Is It A Good Idea To Mention

[bonbons]

just trying to put together a folder of documents for my girlfriends uk tourist visa for 6 months.

while i was in the uk working i send her my debit card to use. the card is only in my name and im not sure how they will look at this.

problem is i have to show bank statements that have transactions made in thailand when i was in the uk

i do have 2 bank accounts so can just show statements from the account i was using in the uk and not mention the other

any useful help please.

[scotty123456789]

Hi there mate,

To be honest with you, i think it would show a good trusting relationship, so it would actualy work in your favour.

When me and my wife to be first started our relationship, the first two months i was sending money from my current account, to her bank account.

I was getting charged from my bank, £17.50 each time, no matter if i sent £1 or £1000, it was £17.50 each time.

So i decided to open up just a basic bank account, no overdraft etc and give her the card and pin.

Now all i do is transfer through internet banking, money from my current account into my other basic account which she has.

It saves the £17.50 charge and she only gets charged £2 for each transaction.

My current account bank statements show i transfer money into my basic account on a regular basis, i also recieve bank statements from the basic account which clearly shows transactions made in her city.

The embassy cannot say i am making the transactions in Thailand as they will clearly see on my passport stamps, that im not in Thailand at the time.

Its better for our sv application, plus it saves me £17.50 each time.

Everyones a winner.

Good luck.

Scotty.........

[chiang mai]

just trying to put together a folder of documents for my girlfriends uk tourist visa for 6 months.

while i was in the uk working i send her my debit card to use. the card is only in my name and im not sure how they will look at this.

problem is i have to show bank statements that have transactions made in thailand when i was in the uk

i do have 2 bank accounts so can just show statements from the account i was using in the uk and not mention the other

any useful help please.

I agree that showing that information for visa purposes is probably a positive move. I'll presume there is much trust in the relationship and that you have taken steps to manage and monitor the remote account card usage and not pass comment on the obvious risks if you have not.

[scotty123456789]

Be interesting to know if my bank which i have a basic account with, which my girl uses, would accept her using this if they knew.

When i opened the account i told them i will be using it in Thailand, they said how long for, i said until further notice.

Obviously they say this for fraud, but what do you think the bank would say if they knew i had given her the card?

Scotty.....

[bonbons]

thanks for the advice, i will just show everything and explain in writing. im sure the are used to this kind of thing as its a joke paying nearly 20 pounds everytime you want to send any amount of money.

i send my girlfriend a nationwide flex account debit card and transfered money using online banking from my other account. nationwide do not charge anything for using the card anywhere in the world, no questions asked which is a big plus.

[sumrit]

Be interesting to know if my bank which i have a basic account with, which my girl uses, would accept her using this if they knew.

When i opened the account i told them i will be using it in Thailand, they said how long for, i said until further notice.

Obviously they say this for fraud, but what do you think the bank would say if they knew i had given her the card?

Scotty.....

Be careful what you tell the bank. Before I moved from the UK to Thailand I opened a bank account at LloydsTSB in my daughters name. The main reason for this was so I could transfer money into the account and my could do the Swift transfer to Thailand when I wanted to send larger amounts of money here (for a car etc). The debit card I kept with me as a backup in case I needed it any time. Then last year my bank, the HSBC, started using the offshore rate for ATM withdrawals, so to get the onshore rate I started using my daughters account for withdrawing my living expenses. After about four withdrawals Lloyds blocked the card because it was being used in Thailand. When my daughter told them I was using the card with her permission they unblocked it but warned her of the dangers of giving her card to a third party. Two weeks later, blocked again. Another phone call, another lecture and unblocked. Two weeks later, blocked again. This happened about six or seven times untill my daughter gave their supervisor a right bollocking over the phone (I was listening to her via Skype) and it's remained unblocked since then, but they definately don't like third parties using the card.

[chiang mai]

Be interesting to know if my bank which i have a basic account with, which my girl uses, would accept her using this if they knew.

