Open a UK bank account

Hello and welcome to the session on how to open a bank account and manage your money in the UK.I’m Rona.I work at the Advice Place.We are part of the Students Association and we offer free, confidential, impartial, non judgmental and professional advice to all students at Edinburgh University.You can see our contact details there.We're mainly based at Bristol Square but we do open at Kings Buildings House during semester time only for two or three days a week and you can make appointments by phone, teams or in person today.What we'll be covering is obviously how to open a bank account and also considering cost of living, how to pay rent and bills.

If some of you want to get a job while you're here.We'll cover working in the UK council tax, which is a local authority tax that students generally don't have to pay insurance and also how to say safe when you're making payments and generally when you're banking.

So what are the benefits of opening a UAUK account?Well, if you want to pay your bills, most of them will like you to set up a direct debit, which is a way that they can collect whatever money is due on a monthly basis for things like your rent or your phone or your gym membership.

If you intend to work in the UK, you're probably going to need auk account for your wages to be paid into.If you take money out in the UK, you won't be paying a currency charge every time that you withdraw money and there might be some features of the account that you find useful such as you could lock your card if you lost.It might offer some budgeting tools and some of them will offer things like free insurance for your phone or or other things to entice you to open an account with them.

So how do you choose a bank?Your options are to go for a traditional UK bank with branches Dorsey round Edinburgh, an international bank or an online bank.Your home bank might have branches in the UK or a related bank in the UK, so it could be sometimes easier to open a bank out if you already have one with that banking group.The one that comes to mind is HSBC.Some of the online banks will allow you to open accounts in different currencies, so you could have a Euro account and AUK account and you you might save yourself on some of the transfer fees.International banks will also have different currency accounts if they have branches in the UK, but otherwise you'd be getting charged on all your trip transactions and you might not be able to set up direct debits.You should know that all banks in the UK have to be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

This is to ensure that your UK money is kept safe and you'll be protected should anything happen to the bank for the 1st 85,000 lbs of your money.But you can look up banks on the Financial Services Register now.

What type of account?The first things to say is although you may be a student, unless you're AUK student with three-year residents here, you won't be able to open a student account.They are purely designed for those that that live here because they tend to offer an overdraft and with that you have to have some residence in the UK.But you can still open a bank account as an international student, but it will usually not give you an overdraft or credit bearing facilities.The types of these accounts are normally called an ordinary account, basic account, everyday account or regular account.So just when you're applying, make sure you don't apply for the student account if you're not eligible.

So in order to open an account, you'll need proof of your identity.Generally a a passport would be or your E visa even may be accepted as proof of identity.

You'll need proof of your address in the UK.They'll usually ask for proof of your student status or your right to be in the UK and sometimes other documents might be required such as bank statements from an existing account if you have one.So in order to prove your address, I know some of you all just got here or or are moving here.

You might not have that, but if you have moved into private accommodation you probably will start to receive a bill for your energy council tax and sometimes a tenancy agreement is accepted but not always.You might have got a letter from HMRC if you've had to apply for a National Insurance number, although these are usually issued with your E visa and you could use bank statements from another bank as long as you've updated it to show your UK address.

Or finally a bank letter from university if you're in university accommodation.So to prove your student status are are right to be in the UK.You'll usually have a certificate of matriculation you can download once you've completed that process, or your student visa to prove your identity.

As I said, passport, BRP, they're now generally just an E visa or your identity card from your home country.Depending on that country, most are accepted.So we talked about a bank letter from the university.This is a letter which you can print off which will show your term time address.You need to have your address updated on called Euclid.

It's something you log into and type in your personal details, so you'll need to update your address in there.

You can get it automatically if you live in university accommodation, but you can still download it slightly different way.As said on the slide, if you're in not in university accommodation you do need to be fully matriculated before you can do so.

If you're not yet 18 there may be some accounts that are you can open for under eighteens.

You generally don't need your parents permission to do so, but not all banks will offer this service.

So if you're just under 18 you may be want to wait a little while and then open auk bank account.

There also will be some Sharia compliant banking, we can't recommend a particular bank but yes that that option is available if you're wanting to open AUK Sharia compliant bank account.

So what about cost of living in Edinburgh?The biggest expense you will have is your rent.

There are limits on how much your rent can be raised once you're in a tenancy, but no limits for advertised properties or short term accommodation.So you may find that the initial price of rent is exceptionally high.Energy bills have been increasing, going back down, increasing again.

They're set to increase in October again.So if you are in privately rented accommodation where you have to pay bills, do you factor that into your expenses?

There are some free services that you'll experience when you're in UK, biggest one being healthcare.

So all Healthcare is free except for there might be a small cost if you visit the dentist and require treatment or you need to purchase glasses.Anyone who is under 22 can apply for a Young Scott card to get the bus for free anywhere in Scotland, and you can also apply for a rail card to have reduced rail travel costs.Generally you save about 1/3 on the price of a standard fare when you pay your rent.

If you're living in university accommodation, you can usually pay monthly or choose to pay once per semester.The first payment is normally in October and the last payment will be in May for for undergraduate students.

So you although you're living there nine months, you'll probably only pay over 7.You'll need to change your bank account details.If you do, then get to open AUK bank so that they can collect from the right account, but you can pay your rent from any international card as well.And when you move into privately rented accommodation, you'll normally pay the first payment by bank transfer.So that could be your international account, but then for future payments they'll expect that to come from UK bank account.If you need to pay bills you you won't in student accommodation, generally those are all included, including Wi-Fi if you're in University of Edinburgh accommodation, if you need to set up your own bills and your own name for things like energy, gas or the Internet.If you're living in private accommodation, generally it will say in your tenancy agreement if utilities are included and when you move in.

