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Setting up International Student Bank Account

Hi all,

Hoping this is the right place on the forum!

I'm an international student starting a graduate course in the UK in a few months. To receive the funds from my scholarship I need a UK bank account. However, all the banks are super serious about me providing "proof of UK address". But I simply cannot do that. I've looked through the documents that I can use, e.g. utility bill or a UK credit card statement. But I have none of them. I sent an email to Barclays (btw: anyone have any advices on what the best bank for (international) students is?) about this. All I got back was a link to a page of the documents I can use as proof ... In other words, not much help.

Any other international students having had the same issues?
I did talk to the uni and they said they could provide me with a letter saying I'm expected to live in their accommodation, but not an actual proof of residence. That is only possible when I am actually living there ... but to do that I need to have a bank account so I can pay my fees before term starts ... Fantastic ...

Would appreciate some input on this if anyone has had similar experiences/troubles.

(Also, apologies if this is the wrong place for this kind of question).
Can you not pay the initial fee from your current bank account and then open one when you get there?
Reply 2
Avatar for taudalpoi
taudalpoi
OP
1
Original post by Tian1Sky
Can you not pay the initial fee from your current bank account and then open one when you get there?


Sadly not. My current bank account is Norwegian, and the scholarship is payed out in pounds so they require me to have a UK account. I tried asking if they simply couldn't just pay it to the Norwegian bank, but for different reasons (e.g. loss due to currency conversion) they do not want to.
And unfortunately I do not currently have sufficient funds on my Norwegian account to pay all tuition fees before I get the scholarship money.
Reply 3
Avatar for tardis16
tardis16
Hello! :smile: Couldn't you maybe open a GBP foreign currency account at your current Norwegian bank? That way there wouldn't be any conversion fees so the scholarship could be sent there as well. That is what I did (I'm from Hungary), I just went to the nearest branch of my bank here in Hungary and they could open a GBP account for me free of charge.

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