When i opened the account i told them i will be using it in Thailand, they said how long for, i said until further notice.

Obviously they say this for fraud, but what do you think the bank would say if they knew i had given her the card?

Scotty.....

Be careful what you tell the bank. Before I moved from the UK to Thailand I opened a bank account at LloydsTSB in my daughters name. The main reason for this was so I could transfer money into the account and my could do the Swift transfer to Thailand when I wanted to send larger amounts of money here (for a car etc). The debit card I kept with me as a backup in case I needed it any time. Then last year my bank, the HSBC, started using the offshore rate for ATM withdrawals, so to get the onshore rate I started using my daughters account for withdrawing my living expenses. After about four withdrawals Lloyds blocked the card because it was being used in Thailand. When my daughter told them I was using the card with her permission they unblocked it but warned her of the dangers of giving her card to a third party. Two weeks later, blocked again. Another phone call, another lecture and unblocked. Two weeks later, blocked again. This happened about six or seven times untill my daughter gave their supervisor a right bollocking over the phone (I was listening to her via Skype) and it's remained unblocked since then, but they definately don't like third parties using the card.

Whilst it may have been inconvenient for you personally I am sure you'll agree that the Bank was doing an excellent job of trying to potentially protect their customers interests. For the record, HSBC has notified me four times in the past ten years of attempted fraudulent withdrawals/usage of my credit card before I even had a suspicion that something was wrong and in all cases they canceled and reissued the card immediately. I couldn't ask for better service.

[sumrit]

Be interesting to know if my bank which i have a basic account with, which my girl uses, would accept her using this if they knew.

When i opened the account i told them i will be using it in Thailand, they said how long for, i said until further notice.

Obviously they say this for fraud, but what do you think the bank would say if they knew i had given her the card?

Scotty.....

Be careful what you tell the bank. Before I moved from the UK to Thailand I opened a bank account at LloydsTSB in my daughters name. The main reason for this was so I could transfer money into the account and my could do the Swift transfer to Thailand when I wanted to send larger amounts of money here (for a car etc). The debit card I kept with me as a backup in case I needed it any time. Then last year my bank, the HSBC, started using the offshore rate for ATM withdrawals, so to get the onshore rate I started using my daughters account for withdrawing my living expenses. After about four withdrawals Lloyds blocked the card because it was being used in Thailand. When my daughter told them I was using the card with her permission they unblocked it but warned her of the dangers of giving her card to a third party. Two weeks later, blocked again. Another phone call, another lecture and unblocked. Two weeks later, blocked again. This happened about six or seven times untill my daughter gave their supervisor a right bollocking over the phone (I was listening to her via Skype) and it's remained unblocked since then, but they definately don't like third parties using the card.

Whilst it may have been inconvenient for you personally I am sure you'll agree that the Bank was doing an excellent job of trying to potentially protect their customers interests. For the record, HSBC has notified me four times in the past ten years of attempted fraudulent withdrawals/usage of my credit card before I even had a suspicion that something was wrong and in all cases they canceled and reissued the card immediately. I couldn't ask for better service.

I do fully agree that the banks do an excellent job checking for potential fraud. I have my own Lloyds account as well as my daughters and HSBC accounts and both Lloyds and HSBC have contacted me while I have been in Thailand to check that it was me using the cards, I can't fault them for that. The problem seemed to be that they objected to my daughter allowing me to use her card. She explained that it was my really money and my account but we'd put it in her name to make it easier for her to send me larger sums of money but they still insisted on blocking the card every two weeks. During this period they also halved the amount I could take out per day then when she queried that they said it was the banks policy for all cards used abroad. That wasn't true. As I said I also have my own Lloyds account, I had been using that and they didn't reduce the limit on that account (but they did phone me to query the sudden use in Thailand). This all started last year and at first I used my Lloyds card but it expired in January and as I was originally due to go back to the UK for a month in April I didn't want to risk sending my new card through the post. Hence using my daughters card. I can only put the problems I had down to them objecting to me using her card. I now have a Nationwide account, I told them I would be using the card in Thailand and so far so good, free banking, a good exchange rate and no problems.