Make sure you take a metre reading and look for a letter from the supplier to find out the contact details so they can set up an account in your new name.If after that you do decide to use a different supplier, you can do, but it's best to let the supplier that's already supplying the gas and electricity to the property know that you've moved in.If you want to work in the UK and most student visas will allow you to work for 20 hours during term time.More out with term time, but check the terms of it and contact the Student Immigration service if you're unsure.

You will need a National Insurance number.It's work out how much tax you'll have to pay.Now it may be that you'll earn enough to pay tax, but you still have to have this National Insurance number to record how much you've actually earned.

You can visit the University Career Service.We have a a My Career Hub for further advice on how to apply for jobs and view some job opportunities that might be suitable for students.Wages will be need to pay in your UK bank account.Most jobs pay monthly, some will pay weekly.It's important that you also receive a pay slip with your wages to show how much tax, if any, that you've paid terms of council tax.

So full time students are exempt from paying council tax in most cases.But your student exemption only starts from the start date of your course until the end date of your course.So you might have to pay if you've moved in slightly earlier than your course start date or between the end of your course and when you actually attend your graduation ceremony.If you're a visiting student here for one semester, then you might need some evidence from your home institution that you're a a full time student for the length of your degree.And if you your home institution is outside of the EU, you may not be able to get a exemption if you're here for less than six months.If you're here with a partner or spouse on a dependence visa, then they could be exempt as well, but they'll need to submit evidence to the council that they're on that type of visa.

But if you're living in student halls or a block of student accommodation, then you don't need to apply for an exemption.You're automatically exempt because you're in a building which only students can reside in and therefore no one should be paying council tax.

If you're living in a flat, you'll need to claim your exemption.You can do this by completing an online form on the council's website.If it isn't exempt exempted and you get another bill, you might need to provide a council tax exemption letter from the university, but you can get that from your My Service.Let us know if you have any problems with that.It's important not to ignore these bills even if you think you don't have to pay, because they can't add charges if you haven't properly applied for your exemption.

So insurance.If you're living in university accommodation, you should have insurance covered.You need to log on to confirm your cover and you can upgrade, upgrade it if you wish by paying a supplement.That insurance will cover things like contents and it may also give you a level of personal liability insurance.If you're in another type of accommodation, you can buy insurance for yourself to cover your belongings from damage and theft.And so that's quite important, especially if you have lots of gadgets or you have a bike because we have as instances where these have either been stolen or there's been a fire in the flat and your contents haven't been covered.

Some bank accounts will also offer insurance with it.So look at the terms when you're signing up for a bank account and see what extras you can get.

So how do you stay safe?The main thing is not to keep large amounts of cash.If it gets stolen, it's hard to evidently ever have that cash, and the first place and most insurance will have a limit on how much cash they can cover you for.You can't.It may also cause problems if you try to deposit a large amount of cash into a bank account without hard evidence of where it came from, because there are some money laundering rules here that would make that difficult.If you are withdrawing cash from any of the bank machines you see, make sure that no one sees you put in your card when you use it.

Some will charge you a fee, so make sure you check the screen when you're withdrawing money and click no if it's going to charge you a fee because there are a lot of bank machines that won't.You can pay by card, contact list, Google or Apple Pay for most things in the UK.

Some smaller shops might prefer cash, but most businesses will accept card payment if you make a lot of purchase online.It can be helpful to have a separate account or card for this, or to use a system like PayPal so if your card details are stolen, you don't use all your money.

And some scams that we've been made aware of.Big one is someone from the HMRC which is His Majesty's Revenue and Customs.Well, to say that either you owe money to the tax office or you do a tax refund, this is not how HMRC contact you.You would either get a letter or an e-mail.If you've logged on to their online services, you may receive a call saying that you need to pay money, or you're going to be deported, or you need to pay money because you're in trouble back home.This is not the way that police in any country operate. If you receive a phone call like this, hang up immediately there.

We've also been made aware of a money transfer scam.This is where an existing student offers to exchange you money as they're leaving the country, usually over WeChat.Don't accept this as it can be money laundering.

If you need to change money, use an authorised money changing service.If someone asks you to hold money in your account or transfer money, rest money in your account also that can be considered money laundering so definitely don't do that either.

And for accommodation, if you're asked to pay in advance for accommodation that you haven't seen, it may not exist and you could be being scammed.Best thing to do if you receive a call you're not expecting is to hang up.

If that person really needs to talk to you, they'll have another means of contacting you.

If you're not expecting a message or don't know the person that's messaging, ignore it or block it.

Look up the real number of the person that's calling you if they say they're from the HMRC.

Although sometimes they can clone numbers so it makes it look like they're calling from the correct number.

The best thing to say is to say hang up and say I'll call you back.Because when you call on the genuine number, you get through to the genuine service.

And as I said, HMRC, our government, your government, the police will never ask you to transfer money over the phone or to divulge your PIN passwords, anything like that.

Do you question official letters and emails?

And we can help if you're ever concerned that something might not be genuine.

And do share knowledge of scams with your friends to make sure that we can protect as many students as possible.If you have been scammed, please don't be embarrassed, but act quickly.Contact your bank immediately.

The sooner you do that, the more chance you might be able to recover funds.Protect your information.So by changing your bank passwords, things like that.You can report to Police Scotland by calling 101.

I'd be aware of further calls because once you've been scammed, someone may call you saying oh, we're here to help you because you've been scammed.So be wary of who is actually calling you once you've been scammed and you can obviously contact us for help and as well as the university security team.

So again, there is our details.I hope you enjoyed this presentation. We're available all through Welcome Week and beyond for any questions you might have. a bank account. Thank you.