WOMAN(British): Welcome to England’s First National bank. How may I help you?
MAN(American): Hi. I came in because I just moved here from the United States and I need to set up a bank account. I’ll be here for about a year and I’m working full-time at the university.
WOMAN: Ah, OK. That’s no problem at all. Let me explain what options we have and you can decide what’s best for you. Feel free to ask any questions as I go along because banking in the UK might be a little different than you’re used to.
MAN: Sounds good. I basically need an account that I can use for direct deposit for my paychecks while I’m here. I’m teaching at the university, so I need to set that up.
WOMAN: Sure. Our best-selling account is our Classic Account. That comes with monthly tiered interest on your balance. So, you earn 1.2% on any balance up to £999, 2% on balances between £1000 to £2999, and 3% on balances up to £5000. You can manage your money with Internet banking or Mobile banking. We have a special app you can download to your phone for use at your convenience. This account also comes with a debit card which works in over 700,000 places in the UK, and 30 million locations worldwide. Basically, you can use it anywhere. We also include a £30 Planned Overdraft with no fee.
MAN: What is a Planned Overdraft?
WOMAN: That’s a courtesy we’ve set up in case you accidentally go overdrawn on an account. It’s sort of like a buffer. You won’t be charged a fee or any interest as long you don’t overdraw more than £30.
MAN: OK. Is it possible to switch my current bank account to an account here? I’m not sure yet if I want to do that, but I’d like to find out if it’s possible.
WOMAN: Yes, that is possible. I can assist you with transferring your old account to our bank. It normally takes seven business days total. We’ll need to contact your old bank, set up an account here, switch over the payment details, and close your old bank account. If you choose this option, any payments sent to your old account will automatically be transferred to your account here for the first year. On a related note, we also have an International Payment service, which allows you to make payments up to £50,000 a day to anywhere in the world. If you open up a new account with us this month, we’ll waive the fee for the first two International Payments.
MAN: That would be really helpful. Is it possible to set up regular payments with International Payment? I have some monthly bills I still need to take care of back at home, and if I close my account there, then I’d need to set up a regular payment schedule or something.
WOMAN: Absolutely. All we need is the recipient’s name and address, an International Bank Account number or account number and the name and address of the recipient’s bank, including the Banking Identifier Code. Once we have that information, we can set up regular payments each month so you can be assured that all of your bills will be paid on-time.
MAN: How long do those payments take to clear?
WOMAN: If you’re transferring to the EU, then we can do a same-day transfer as long as it’s before 4:00pm. In your case, because the transfer is to the United States, it will take four days. Of course, we can factor that in when considering the date we’ll set up for the transfer.
MAN: Sounds good to me. What do you need from me to open an account?
WOMAN: I’ll need your proof of employment, your passport, £100 to open the account and some paperwork. We can get started on that now if you’d like. Do you think you’ll be closing your other account?
MAN: I’m not sure about that yet. I actually don’t have proof of employment with me, but I can bring that in. How much longer will you be open today?
WOMAN: We’re open until 5 o’clock.
MAN: Great, I’ll come back in a bit with the stuff I need.