Is it legal to give my bank a mailbox address (whilst I'm in New Zealand)

I would be very surprised if you were not asked for such proof. However, the only way to find out is to try it.

Colin Bignell

I suggest that you tell them it is purely a temporary address for correspondence for the next 6 months. Which is true. Leave whatever address you have as your permanent address stay as your "permanent" address (which is a bit less true but they probably won't ask). Change that when you come back, assuming that you are returning to the UK.

Totally legal.

But being the bastards that they are they will probably ignore any change of address.

Axel

Why not simply pay the post office to deliver the mail to the temporary address for 6 months? That way no one need know your away and the mail will end up exactly where you want it.

Having just been through a change of address how do you 'prove' your new address to the bank - a bank statement to that address?

Mark BR

I'd do both and get the Royal Mail to direct the mail in addition to telling the Halifax of a change of address. Royal Mail often get it wrong and still deliver mail to the "old" address.

I thought the anti money laundering rules were about opening accounts and not changing addresses. Once opened your identity has already been confirmed.

Please don't top post.

They are also about maintaining knowledge of the customer - we recently had to provide Barclays with reconfirmation of a few things. They told us their system will start to force this on existing customers from now on.

If they want to top post that is their business. Don't stick your nose in where it is not wanted.

Mine sent me a nice letter of acknowledgement... before ignoring it!

Why not actually go and ask your bank. Your is not a unique situation and I am sure that they will advise a solution that is acceptable to them and will not present problems when you return.

Peter Crosland

The bank will know as soon as they type it in that it is a Mail Boxes Etc address (The PAF file will tell them as soon as they enter the postcode, and I believe there is a blacklist of accomodation addresses), they may be happy to take it as a correspondence address but will still want to know where you are really living, especially if you have unsecured borrowing. Why don't you just ask their advise, its hardly an unusual situation.

I have never been asked for proof of my new address at the Halifax, only a few security deails off my account, it may well vary from branch to branch though.

Peter

I would have a number of contracts for supply with utilities available had I just moved. Presumably, as they are happy to accept utility bills as proof of address, they should also be willing to accept the contracts that lead to those bills.

Colin Bignell

because that is a somewhat imperfect service.

tim

Alliance & Leicester ask for evidence of the new address. None of the other banks do as far as I'm aware, but they generally write to both the old and new addresses to confirm it.

Most banks would be quite happy to take a New Zealand address.

They also have a duty to ensure that people don't hijack your account by changing the address somewhere else without your knowledge.

Electricity / gas / phone bill. Rental agreement. Mortgage statement / agreement. All these things should be available.

Top posting is usually a sign of being unfamiliar with the conventions of Usenet.

Those who persist in top posting are just rude or think that their contribution is so important that it should not be related to context in the thread.

Axel

Hmmm... It hardly seems worth it for six months unless there are items that will need to be verified (is online banking available for the OP's account).

I used to have an account at the Abbey (yes, crap bank... well, jumped up building society) and asked them to change the address to the Netherlands. They point blank refused.

Axel

I hope they're more careful with your details than they were with mine.

I recently got a letter telling me that they were unable to collect the charge for home insurance because of "problems with your account" which worried me as the amount concerned wasn't large enough to bounce. It turns out "problems with your account" translates to "our system, or the people who use it, lost your details". Muppets.

No, the people who specified or created the system will force it on customers.

Never forget that behind every crap computer system is a human being,

Cheers,

John