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Friends,

Am on Tier 1 in the UK from India. Would like to open a Bank Account.
Should i be looking for Any specific user friendly bank or i can go and open account in any bank.
The banks i know are Abbey, Barclays, HSBC, Halifax, Natwest.

Please let me know which is the best bank to open an account.

personal choice, I have got an account with HSBC and Natwest. I prefer HSBC

samsung wrote:Friends,

Am on Tier 1 in the UK from India. Would like to open a Bank Account.
Should i be looking for Any specific user friendly bank or i can go and open account in any bank.
The banks i know are Abbey, Barclays, HSBC, Halifax, Natwest.

Please let me know which is the best bank to open an account.

This would entirely be your own personal choice. Conceptually, this is similar to asking which Indian bank is better ? Probably, one thing you can look for before choosing a bank is if they offer better interest rate / any special offers for new customers (I m sure each bank has different offers that scores over other banks).

Thanks,
hsmp12345

ok you can chose bank whose branch is near to your work place or your home.

i am with natwest and their on-line banking security is really good.

also you may prefer HSBC as they also provide money transfer to overseas bank account via online banking which others don't.

also only open maximum 2 accounts, maintain one account as primary and other as a backup

choice is yours mate

Hi Nabeel,

Thanks for your inputs. Excuse my ignorance, but what purpose would a backup account serve,how can i use this account.. I mean if i open an account with HSBC, should i also go for the other account.
So, i guess i ll go with HSBC then, as many ppl prefer this bank here. I thought of Barclays though , maybe i can open it as a Backup as Nebeel mentioned before.

samsung wrote:Hi Nabeel,

Thanks for your inputs. Excuse my ignorance, but what purpose would a backup account serve,how can i use this account.. I mean if i open an account with HSBC, should i also go for the other account.
So, i guess i ll go with HSBC then, as many ppl prefer this bank here. I thought of Barclays though , maybe i can open it as a Backup as Nebeel mentioned before.

Backup account? nothing its a matter of person choice/preference i.e. how many credit or debit cards you want to carry. The other reason for a back-up account could be to distribute your funds to more than one bank to benefit from FSA's guarantee for savings upto GBP50,000.

hi,

another reason for having two account is that maybe you want to withdraw a big amount let say 600 and in almost all cases a normal current account would only allow you to withdraw max of £300. but with two debit cards you can withdraw £600.


another reason could be that one of your debit card is not working for reasons like you forgot pin or you lost it or a supermarket is not accepting ur card for technichal reasons.

and again its a personal choice and my honest opinion is open just one account and when you understand the banking system here then you may go for other one

samsung wrote:Friends,

Am on Tier 1 in the UK from India. Would like to open a Bank Account.
Should i be looking for Any specific user friendly bank or i can go and open account in any bank.
The banks i know are Abbey, Barclays, HSBC, Halifax, Natwest.

Please let me know which is the best bank to open an account.

Would advise you to choose a bank which has a branch near to where you live/work.

Don't get fooled by the bank employee and open an account for which you need to pay a monthly service fee. Unless you specifically need the services provided by those accounts, a simple free bank account which gives you printed statements and a debit card will be enough.

Even cheque books aren't important because very few people actually accept personal cheques these days.

Go to a branch that is conveniently located and get a free operation current account.

For your savings, you can shop around once you have built up enough and get the best deal.

For me, I chose those that do not charge for transferring money internationally to and from banks in my home country.

I've never had any issues with Barclays. + if you pay £14 a month for thier better account they treat you like royalty when you go in to the branch ^_^

oceanboy_99 wrote:For me, I chose those that do not charge for transferring money internationally to and from banks in my home country.

and which bank is that?

<quote>Go to a branch that is conveniently located and get a free operation current account </quote>

Hey friends got a little confused in here. In india we normally have a salary account and it is a savings account. So, whats the deal in UK, i mean if i go to a bank instead of a savings account should i go for a current account.
what about savings account then, is there any pre requisites for that.

If i have a job, can the salary be credited in either of the current or savings account, or any specific account i shoud have..

samsung wrote:Hey friends got a little confused in here. In india we normally have a salary account and it is a savings account. So, whats the deal in UK, i mean if i go to a bank instead of a savings account should i go for a current account.
what about savings account then, is there any pre requisites for that.

If i have a job, can the salary be credited in either of the current or savings account, or any specific account i shoud have..

Savings accounts in the UK can be restrictive as they do not allow regular outgoing transactions.

Some banks will allow you to make a fixed number of outgoing transactions every year from a Savings account and some will not pay you any interest for the months in which there are outgoing transaction.

Current accounts are what everyone uses to receive their salary as there is no restriction on the outgoing transactions. Banks also provide additional features for current accounts if you pay a monthly fee, but you need to decide how many of those features you will ever use.

Once you open a current account to receive your salary, you can easily open a savings account which gives you best interest rate and most flexibility to access your savings when needed.

A word of advice would be to ensure that you open a bank account which gives you free printed bank statements by post. Do not underestimate this, because when you go to renew your Tier 1 you need to provide 12 months worth of bank statements and if they are not free, you could easily end up spending £60 to obtain these statements.