Opening a non-resident bank account: the general requirements
November 10th, 2007 | 
Author: When I put on my post about opening an American bank as a non-resident, I was amazed at the number of people who checked it out and of those quite a number would like to know how to open a Swiss account.
Opening accounts in both America and Switzerland used to be very easy but with increasing anti-terrorism legislation around the world many banks felt that they could no longer cope with the additional identity checks that the legislation seems to require of them. I say “seems” because it doesn’t really require any more of them than it does of someone living next door to the branch but they generally don’t make a whole lot of money on non-resident accounts anyway so it’s easier for them to use “the law” as an excuse to say no to non-residents.
However, for most “normal” countries all you actually need is a proof of address (ie an electricity or landline phone bill) plus a copy of your passport (usually this must be certified). More obscure countries sometimes ask for an apostile which is more of a hassle to provide.
For America, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, the only things required are the proof of address and passport. In the case of America, 9/11 has meant that the banks prepared to open an account with minimal hassle has reduced drastically but includes Bank of America, Citibank, HSBC and, the ever-present, e-trade. Aside from e-trade, it’s easier to open an account with one of these banks if you already have an account with them in your own country and you may have one already as Bank of America issues a lot of credit cards in Europe under the MBNA name.
In the case of the UK, it’s easier to open a non-resident account with one of the branches in the offshore islands (Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man or Gibraltar) as they are more accustomed to dealing with non-resident accounts. Don’t worry about that “offshore” tag as those islands banking systems are fully integrated with the mainland.
For Switzerland it’s generally fairly easy though some banks will now refuse non-resident accounts due to the expense of running them whilst others will charge you extra. You cannot open an account with SwissPoste these days, despite numerous websites listing it as a possibility and indeed charging you for the privilege of providing you with the information. The major banks (UBS, Credit Suisse) will still permit non-resident accounts and are unlikely to stop doing so as a large proportion of their client-base is non-resident but now charge around SF 75 per year to maintain the accounts if you’re non-resident. However, if you just want a Swiss account by far the best appears to be via SwissQuote which is a free multi-currency account and offers the option of a debit card too (there’s a charge for the debit card).
What are Certified & Apostilles? To get a document certified, you usually just need to go along to your bank and have them stamp the copy and write “original seen” on it. Sometimes banks ask for it to be certified by a lawyer but usually a bank is sufficient for them. An apostille is a certification that the person doing the original certification is known and what’s asked for usually is a “state-level” apostille. This means, usually, that you need to send off your passport to the department of your home government which deals with international affairs (usually called the State Department but is the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in the UK) who will provide you with an apostilled copy.
If you’re interesting in more details on these options, either subscribe to this category here (international-banking) or check out the information on our Expat Banking site. I’ll be slowly but surely working through the various countries here and on that site, the next being Switzerland and after that probably the offshore British islands.
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I’d love to know how to open a pound-sterling denominated checking account (or “current account” as they appear to call them) with a debit card attached, without having to leave huge sums of money in it.
As a US citizen and resident who orders an unusual amount of stuff from the UK and likes to take vacations there, I’d like to lock in pound sterling exchange rates at times of my choosing. But at the moment the only way I know of doing that is traveller’s checks, which are no good for online purchases or indeed many physical purchases.
I found the HSBC and Citibank “international personal banking” services, but they have either very large minimum balance requirements (GBP5000 or US10000 would be tolerable, but GBP25000 is a bit steep) or charge substantial fees (GBP20/month is pretty steep).
There doesn’t seem to be the equivalent of the “brokerage” option for getting GBP-denominated accounts. Regular UK accounts all say “must prove UK residency”. And while UK banks offer domestic dollar-denominated accounts, US banks don’t appear to offer any accounts denominated in any other currencies.
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See Opening a bank account in the UK offshore islands
It might often say “UK resident” but that’s not actually true as they’re required to open accounts for all European residents for a start and, in practice, most banks (not building societies [savings & loans]) will open accounts for anyone anywhere. What you will need is proof of address (ie an electricity bill under 3 months old) and proof of ID (passport).
