Bank accounts - new and improved (?)

Hi everyone.  I looked at past postings for opening bank accounts in England, and I was hoping someone out there might have new/updated information?  It seems like each person's experience is different.  Are there any banks that are more willing to help foreign nationals open an account? 

Thanks!

HSBC has what's called a passport account which is geared toward foreigners. Its not a full-fledged checking account and you have to sign a year contract basically:
http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/personal/current-accounts/passport

I don't think you get cheques though.

I'm not sure if you saw this thread, but it was a fairly recent success story.

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=34125.0

I can also personally recommend contacting grumpylad at this site.  He's a bank manager and was incredibly helpful to me when I opened my account here.

Thanks everyone!

Follow-up:

Just had success at Barclays in Bristol!

Follow-up:

Just had success at Barclays in Bristol!

tell us the scoop. what was required?

Passport, US drivers license, and my UK address.  NatWest and Lloyds would not give me an account with cheques, debit card, etc because I do not have a job yet (only just got here last week!).  But Barclays was nice and wrote in their little computer thingy that I was using an agency (lie).  Yay for Barclays!

Indeed, yay for Barclays and grumpylad here, who gave me a bank account when I got here (although I had signed with an agency, but wasn't working yet).

I was very happy with my experience with RBS.  I didn't have a job at that point--well, I did, but I was self-employed with little to no income.  They were great and gave me a basic acct.  I didn't have a debit card, but I do get cheques for some reason.  I hadn't expected that.  They told me that as soon as I was able to show a few months of employment, I'd have no problem getting a debit card. 

I have had no problem with the cash only acct as I use my husband's debit card for our large purchases anyway.  RBS was very nice about things and I left the office knowing exactly where I stood.  My experience with Nationwide was the opposite.  It took over a month of back and forth only to get a rejection letter in the mail with no mention of other options--despite the fact that my husband has had an account with them for 18 years and only wanted to add me to his account.  It was only after my husband raised Cain that they bothered to write back and talk to us about my rejection--and they printed the letter on the back of the letterhead.  It was pretty funny.

http://www.lloydstsb.com/current_accounts/added_value_accounts/silver_current_account.asp
LLoydstsb have a new account, the silver, you only need one piece of ID, like a drivers licence or  a passport to open it.
I work at LTSB, although not at a branch, but I did some of the work in getting this account ready for launch and it's been very successful (more than we imagined) turn around time for a customer coming in is in the region of 20 minutes You can even apply online as long as you have permission to be in the UK for a minimum of 12 months

heh heh, there are other good accounts too so don't take my word as gold because  I have an obvious bias as they are my employer (although they don't pay me to recommend them!) ,  I just know that we've been working to make this as easy as possible, if it isn't do let me know!

http://www.lloydstsb.com/current_accounts/added_value_accounts/silver_current_account.asp
LLoydstsb have a new account, the silver, you only need one piece of ID, like a drivers licence or  a passport to open it.
I work at LTSB, although not at a branch, but I did some of the work in getting this account ready for launch and it's been very successful (more than we imagined) turn around time for a customer coming in is in the region of 20 minutes You can even apply online as long as you have permission to be in the UK for a minimum of 12 months

heh heh, there are other good accounts too so don't take my word as gold because  I have an obvious bias as they are my employer (although they don't pay me to recommend them!) ,  I just know that we've been working to make this as easy as possible, if it isn't do let me know!

Is this similar to HSBC's passport account in that there are no cheques and no line of credit?

http://www.lloydstsb.com/current_accounts/added_value_accounts/silver_current_account.asp
LLoydstsb have a new account, the silver, you only need one piece of ID, like a drivers licence or  a passport to open it.

That looks like a great account for new expats, especially since US citizens don't even need proof of address! I'm not too wild about the £8 monthly fee, but for people who struggle just to get a bank account in the first place due to not having proof of address this could be a lifesaver.

As I remember, it depends on status, the longer you bank with ltsb the more you get, also the more you can prove your status the more likely you will be to get credit etc, it's a give/take kinda thing.

I don't work in a branch I work in IT, so often I can be a bit sketchy about certain things, what i DO know about this account is the money transfer card is a bit awesome if you're leaving people (children mainly) in the US or if you want to be able to send money home etc.
Basically they get a card, you set a pin, and you "load" it with money over the phone and they can get the money out of any ATM wherever they are.
There's a list of other stuff you can get like travel insurance and stuff for "free" which is why they're charging you £8 a month.
I wouldn't like to say if it was worth it or not, depends on how much you'd use the benefits, I dropped a phone in a pint about 3 weeks ago, so that was useful, and I use the annual free travel insurance ALOT, but it's all about you as an individual.
But yeah If you're finding it difficult to open an account, then this is a good one, we spent a lot of time trying to make it as easy as possible to open one up for foreign nationals etc.
Oh the other thing would be, is that you can always transfer accounts later even to anotehr bank if the £8 is too much, it's always easier to get an account whilst you HAVE an account.