Comment by buildfocus

Comment by buildfocus 10 hours ago

4 replies

For Spain at least, most banks have foreigner accounts you can open with a passport, and convert into a normal account once you have local id later. It's a mildly unusual setup (and a bit confusing when you're new) but it's pretty widely available and it's not a significant blocker. There's plenty of other challenges and structural disadvantages as an immigrant, but this one at least isn't too bad.

If anything, there's really a big advantage to it for the banks - most locals already have banking, immigrants are the one market where you can get new customers without having to push them past the effort/laziness of switching from their existing setup.

mytailorisrich 9 hours ago

It is not a problem to open a bank account with a foreign passport in the UK, and most banks have accounts for those who've just moved to the UK. Hundreds of thousands of people move to the UK every year...

  • scott_w 9 hours ago

    However, you also need proof of address to open a bank account. Which someone moving to the UK won’t have yet. This limits their options of bank accounts.

    • mytailorisrich 9 hours ago

      Which has no relation to Digital IDs whatsoever... and again most banks have accounts that cater for this situation.

      • scott_w 8 hours ago

        Allow me to repeat myself:

        > This limits their options of bank accounts.

        Now this:

        > Which has no relation to Digital IDs whatsoever

        Other countries use their ID systems for exactly this purpose, so I don't see how this has "no relation."