Bank statement verification

[ajf773]

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What the bank statements must show

Bank statements you send must be on official bank stationery, and must show each of the payments that you are claiming. If you wish to send electronic bank statements from an online account you should also send a supporting letter from the bank on company headed paper confirming that the documents are authentic. Alternatively, electronic bank statements with the official stamp of the bank that issued the statements will be accepted. The stamp must appear on every page of the statement.

My girlfriend is applying for tier 1 general extension before expiration in May. She doesn't receive formal bank statements in the post and wants to send in online bank statements (of which Barclay's has to stamp and verify). The people at the branch in central London were most unhelpful and responded by not doing any verification in office with the printed statements. They offered in return to send the bank statements by post. They arrived 3 days later in an even worse format which would be unsuitable to send according to UKBA guidelines.

Has anyone ever had similar problems with their bank? She needs to send it off asap as this is the only thing holding her application up from being posted. Given the absurd amount of time to process applications at this point of time it is looking unlikely she will have her passport back in time end of June for travel purposes.

Would it be advisable sending the online bank statements as they are. I would rather she did not a the risk of her evidence not being considered for points. However it might be the only option if the bank is refusing to grant such a basic task. Will try a different branch tomorrow.

[mhkhan]

Hi,

I had a relatively better experience with Barclays last Saturday. I went to the branch in Ealing where they do have many students and immigrants banking with Barclays.They agreed to stamp all online statements and also provide me with the letter stating those statements are genuine. I have not gotten these done yet but the person in charge was very familiar with the UKBA requirements and I will have those done on my next visit.

In my opinion Barclays staff in Central London may not be aware of such requirements. You may have to go to a branch outside Central London. Do not risk sending the online statements without a stamp and supporting letter.

Good luck.

[zahid.ali.anwar]

Barclays statements ordered in branch generally come after seven working days. They are quite confusing for general reader and just like very old format of bank staement. These staements always come with a cover letter on barclays stationary.

These are acceptable as such. All you have to do, is to highlight all the transactions you want to claim for scoring relevant points. If you look closely, the statements do have your name and address in them. So it is OK to use these statements and they don't need any signature and stamp.

[hsmp1412]

In my experience different branches follow slightly different procedures, so if you are really in a soup try going to a different branch and get the statements. Another thing to try would be, if they are not willing to stamp your printed copy, they might agree to print out your statement in the branch and stamp that.

[twon2is7]

my experience with HSBC was they reprinted on bank stationary then and there in branch a different format statement with our names on it (no address from memeory) and ordered the regular statements for us which took another week or so to arrive. They refused to stamp the online statements I brought in as they did know the authenticity of them (I got of modified them before printing).

Online statements on their own are not enough, they have to be on letter head or stamped.

What about paying extra for the inperson fee for the tier 1 renewal? In hindsight it is something I probably should of done instead of waiting an indefinite period of time.

[ajf773]

Appreciate all the advice and she will be trying another branch. This is yet another indictment on the poor customer service in the United Kingdom, whereas back in New Zealand (where we are from) any bank would fulfil our requests without delay.

What about paying extra for the inperson fee for the tier 1 renewal? In hindsight it is something I probably should of done instead of waiting an indefinite period of time.

That is out of the question, the UKBA is already unreasonably extorting her of £500 for the ridiculous fees increase and she is unwilling to pay an additional £300 for a PEO appointment for the same result.

[twon2is7]

I guess it comes down to travel requirements ..... like I said in hindsight I probably would of paid the extra for the PEO to reduce the stress of our up and coming honeymoon .... last thing I would want is to be married and have plane tickets in hand and no passport ....

on the other hand accepting worst case of 90+ days before planning any travel works then 300 squid can go to another trip!!

[Mind_The_Gap]

Copied from here

What the bank statements must show

Bank statements you send must be on official bank stationery, and must show each of the payments that you are claiming. If you wish to send electronic bank statements from an online account you should also send a supporting letter from the bank on company headed paper confirming that the documents are authentic. Alternatively, electronic bank statements with the official stamp of the bank that issued the statements will be accepted. The stamp must appear on every page of the statement.

My girlfriend is applying for tier 1 general extension before expiration in May. She doesn't receive formal bank statements in the post and wants to send in online bank statements (of which Barclay's has to stamp and verify). The people at the branch in central London were most unhelpful and responded by not doing any verification in office with the printed statements. They offered in return to send the bank statements by post. They arrived 3 days later in an even worse format which would be unsuitable to send according to UKBA guidelines.

Has anyone ever had similar problems with their bank? She needs to send it off asap as this is the only thing holding her application up from being posted. Given the absurd amount of time to process applications at this point of time it is looking unlikely she will have her passport back in time end of June for travel purposes.

