents can return them in the same way.

Hope this helps.

Stacey
x

**Diane** · 12-02-2010, 03:25 AM

Hi Stacey and thanks for your reply. The kids are 12 and 15 and the accounts need to be in their names rather than ours so that gifts from my parents are clearly seen as gifts to them and not to us (darn!!) by the UK taxman.

In case anyone else is doing the same, or trying to, I thought I'd post up what I've found out so far...
The CBA have an office in London but not a branch, so my plan there is a no go!

HSBC have an office/branch in Adelaide, and branches in the UK, so it may be possible to get my parents to speak to a UK branch and set up the accounts, then I'd go into the Adelaide branch so they can see the original certs and vouch to the UK that they have done so... that's what I'm going to try next! The signature thing also might be able to be dealt with the same way (might have to take the kids into the Adelaide branch to provide signatures on the paperwork which could then be sent through internal post/email to the UK - still a lot easier and cheaper than taking them to England!)

**Mel.R** · 12-02-2010, 03:34 AM

Originally Posted by Diane

Hi Stacey and thanks for your reply. The kids are 12 and 15 and the accounts need to be in their names rather than ours so that gifts from my parents are clearly seen as gifts to them and not to us (darn!!) by the UK taxman.

In case anyone else is doing the same, or trying to, I thought I'd post up what I've found out so far...
The CBA have an office in London but not a branch, so my plan there is a no go!

HSBC have an office/branch in Adelaide, and branches in the UK, so it may be possible to get my parents to speak to a UK branch and set up the accounts, then I'd go into the Adelaide branch so they can see the original certs and vouch to the UK that they have done so... that's what I'm going to try next! The signature thing also might be able to be dealt with the same way (might have to take the kids into the Adelaide branch to provide signatures on the paperwork which could then be sent through internal post/email to the UK - still a lot easier and cheaper than taking them to England!)

Please let me know how you get on with this and if it works. I did the same and closed my sons' accounts when we left the UK. Then remembered that my eldest son has money in a court account (result of a bad car crash several years ago) which they will release in £'s care of my mother in law when he is 18. So we will need a UK account for him too!

Mx

**batleys** · 12-02-2010, 05:30 AM

hi worked for natwest for 9 years openning accounts , due to 911 the fsa in the uk put strict rules in place that all bank accounts opened from that day on has to have some form of government id ie birth cert passport. Your parents can open accounts for the children as their address providing they have some form of id for the child this id has to been seen by the member of staff openning the account and also then signed of by the manager as well. So i fear openning any account with out id been sent to uk is a no go. The only thing i can think off is that your parents can send money to Oz to your children through western union this way there is no bank accounts required. As far as i can remember most high street travel agents provide the western union servicve and they will be able to advise them of the place where you will be able to collect it from. Im not sure but i don't think the charges are that bad.

If you need any more info re natwest pm me

**caoimhe** · 12-02-2010, 05:42 AM

Originally Posted by Diane

CBA say if my parents send a UK cheque here payable to the kids, it will be able to be paid into their aussie accounts, but I'd really like to have accounts for them in the UK that they can access when/if they go travelling there in the future.

Yes they can pay a sterling cheque into a CBA account at a cost of $10 per cheque

A friend of ours sent my twins a cheque for £20 each and the commonwealth charged $10 on EACH one.....with the awful exchange rate and the cost to the bank their £20 became $25

**nikkinoodlesuk** · 12-02-2010, 06:06 AM

you can order duplicate birth certificates from the office they are registered in, you can do this online and have them posted to your parents address, if thats any help, but dont know how your gonna sort out signatures

xx

**foxychick** · 12-02-2010, 06:32 AM

My parents have opened accounts for our kids, they got copy birth certs, and then just opened them with them as the trustees or whatever it is called.

**tinkham_lee** · 03-03-2010, 05:43 AM

we are in the same boat. We left my bank account open in the UK but closed my partners and stupidly the joint account, my partner has just got a cheque for her birthday in pound sterling. Westpac charge $13 to process it, plus they will give you a poor exchange rate. we now need to phone the bank in UK to see what we can do. As she used to work for the bank I'm with in UK, and she has a credit card with them Hopefully they can do something for us

**batleys** · 03-03-2010, 06:18 AM

if you get the bills for here credit card you should just be able to send the giro bit at the bit on the bill and send the cheque and they should pay the cheque on to her credit card account then you can spend but you would still get a bad exchange rate from the credit card company