This is to describe my husband's adventures with bank account.

As mentioned previously on this blog, my husband has arrived to the UK at the end of October / beginning of November. Since then, he's got a job (congrats), he's eaten quite few burgers, he's seen some Northern cities, he's been sent to Edinburgh for training more than once, he figured out where and how to buy 'tvaroh', and so on. In every aspect, he is now reasonably well adapted guy.

Except that he has no bank account, and therefore he cannot receive his salary.

There are probably two whys in this one sentence. Why he has no bank account? And why he cannot get paid?

Both the questions have a simple answer: anti-money laundering rules.

The second question is easier to answer. You cannot get your money cash, because you are presumed guilty of money laundering (or financing terrorism, which is even worse), and if you get cash, you are assumed to immediately do bad things with the money. And you cannot get cheque, because (as mentioned already) you cannot get cash, your cheque has to be paid to your bank account.

The first question has a similar answer (again you are seen as someone who is very keen to engage in criminal activities), and it is further connected to a magical piece of paper called 'proof of address'. To get a bank account, you have to be able to prove that you live somewhere. If you live somewhere, you do not do criminal things, and you do not launder money. (Logic!) However, it must not be just 'somewhere', and the required standard of proof is not balance of probabilities at all.

As a proof, you can bring for example:
- utilities bill (it varies with different banks which kind of utilities bill is accepted),
- one specific HMRC letter (not just any HMRC letter!) which apparently not everyone receives,
- your NIN letter (but this does not work with every bank, some do not accept NIN letters),
- letters about government benefits if you receive any,
- UK driving licence,
- bank statement with your address (must be sent by post on paper, electronically certified statements do not count).

As mentioned previously, we now live in a shared place = we do not pay the utilities. The HMRC letter is sent approx in April, and not everyone receives one anyway. NIN letter is rarely accepted these days. We do not receive anything from the government (and proud of it!). Neither if us has UK driving licence, because obtaining a UK driving licence means sending our passports to the offices by post, which is something we are not ready to do. And the bank statements... well, if you have no bank account, how can you bring a bank statement?

Now, my husband works in a bank. Specifically, he works in credit risk. These credit risk people handle a lot of responsibility, have to be trusted by the bank, and therefore are very thoroughly checked. Before getting his job, my husband had to prove in many ways that he had never been involved in anything illegal (from fraud to bad parking), and that he was clean as a whistle. All these checks etc. took approx. 8 weeks, and had to be conducted in the UK as well as the Czech Republic.

Which of course does not mean that his bank, or any other bank, can set him a bank account. Being employed by a bank means nothing, and in particular it does not mean that you (i) are not money launderer, (ii) live somewhere. The fact that you work in credit risk means less then nothing in terms of your proof of address. You just don't have one, and that's that. Effectively, you are homeless.

We live nowhere, we do not exist, and while my husband works, he hasn't seen a single penny. Which pisses his boss off, but nether the boss nor the boss' bosses can do anything about this.

We have tried to negotiate with the banks. We have tried to point out that my husband works in credit risk and is thus trustworthy. Our landlady has made us a nice letter stating that my husband lives here in our house. We have tried really everything but this is like a real catch-22.

And the worst thing about all this? My husband has promised to buy me new shoes as soon as he gets his first money earned in the UK. Imagine how bad I feel now! I will probably never see my new shoes!