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[porcupine]

Me, too. HSBC suck. They move money between savings and checking accounts without telling you, if they're *unhappy* (whatever this is supposed to mean!) with the amount in your checking account. They also canceled my credit card even though I had never missed a payment - they decided I had missed one, even though I hadn't, and would not accept my evidence to the contrary.

Seriously, take your doctoral certificate with you to open an account. Make sure 'Dr.' is on your card and so on. It's terribly pretentious, but English banks love that kind of thing.

[the_walrus]

I noticed a distinct change in Barclays' treatment of me after I changed the title on the account to Dr.  I also find it extremely pretentious, but I now figure when in rome...  I also make the estate agents "Dr" me.  Unfortunately, not even that seems to help with them.

[empyrean_aisles]

"No, you have a history of ineptitude, and you're perpetuating it right now."

Oh, so many institutions (& people) in the UK that I'd like to use that line on!

I'm with HSBC and though it was a royal hassle setting it up as a grad student, they have been OK. Not that I don't doubt others have had horrendous experiences, I just seem to have been relatively lucky. Partner went with NatWest and that was slightly easier than HSBC.

On another note, HSBC was recently in the news (the THES covered it) for charging graduate students extra on their accounts (something to do with overdrafts, I can't recall exactly). The National Union of Students got a web campaign up and running against it, which resulted in HSBC eventually backing down. So, perhaps all the HSBC victims on this board should get a Facebook campaign together to mobilize against HSBC!

[scheherazade]

HSBC did lose a class action lawsuit awhile back for ripping people off on their mortgages.  Sadly, no lasting change...

[drspouse]

My brother lives in Spain but keeps a UK bank account, and wanted to add his wife (who is Spanish and has never lived in the UK) as a joint account holder - he banks with Smile who are completely online, and found that they were fine with this. Might be worth looking into.

(and I'm not saying this because my husband works for their parent company! we don't actually bank with them because we get a better mortgage deal elsewhere and have a combined current/mortgage account).