bank account with no reference

Try Banif first they seem to be much easier to get an account from...

I forgot to mention that I have a full time working contract and can produce a Reference written by my presente employer

Hi corvaccio.

You'll be able to open an account at Banif Bank without bank references but you'll need to provide them with your Maltese ID card, if not, they will ask you for references.

Good luck!

Antonio

Ah cool!!! I will go there sathurday! You saved my life!

Reference? Is good even a letter from my boss?

I will get an ID card soon but I have to wait the documents that send to you after you sign the ETC.

They are sopposed to be delivered at my house next week.

Hi
We're moving to Malta in the next few months
If you could let us know how you get on opening your account we will be very grateful
This has been an excellent site for info
Keep up the good work guys
Thanks
Harleybird

corvaccio wrote:

Ah cool!!! I will go there sathurday! You saved my life!

Reference? Is good even a letter from my boss?

Without ID card, it would need to be a letter from your bank and your bosses letter, would not make any difference. Some banks still ask you for bank references even if you have a Maltese ID card, ie. BOV and HSBC. I know for sure that Banif won't ask you for bank references if you show them your ID card. Still, they your bosses letter with you as it may be a plus

Cheerio,
Antonio

harleybird81 wrote:

Hi
We're moving to Malta in the next few months
If you could let us know how you get on opening your account we will be very grateful
This has been an excellent site for info
Keep up the good work guys
Thanks
Harleybird

Hi Harleybird,

there's a lot of info already in this section Banks and finance about opening a bank account over here. Have a look at previous posts and I am sure you'll find very useful information on how to do it.

Good luck!

Antonio

Some people say that Maltese ID card doesn't exist anymore. Now we have e-residence and it's not good to open a bank account. Is it true?

That's the one corvaccio, the e-Residence card. I am just to used to say ID card
But that's it, just take your e-Residence card with to Banif and you should be fine!

hi
i went to BOV in mellieha to open an account.they sent to my bank in uk for a refrence .but havent had a reply .when i went in to bov at the weekend the very helpful assistant told me a lot of uk banks are not replying to e.mails for refrences.but she said if i got a letter of my employer plus some id with my old uk address on i would be able to open an account.so going in this saturday to see how i get on .will keep you all posted.

Steyport you mean your UK id or the maltese id?

uk id.with previouse address on she said

I have the passport with my previous address. So I guess could work

Cheers Antonio

harleybird81 wrote:

Hi
We're moving to Malta in the next few months
If you could let us know how you get on opening your account we will be very grateful
This has been an excellent site for info
Keep up the good work guys
Thanks
Harleybird

Open one before leaving UK through your existing UK bank.
Not all do this and may well charge but that's what we did and no hassles whatsoever.

steyport1961 wrote:

hi
i went to BOV in mellieha to open an account.they sent to my bank in uk for a refrence .but havent had a reply .when i went in to bov at the weekend the very helpful assistant told me a lot of uk banks are not replying to e.mails for refrences.but she said if i got a letter of my employer plus some id with my old uk address on i would be able to open an account.so going in this saturday to see how i get on .will keep you all posted.

Hi steyport,

If you spoke with a guy called Joseph at BOV Mellieha's branch, you'll be fine, I am sure he will do his best to get you an account opened. He dealt with my application over there and I couldn't be happier with his services.

Good luck!

Antonio

Thanks for that redmik
Will let you know how we got on

thanks antonio.
it was one of the ladys that delt with me  called cludine.she was very helpful.

       steyport/

hi everyone .
just an update on my progress.went to bov this morning with letter from my employer.passport and english old address.glad to say they have given me a bank  account.and said should have my cash card witin the next week.also recived a letter from my bank in the uk natwest.saying they can not provide a refrence till they see me in person so not a lot of help from them .thumbs up to BOV.

Same to me: Employer reference letter, passport and utility bill of my previous italian address. BOV account successfully opened.

good news guys well done

thanks Toonarmy.all the great post and advice of you guys on expat .helped with the process .

Great to hear you guys sorted!

Thanks Mantonas.yes happy to say.

Hi,

I am also looking at bank accounts in Malta. I am not in Malta as yet but wish to be prepared. I am living abroad away from my home country, UK.

I have a bank account with Barclays and have discovered they may have a branch in Malta. Do you think I would still have to open a separate account in Malta? Would it be easier to have an account in Malta by opening one with Barclays in Malta?

Please advise.

Many thanks,

To be honest, never heard that there is a Barclay's bank here in Malta. The only UK bank I am aware there's in Malta it's the HSBC. Unless you have a chance to open an account with HSBC in he UK and get it transferred to Malta, I reckon you'll have to be here in person to try to open a bank account. You might be lucky and open an acc over here within a week or so, or depending on the bank/branch you go or the person you deal with, and you'll wait forever and they won't give you an update.

In my personal experience, I've been through both of them. Could not open a HSBC acc initial after nearly 2 months of waiting for a reply for my previous bank references. Went to BOV and opened the acc in 1 week with references provided by the same bank. Then, about 2 months ago decided to try HSBC once again, and this time went fine because they got my bank references from BOV lol. There you go, again, it all depends from bank, branch or person you deal with.

Unfortunately this question is a copy and paste which is also in 3 other threads.
You are correct mantonas (and as I stated in another thread asking the same question) there is no Barclays Bank here.

I wasn't aware of that redmik, thanks!

barclays do not operate in Malta

Apparently correct as of May 2013 from official lists available at Malta Financial Services Authority.
Banks on Malta............

