International credit cards.

In the UK many banks require you to be a UK citizen and so would not allow you to apply for a credit card if you were not a citizen. It's therefore likely that if you were to apply for a Spanish credit card, most providers would immediately decline you on the grounds that you were not a Spanish citizen. If what the UK banks do is in any way similar to how Spain deals with credit card applications, whether or not you have a Spanish bank account would be irrelevant - both the condition of citizenship and of having a Spanish bank account would therefore have to be met.

Regards, Far

I've have credit cards issued in a couple of countries in which I have lived, but am not a citizen of. I do have bank accounts in those countries though.

Chris

Belgium and France both require you to have a bank account (with the normal checks that entails)

Belgium requires you to be a resident (not a citizen) before you can get an account France seems to vary by bank :-)

Credit cards are available only after an account is opened.

Given that Belgium is a virtual police state when it comes to all aspects of Bureaucracy I would expect southern states such as Spain to be a lot more relaxed about it.

Andy

So you mean that it's a bank decision, not a top-down government decision?

Can you elaborate more about the bureaucracy in Belgium. How are they so bad, compared to the southern countries. Are all things, like setting up a bank account, too highly regulated or what exactly?

I don't think the banks can require British citizenship, that would be discrimination against EEA citizens exercising their right to free movement. Residence in Britain and some sort of income are reasonable conditions.

Steve

I think you're right - once again another c*ck-up on my part - I did mean to say British residence and not citizenship. However, based on a friend's experience of how some banks treat overseas students, even getting a simple debit card involves more major hurdles for someone who is resident in Britain yet not a citizen than a resident British citizen. This could be justified on the grounds that a resident non-citizen who is also a student could be more likely to leave the country suddenly and leave any debts behind (no ties) than a resident citizen.

Regards, Far

When you move to Belgium as a UK citizen the least you can expect is 5-6 visits to immigration officials and a visit from the Police.

This is assuming you are being paid by a UK company and do not want anything at all from the Belgium system.

You pay taxes for the privilege of setting up a company even if it has not started trading yet.

You pay employee taxes even if your company has no employees.

All your details are on a centralised computerised system and the police often call round to check you live there (goes for Belgium Citizens and EU residents living in Belgium)

The list could go on but when we had to complete 7 visits to get the ID cards including 3 sets of passport photos I started to lose patience. When Baliffs turned up forced open the doors took everything from the house and then made us pay to get it back when the debt they were trying to collect was from someone who had not lived there for 2 years, was in Belgium Jail and we were clearly and legally shown as the occupiers I totally lost patience.

Add the inherent corruption which can if you allow it (I do not ) to help things along and I fail to see how any Belgium company has any chance of existing at all. I have had shop owners telling me that the only realistic way to get rid of an employee for any reason is give them a years salary up front then sack them.

I am not saying that the Southern staes like Spain or Greece are much better but at least they are not even slightly effecient internally so things are generally much more relaxed.

Rant over :-0

Andy

I think it has more to do with the overseas students not having a previous address or a credit record in the UK. I am sure some banks are better than others, and for example, specialist student branches on or near university campuses must be able to deal with it better than a random branch. The way to find out whether this is really an issue of nationality would be to find a British citizen student who was born abroad and is coming to the UK for the first time in his life to study at a university and check his experiences.

Steve