Look around the banks.
From the two bank companies we tried natwest would except passport and one of several ids, inculding utlity bill, or home/car insurance with your wifes name. But the application was sent off and took 14 days for a reply if i remeber correctly. We went to several Natwests and they gave varying demands of what they needed. But one lady mentioned, my Wife needed to be on the Electroal roll, that or i guess registered with Council so they can fleece more money ut of you [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/bigcry.gif[/img]
But the Hsbc in a small local branch in west london was very different.
We went for the basic account after a few months of the wife being here and she was offered the one up as the lady said " basic was if you had no proper id!! With a passprt my wife could have the next one up.
My Wife was signed up on the spot and had the cards etc within the week!! Im not sure if this was a misunderstanding on my part, as we did walk in with proof of address in the form of utilty bill. So not postive that this is the norm for Hsbc.
When we went it was late december so it might have been the lady was happy to sign my wife up so she could reach a sales target [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif[/img] for the end of the month. Banks i guess are just like mobile phone shops or car showrooms now in that the advisors are all i guess on some form of commission to increase sales.
The conculsion sems to be look around and don't focus in on one bank. Once your wife has an account she can soon change it, as all companies, banks inculding seemed to be obbessed with getting new customers from rivals, and not intrested in existing customers or brand new customers. In fact when your Wife goes to swap her account, im sure they will give her a very good deal to tempt her over.
