# Harder opening a bank account for foreigners



## Horus

Hi guys

This is a new one - opened a HSBC account NO PROBLEMS but they don't do debit cards so I went to Barclay's

WORD OF WARNING don't walk in with a giant sack of money I had to provide all my accounts, tax certificate, had to get my bank to send a .pdf to say I owned the business, had to have my name on the website and all sorts.

The guys in Barclays said its getting harder for foreigners to open and account here now unless you have a work permit (I have residence visa) HOWEVER he had a tip once he opened the account - when you open the account do not say you own a business in the UK and do not bring in a metro bag full of money - he said bring in 5000 LE and say you are retired  I had to show him EXACTLY where it came from and go through the deposits and withdrawals it was a right pain in the star fish, we are talking about 20 pages of statements and accounts, I mean I had this money transferred over to HSBC via IBAN and could prove every transaction and only wanted to open up another account so I had a debit card and had this money in my safe via the cash point

What an eventful last 3 days, 4 trips to the bank and endless calls and emails back to the UK

Hope that helps anyone else out opening a barclays account...:boxing: just say your retired and bring in a sandwich bag full of money geeesh


----------



## MaidenScotland

You cannot walk into a any bank in the U.K with a bag full of money and open an account so why should you be able to do it here? This is a democratic country which upholds international laws, however should you want to transfer huge amounts of money out of the country you may have left it too late


----------



## lukas

I found HSBC straight forward and easy to handle. Also they gave me a debit card within 10 days...


----------



## Karena

Horus, there are strict money laundering laws, even in Egypt. Taking a large sum of bank notes in a plastic bag into any bank in most countries will cause suspicion.


----------



## marenostrum

Karena said:


> Horus, there are strict money laundering laws, even in Egypt. Taking a large sum of bank notes in a plastic bag into any bank in most countries will cause suspicion.


it depends who you are. Certain banks in London are more than happy to have dodgy dictators depositing vasts sums of cash in their bank.....gheddafi or the lovely gamal come to mind.

Maybe Horus is a nasty dictator and expects to be able to deposit money as and when, maybe he is Gamal in disguise, although Horus sounds straight at least


----------



## MaidenScotland

marenostrum said:


> it depends who you are. Certain banks in London are more than happy to have dodgy dictators depositing vasts sums of cash in their bank.....gheddafi or the lovely gamal come to mind.
> 
> Maybe Horus is a nasty dictator and expects to be able to deposit money as and when, maybe he is Gamal in disguise, although Horus sounds straight at least


 Mubarak has deposited money in accounts all over the world not just London. 
One bank actually came out and said that they had refused money from Gaddafi just the week before the revolution there but sadly another bank in London took it.


----------



## meshey

lukas said:


> I found HSBC straight forward and easy to handle. Also they gave me a debit card within 10 days...


hi - was this in egypt and did you need a residency stamp in your passport? thanks


----------



## Horus

meshey said:


> hi - was this in egypt and did you need a residency stamp in your passport? thanks


Yes you require a resident permit

HSBC is very straight forward however does not however do Visa debit cards, only cash point debit cards


----------



## aykalam

Horus said:


> HSBC ....does not however do Visa debit cards, only cash point debit cards


That's simply not true.


----------



## Lanason

HSBC do debit cards:clap2:


----------



## Horus

Lanason said:


> HSBC do debit cards:clap2:


I will have to contact them, they told me "not yet"  however it appears that they do


----------



## bat

Horus said:


> I will have to contact them, they told me "not yet"  however it appears that they do


yes i asked they said no,
will ask tomorrow,


----------



## bat

bat said:


> yes i asked they said no,
> will ask tomorrow,


if they do why no email letter etc, advertising this service


----------



## aykalam

bat said:


> if they do why no email letter etc, advertising this service


They definitely have them, but not for all accounts

HSBC Egypt launches its Visa debit cards


----------



## marenostrum

Horus said:


> I will have to contact them, they told me "not yet"  however it appears that they do


can i suggest you ditch hsbc, barclays, santander uk and go with Citibank if they have a branch or a subsidiary where you live.

For the sake of 0.00001% interest on my savings i would never give my custom to a bunch of cowboys who don't know what customer service means.


----------



## bat

marenostrum said:


> can i suggest you ditch hsbc, barclays, santander uk and go with Citibank if they have a branch or a subsidiary where you live.
> 
> For the sake of 0.00001% interest on my savings i would never give my custom to a bunch of cowboys who don't know what customer service means.


think one mans meat etc
done the citibank bit for years and to be honest ,
maybe because im femail but not found good service in any think barclays the last on my list as there still new.
bat


----------



## Horus

OK I managed to do it, Barclays opened my account after sifting through everything AND they will allow Barcalys UK to send the cards here to Barclays in Egypt.

Barclay's UK recommended I open up a Barclays Wealth account which you can do online and Barclays here in Egypt opened up a Premier Account but BOTH banks do not operate under the same rules etc and are not related.

So for the princely sum of £50K you are sorted with your UK bank accounts, and I did the forwarding address as well.

It also means you can move around large sums of money in different currencies and they clear faster than the 4 days and customers simply use my swift code and account number for payments

They are also recommending an Egyptian business partner so I can try and open my gym which has to be a LLC...