Edited October 10, 2007 by sumrit

[chiang mai]

Be interesting to know if my bank which i have a basic account with, which my girl uses, would accept her using this if they knew.

When i opened the account i told them i will be using it in Thailand, they said how long for, i said until further notice.

Obviously they say this for fraud, but what do you think the bank would say if they knew i had given her the card?

Scotty.....

Be careful what you tell the bank. Before I moved from the UK to Thailand I opened a bank account at LloydsTSB in my daughters name. The main reason for this was so I could transfer money into the account and my could do the Swift transfer to Thailand when I wanted to send larger amounts of money here (for a car etc). The debit card I kept with me as a backup in case I needed it any time. Then last year my bank, the HSBC, started using the offshore rate for ATM withdrawals, so to get the onshore rate I started using my daughters account for withdrawing my living expenses. After about four withdrawals Lloyds blocked the card because it was being used in Thailand. When my daughter told them I was using the card with her permission they unblocked it but warned her of the dangers of giving her card to a third party. Two weeks later, blocked again. Another phone call, another lecture and unblocked. Two weeks later, blocked again. This happened about six or seven times untill my daughter gave their supervisor a right bollocking over the phone (I was listening to her via Skype) and it's remained unblocked since then, but they definately don't like third parties using the card.

Whilst it may have been inconvenient for you personally I am sure you'll agree that the Bank was doing an excellent job of trying to potentially protect their customers interests. For the record, HSBC has notified me four times in the past ten years of attempted fraudulent withdrawals/usage of my credit card before I even had a suspicion that something was wrong and in all cases they canceled and reissued the card immediately. I couldn't ask for better service.

I do fully agree that the banks do an excellent job checking for potential fraud. I have my own Lloyds account as well as my daughters and HSBC accounts and both Lloyds and HSBC have contacted me while I have been in Thailand to check that it was me using the cards, I can't fault them for that. The problem seemed to be that they objected to my daughter allowing me to use her card. She explained that it was my really money and my account but we'd put it in her name to make it easier for her to send me larger sums of money but they still insisted on blocking the card every two weeks. During this period they also halved the amount I could take out per day then when she queried that they said it was the banks policy for all cards used abroad. That wasn't true. As I said I also have my own Lloyds account, I had been using that and they didn't reduce the limit on that account (but they did phone me to query the sudden use in Thailand). This all started last year and at first I used my Lloyds card but it expired in January and as I was originally due to go back to the UK for a month in April I didn't want to risk sending my new card through the post. Hence using my daughters card. I can only put the problems I had down to them objecting to me using her card. I now have a Nationwide account, I told them I would be using the card in Thailand and so far so good, free banking, a good exchange rate and no problems.

I do understand your situation but suggest you do not be too hard on the banks since they are trying to look after the interests of their primary account/agreement holders interest and that is what we all need. The fact that you and your daughter are bending the rules (if you read the banks regs it does say that the account card is not be loaned to another party) will not help the bank in a situation with any customer where they have to have the dispute determined under law.

[sumrit]

I do understand your situation but suggest you do not be too hard on the banks since they are trying to look after the interests of their primary account/agreement holders interest and that is what we all need. The fact that you and your daughter are bending the rules (if you read the banks regs it does say that the account card is not be loaned to another party) will not help the bank in a situation with any customer where they have to have the dispute determined under law.

The point I was trying to make was 'don't tell your bank what you are doing'. The banks are trying to protect their account holders from fraud and with the checks they have in place they do a good job. Yes I was angry at the time because my daughter had fully explained the reasons, and that it would only be for three months, and they accepted that because they kept unblocking the card, but I wasn't trying to knock the bank's system, I was using the problems I had as an example of what will happen if the bank finds out you are 'bending the rules'. Sorry if it just sounded like I was knocking the banks system.