Opening a Bank account when I don't live in London

Hello. I will be living and working in London in the spring-summer of 2006. I am a musician. I would like have money in a UK or London based bank account in advance. Does anyone know who I can contact or e-mail with regard to this matter. I have a couple of old bank accounts from when I used to be UK based, but I don't think they have been kept open for me. I would appreciate any info or contacts.
Many thanks.
Lionel.
P.S. I was born in St Giles hospital Lambeth, borough of Camberwell Oct 1957 and I miss London terribly.

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Hi Lionel,
You’ll be better off speaking to the banks themselves, here are contacts for a few of them.

HSBC:
http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/personal/contact-sc

Barclays:
http://www.barclays.co.uk/contact_us

Lloyds TSB:
http://www.lloydstsb.com/contact_us.asp?link=side_navigation

Halifax:
http://www.halifax.co.uk/contactus/home.shtml

All the best,

AIL Staff

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I think most high street banks will require a UK address before allowing you to open an account. Probably worth contacting them though, they'll be able to tell you what's available to you.

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Hi Lionel,

British Bankers Association (www.bba.org.uk) and the Building Societies Association (www.bsa.org.uk), both have tracing services for dormant accounts.

With regards to living overseas and having an account with a British bank, I know that you can open an account with Barclays' Offshore bit (based in Jersey) and they don't require you to be UK resident. You still get your cash card cheque book etc. The only difference I can think of is that you won't belong to a branch geographically. But in these days of internet banking, I shouldn't think that will be a problem.

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