Shuukran Barclays

Problem solved :clap2:


----------



## Horus

I found out today that HSBC do Visa Debit cards however you must have a 15K LE opening balance on either a savings or current account (but they were not sure) I asked him the reason why and he said I was a foreigner they are giving me an advance which sounds weird. Then he said I must maintain a 15K LE balance or be charged 75 LE fine per month. I said I had more than 15K LE balance in my savings then he got all confused and it said it must be a current account. I think they make it up as they go along, he said come tomorrow and open a current account and take 15K from your savings and got all confused and said I gave him a headache. So I said let's do it now and he said no it's close to 2pm and he "wants to sleep" AMAZING. I said your the same guy who said you don't do visa debit cards and he shrugged and smiled and said his words were they will do them in the future, so I said why did you not call me and he said because the future is now??


----------



## lukas

hi, yes in Egypt and no you dont need a resident stamp.


----------



## Fiona08

Just for information sake, I asked in an HSBC branch in the UK about opening an account in Egypt, and they said YES - just take proof of ID etc and they would open one up for me, firstly as a savings account and then transfer it to a current bank account - that was only 2 months ago. I am going in to do this in the next 5 days!

Strange - it would appear rules for one and rules for another!


----------



## MaidenScotland

Fiona08 said:


> Just for information sake, I asked in an HSBC branch in the UK about opening an account in Egypt, and they said YES - just take proof of ID etc and they would open one up for me, firstly as a savings account and then transfer it to a current bank account - that was only 2 months ago. I am going in to do this in the next 5 days!
> 
> Strange - it would appear rules for one and rules for another!




Nothing strange about that it's the norm.


----------



## SHendra

It's annoying how it's one rule for one and not others. As many know here I have an Egyptian son. He'll be 1 this Friday. Taking me months to get things as needed in order to move away! My main problem been banks! Refusing me due to lack of residence visa, and immigration refusing to issue me a residence visa (even though I have a right to have one due to my son!!) based on the fact I do not have an Egyptian bank account! I am having to go the long way around.. have opened a post office account which is getting me a residence visa to then be able to open a bank account, to do my transfers etc! 

On a very bright note I finally heard from Paris, my son passport on the way! woohoo! lol


----------



## marenostrum

SHendra said:


> On a very bright note I finally heard from Paris, my son passport on the way! woohoo! lol


So now you are saying that british passports are not renewed / issued by the british consulate but by Paris??

Do these people actually do ANY work at all?

It is not as if they don't earn enough money on their foreign posts.

I'd be curious to know how much you had to pay for your passport issued via paris.


----------



## SHendra

marenostrum said:


> So now you are saying that british passports are not renewed / issued by the british consulate but by Paris??
> 
> Do these people actually do ANY work at all?
> 
> It is not as if they don't earn enough money on their foreign posts.
> 
> I'd be curious to know how much you had to pay for your passport issued via paris.


Murphys law in my case.. they change all this passport stuff on the exact day my son was born last year!

But yes to renew or get a new British passport it has to be done via Paris! All with original documents! Costed me a lot to send it all 'secured'! Was not going to risk otherwise. Another annoying bit is when it arrives I have to go and pick it up in Cairo and not here at the Alexandria branch!


----------



## MaidenScotland

marenostrum said:


> So now you are saying that british passports are not renewed / issued by the british consulate but by Paris??
> 
> Do these people actually do ANY work at all?
> 
> It is not as if they don't earn enough money on their foreign posts.
> 
> I'd be curious to know how much you had to pay for your passport issued via paris.




That is exactly the case.


----------



## MaidenScotland

MaidenScotland said:


> That is exactly the case.




Actually they are not exceptionally well paid.. I wouldn't work for the money they earn.


----------



## SHendra

marenostrum said:


> I'd be curious to know how much you had to pay for your passport issued via paris.


Forgot to mention in last post:

Child Passport

* Child passport (32 pages) - 97 Euros (Adults are 152 Euros)
* Return delivery cost - 18 Euros

Plus it costed me nearly 400Le in posting all the documents to Paris using the same Courier they do. TNT.


----------



## marenostrum

SHendra said:


> Forgot to mention in last post:
> 
> Child Passport
> 
> * Child passport (32 pages) - 97 Euros (Adults are 152 Euros)
> * Return delivery cost - 18 Euros
> 
> Plus it costed me nearly 400Le in posting all the documents to Paris using the same Courier they do. TNT.


What a sham!!

And i read today that uk issues 300k passports to "new" citizens every year...mmmmhhh

So if you did not have private courier delivery they would post it through normal post? I see that government offices still take great care of personal data.....


----------



## SHendra

marenostrum said:


> What a sham!!
> 
> And i read today that uk issues 300k passports to "new" citizens every year...mmmmhhh
> 
> So if you did not have private courier delivery they would post it through normal post? I see that government offices still take great care of personal data.....


I would not post it any other way. They only accept payment via a debit or credit card. For which you have to download a form for, fill out and send with the application! So even though I begrudge spending so much in posting in the long run could of costed me more if my CC details went 'stray'.

Luckily I was able to do his passport based on his Egyptian birth certificate and my own. To get him his British birth certificate here in Egypt at the British embassy will cost nearly 1500LE! For what would of costed less than a 'tenner' in the UK! I will of course get it but I'm in no rush to do so and can do it by post at any time.

Had I of known all of this would be such a hassle I'd of have had my son in the UK. Not so I could use the NHS etc I'd happily pay private. Because in the long run it of all been easier and more plain sailing!


----------