Central Bank of Malta
Akbank T.A.S.
APS Bank Limited
Banif Bank (Malta)
Bank of Valletta plc
BAWAG Malta Bank Limited
CommBank Europe Limited
Deutsche Bank (Malta) Limited
Erste Bank (Malta)Limited
FCM Bank Limited
FIMBank plc
Fortis Bank Malta Limited
HSBC Bank Malta plc
IIG Bank (Malta) Limited
Investkredit International Bank plc
Izola Bank plc
Lombard Bank Malta plc
Mediterranean Bank plc
NBG Bank Malta Limited
Nemea Bank Limited
Novum Bank Limited
Raiffeisen Malta plc
Sparkasse Bank Malta plc
Turkiye Garanti Bankasi A S
Nordea Bank AB Malta
Volksbank Malta Limited
Go Bank Malta Limited

http://www.businessmalta.com/company/30 … -Bank-PLC/

not operating as a bank I grant you, but I was told I could go there to get a new debit card if needed etc for my UK Barclays account

Hey all,
Just thought I'd add my experience, which matches most others and confirms it still valid for May 2014.

Status:
Employed in Malta.
Have rental agreement in Malta.
Have Tax #
Have SS #
Applied for, but not yet received, eID.
I didn't bring a bank ref from abroad.

BOV - Require a letter from my employer, BOV provide a template to which I had to add a section for my previous overseas address and current local address.

1. Take letter to branch with photo ID.
2. Spend about 15 minutes with BOV staff signing forms etc.
3. Deposit a sum of money in account, can't remember what the minimum was but sure it was less than EUR 50.
3. Instantly get bank account #
4. One week later I headed back to the branch and collected debit card, online banking username and logon widget, easy!

Points to note
1. BOV then open your account using your overseas address.
2. Once account open you can then go back with photo ID and request to add a mailing address.
3. Once you receive your eID you can go back again and update your primary address on the account.

Not that it really impacts me but I'm confused by how it worked! Not arguing as it was simple!
1. Honestly how can my new employer sign the letter stating my old overseas address when they only ever new me when I was in Malta? and I have never shown them any old utility bills nor rental agreement form abroad.
2. Why setup my primary address as overseas to an address (and country) I have absolutely no connection with?
3. Why not offer the option of adding local mailing address at point of opening account? It was on the letter my employer provided and could be backed up with rental agreement.

Luckily I know nothing about the world of compliance but it seems a very dubious practice to get your employer to confirm your previous overseas address that they know nothing about. Luckily they were only too happy to do it as they just wanted me to have a bank account at that was what was needed.

Regardless of how strange this seems to me the whole process was much better than with HSBC where I was offered the next available appointment to open a bank account, which was over two weeks from then, eek!
If I'd thought about doing it in advance (which I should of) I could have upgrade my overseas HSBC account to premier and gone to head office they would have opened my HSBC Malta accounts for me in advance, although I don't know how much that would have cost.

Anyhow ramblings for a Saturday morning over, just 30 mins to kill until the guitar shop opens.

T.

Thanks MKer for going to this trouble. This is useful stuff for those of us just about to take the plunge!

I have been gathering links that I think will be useful for me (and others) at my
Useful Websites & Blogs post. Creating a new section called Banking in Malta.

I'm sure there are lots of things I should be doing, like opening a bank account but there never seems to be the time.

IF I do find the time - what is the ONE (or two or three) thing that you wished you done in advance?

Thanks again, Matt 

Oh, our circumstances will be different. Do you think this will affect the formalities (not just of getting a bank account)? Maybe a subject for a new post, but.

We will be Self Employed (not having a boss to give us a letter) and  ... we will neither be buying or renting but living in my Mum in laws apartment - so won't have a rental agreement.

Hello, i am on Malta now and my job do have Bov. I have just e-mailed my boss and asked if he can help me with a recommendation letter to make it easier to open a bank account.

My question is, what do a letter from your employer have to look like? is there any template you could post here so I could ask my boss to fill one out for me.

am sure your employer will know how to complete a  reference letter for the use of a bank

acctualy, when I was oppening at BOV they wanted reference from my home country, I had to sign some form where  I give them permission to ask my home bank was I a good client and then they send request - by post LOL

took about 3 weeks to get there and back here and then they called me and oppend me an account

Duxx wrote:

acctualy, when I was oppening at BOV they wanted reference from my home country, I had to sign some form where  I give them permission to ask my home bank was I a good client and then they send request - by post LOL

took about 3 weeks to get there and back here and then they called me and oppend me an account

Same happened to me, took them about 2-3 weeks to have my account opened. The thing is, I did not have a Maltese EID card when I opened my bank acc. From my sister's recent experience, they will only take an employment reference letter, if you already have your EID card.

I went to BOV - five times now. I still don't have an account.

I have an eID, accounts from my accountant (i'm self-employed), NI contributions, rental contract, etc.
I didn't have the bank reference letters. They wrote to my bank. My bank never wrote back. I went to Belgium to my banks (two of them), got the letters, brought them over to BOV. "We can't accept them, the bank has to send them directly to us." Seriously???

Went to HSBC (Balzan) today, to try my luck there. "OK, you have all those documents, good. We can't open an account here, we only do it in Sliema, at the international office. Let's see if I can get you an appointment. How about the 15th of October?" Are you fucking kidding me!?

People are seriously taking the piss here! It's not like i'm asking to marry the manager's daughter, i just want a bloody bank account (and the bloody cheque book, since people are still hooked on them here), a fairly basic service I would say, heck, a human right even! I have a decent income, a fair amount of savings, my partner and I are looking for a home loan, yet all they come up with is "your bank has to send the letters to us".

Jezus Christ, it's easier to import a tiger and keep it locked up in a garage than to open a friggin' bank account in this country.