The article above should get you an account opened from the US (part of our series on opening accounts as a non-resident). However, by far the easiest option for you would be to bring along a proof of address next time you are in the UK and simply walk into a branch and open an account. The downside of that is that they might limit you to a cash card account or savings account. Sadly the perfect account for your purpose is no longer available so the next best is the NatWest First Reserve account which is a savings account that comes with a Maestro debit card (this would be fine if your purchases are largely from UK based websites). For a Visa Electron card (more useable online internationally) I think you’d need to apply for the Co-operative Banks Cash Minder account (www.coopbank.co.uk).
Wow. Thank you: that should be plenty of information, now I have several options to look into.
To whom it may concern, My name is Muhammad Ali Jaber and I am an interpreter for coalition forces forces in Iraq, I am currently working on my immigration to the U.S and need to open a bank account so I may pay my immigration attorney. I have a mailing address on the U.S base which I work but am unsure about the rest of the process, Is there a number I can call or someone I may call to speak with to help me with my needs? I look forward to hearing from you and hopefully banking with your institution. Sincerely Muhammad
Regarding accounts being required to be available to all european (EU/EEA) residents, I thought this should be the case too.
However when I asked Icesave about paying gross interest since I will become a non-resident when moving to Estonia (another EU country) they said I must close the account.
This leaves me in a bind, as offshore accounts are no good to me, as Estonia has a generous income tax exemption for EU sourced bank interest, which doesn’t apply to offshore banks, which seem to offer a decidedly less generous rate as it is, compared to the better UK accounts.
What would you recommend?
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Many of the Internet/phone banking places are like that. Notably Ing who, although they operate in most European countries, won’t let you have an Ing UK account unless you are resident in the UK, Ing France, unless you’re resident there, etc.
If you’re looking for a high paying account that doesn’t have these hassles, the Co-Operative Bank’s SmartSaver is pretty good. The interest usually isn’t the very highest that you could get but it’s generally close to it and they will let you change the address to anywhere (you need to be UK resident to open it though).
Hello. I am a South African teacher teaching in Sudan. The school I work for pays me in British pounds. The school sends my money to another South African working for them who has a UK bank account. He, in turn, sends my salary to my South African bank account via internet banking so I can pay off my mortgage. I am not happy with this set-up as I get saddled with having to pay his monthly service fees and pay him for the favour as well. For this reason I desperately need to open a British bank account, offshore or retail, that enables me to receive my sterling salary and then to send it to South Africa to pay my mortgage.
Please help.
That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen to me never mind the ongoing hassles.
The first route that you should look into is to open an account with the bank that the school are using. They should be able to provide you with an “introduction” which always eases matters when you don’t quite meet the normal account opening criteria.
If that doesn’t work, then you’d be looking towards an offshore bank in the UK. I’ve a rundown of the options there at http://www.wholeearthguide.co.uk/i-weg-zr-er102-en.htm . Of those, the most practical for most people is usually the Co-operative in that the opening balance is a lot lower (max £1000) than for the others (£5000 and up).
Now, the problem with that is that you’re not British and they do state on their FAQ that if you’re outside the UK, you need to be British to open an account. However, I’m guessing that you’re working for a school run by one of the aid organisations and the co-operative are very much into charity work therefore they might waive that condition for you.
Anyway, try the bank that the school uses first but check the charges as the co-operative option is very cheap usually (you could drop them an e-mail to ask).
the idea of offshore accounts sounds good; however guarantees are very poor. I had a close escape from Kaupthing in Isle of Man a couple of years back. I am UK citizen resident in USA and am sick of the terrible interest rates offered on the onlyl UK accounts I am allowed to open. I’ve just found a Barclays Weath a/c which looked very promising; however down in the small print it is not allowed for US residents. I still have a long standing Barclays checking a/c open so it is really frustrating to be continually blocked from other accounts. If anyone has ideas on a UK based (with 50k guarantee) a/c with reasonable interest rates that a US resident can open then please, please let me know.
Thanks
I’m a US citizen resident in India and want to open a brokerage account that enables me to trade on London Stock Exchange. What are the alternatives?