A friend needs to get a UK bank account in order to set up a company and receive money. BUT. She lives in Holland. Does anyone have experience of being non-UK resident and opening a UK bank account?

You need an address and proof of it in the country you want to bank in.

You need an address and proof of it in the country you want to bank in.

Is that a new thing? I opened an account in France when I lived in Denmark.

This “proof of address” thing is a complete f***ing bollox – how we expect to be taken seriously as a world power with a foreign secretary like Boris Johnson and a public administration that relies on people getting paper electricity bills with their address on it is beyond me 🙁

I just opened an account in Luxumberg and all they needed was a letter from my employer here, and certified passport copies.

Check with the UK bank, they may be able to do something similar at a branch in a big city, possibly not at one in the Dales though.

Formal way is via a solicitor or get an introduction from their foreign bank – do they have a branch in UK ?

Proof of ID and address are EU (and most of the works) standard requirements for new bank accounts – anti money laundering

http://www.santander.co.uk/uk/current-accounts/basic-current-account

This is not a new thing. Many banks have different arms for resident and non resident customers (but they normally never know if you leave the country and are paperless).

You can open a sterling based account if you live abroad but it will likely be based in Jersey, Gib etc.

I remember trying to join a library and I had no proof of address so they mailed me a letter to bring in the next week…

Just ID required as per link.

That Santander account looks like it could work.

I have never seen those before. Do the offer the same deal for Euro accounts? Maybe based out of Spain

Any reasonably sized bank should be able to do this for you – even easier if it’s an EU country.

Edit – just checked, you can open a Barclays Basic Account when you’re not UK resident.

Thanks @gen and @jimw – I have passed the info on – hopefully she will manage to get it sorted!

How about an account with a forex company and skip the UK bank? Get paid directly into that then transfer accordingly?

From recommendations on here, TOR have an account for me I pay into then transfer at a better rate easily, to my German bank

Nationwide will do this too, worth looking at