Would it be advisable sending the online bank statements as they are. I would rather she did not a the risk of her evidence not being considered for points. However it might be the only option if the bank is refusing to grant such a basic task. Will try a different branch tomorrow.

The number to call is 0207 116 7488. (You will be prompted with options, use the option where you do not have a complaints number, then second menu 2 again)

They will do anything you ask for - including reprints to a local branch, printing on letter headed paper, cover letter.

[tot]

I had similar experience with Barclays bank.

Despite informing about the address change in home branch I stopped receiving my regular statements. I called up customer care and discovered they did a mistake by noting my address wrong and I was convinced by the attendent that now they have corrected the issue and henceforth I should receive my regular statements. And you know what I did not till more few months. I called them again and this time I had to take the matter by complainting and then I received a call and again convinced that the correction had been made. NOW next is...I clearly requested for the missing statements on a letter headed stationary...and guess what I receive a plain printout on a normal paper without any stamp or sign with just a cover letter saying duplicated statements....

I started with Piccadily branch, where I requested for a duplicated statement printed and around 7ish the only guys at closing hours actually told me that we could do that but only tomorrow as the letter headed stationary was locked as the officers had left for the day. I requested him if he could tell me the dates which his system would be able to print for me...he literally turned the monitor and showed me the start date and the end date.

Now the next morning when I go to the same branch I speak to a executive who straight away tells me that.."I could only do the statements if I knew you personally.."...how absurd is that...I asked him .."are you sure of what you're telling me...you mean I am a barclays customer, standing in a barclays bank and you say that you could only do that if I knew you guys personally? and he replied "YES...its sad but true"..I remained to speak to a manager....as they did not want me to see the manager he told me that manager is in a meeting and it would atleast take an hour...I said.."I would wait couple more but I need to speak to a manager....

Then suddenly he returns and tells me the manager is free and lets me speak to him...and he was the branch manager of Barclays Piccadilly branch.

I start with him by saying that ..."as I know you are not allowed to stamp any internet statements can I please request you to print me statement from your branch and stamp them for me? He said "NO" as we can't access a month old date to print it out for you. Now that was a clear "LIE". I just got furious...I asked him to kindly if he could show me the monitor...HE said "sorry I cannot"... ... IT WAS JUST RUDE!

And kept on repeating...that thet are .."not allowed to print statements from their branch".. and asked me to.. "do it from the branch i hold account in". That was so f**king annoying.

By this time my head was just blowing...I just couldn't believe the severity of UNPROFESSIONALISM with BARCLAYS.

Then I had to register a complain again and I get a call from a lady and she realises the mistake done & sends me a Letter headed bank statements, which ofcourse this time I had to go to Derby all the way just to get them stamped on all the pages.

This process took almost 1 month for me to follow up the till I received a Letter headed statements with stamp on every page.

Now can you guys imagine being Barclays customer what you can expect.

[ajf773]

I guess it comes down to travel requirements ..... like I said in hindsight I probably would of paid the extra for the PEO to reduce the stress of our up and coming honeymoon .... last thing I would want is to be married and have plane tickets in hand and no passport ....

on the other hand accepting worst case of 90+ days before planning any travel works then 300 squid can go to another trip!!

You're right there. Our trip is only to Portugal and the worse case scenario would be to forfeit £100 worth of flights. Best case if she cannot go due to the circumstances may be to claim travel insurance. In hindsight £100 < £300.


I'm just glad that when I submitted my application for extension in October last year, I had accumulated twelve months of posted statements from my bank.
You aren't saving the environment by receiving online statements if you have to print them out again and then endure utter frustration in getting them certified by your bank.

[LankanFunkin]

Did you get this sorted out?

FYI - my missus had a hard time getting Barclays to do this as well (with Barclays re-issued statements, not on bank letterhead). But she refused to budge, insisting that its a requirement from the UK government, and if the bank fails to comply, we may not be able to stay in the country, and she will find the bank branch responsible for it. That worked... eventually.

To be honest, its just better to bank with HSBC. They sent me duplicate statements in 3 days - all on letterhead and looking fine.

[ajf773]

Did you get this sorted out?

FYI - my missus had a hard time getting Barclays to do this as well (with Barclays re-issued statements, not on bank letterhead). But she refused to budge, insisting that its a requirement from the UK government, and if the bank fails to comply, we may not be able to stay in the country, and she will find the bank branch responsible for it. That worked... eventually.

To be honest, its just better to bank with HSBC. They sent me duplicate statements in 3 days - all on letterhead and looking fine.

Thanks, it's sorted and she has now submitted her application, albeit a week later than she was hoping.
She tried another branch (Holborn) instead of Oxford Circus and they had no problems verifying the statements. The ones sent to her in the post were also deemed sufficient and on bank stationary.