Have you tried Revolut?
not helping yourself much there. Get a chance to solve your problem then decide to gubb that. Won’t they let you reopen and continue paying the fee?
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I physically lived at the address and i can prove it. I just didn’t have any proof of address in my name. I was freshly arrived in UK and I needed a bank account to get my wages.
After September 2021 i left UK and went back in my country, I didn’t know i had a cifas marker until October this year.
Yeah, it’s bad but i had no other option but to use a false document to get a bank account.
My earlier sympathy has now diminished.
You did have another option, the option of not committing fraud.
If you aren’t eligible for something, you can’t have that something. Deception is not a workaround.
Good luck in any case. Hopefully you’ve learned something from this.
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It’s obviously a bit late now, but if you speak to a bank they are often sympathetic to new arrivals, and if your employee provides a letter sent to the address you’re residing at they often accept that as proof of address to open a basic account with them.
Plenty of people arrive in the UK and have to set up a bank account, so it’s not new to banks.
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Also note that the everyday thinkmoney account has no fee. So might be worth trying to reapply.
Have you tried a credit union
Google and see if there is one nr you.
Attend in person and explain.
I am sorry about the comments people make on here, they don’t stop to think about YOUR mental health.
Good luck and hope you can get something sorted.
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Made me itch a bit, too.
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Have you tried Wise, maybe even with an account held in your home country? I know for a fact that they provide a UK bank sort code and account number for my GBP balance even though my main Wise account isn’t a UK one
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You could try one of the most basic accounts out their.
Co-Op Cashminder. Basic Bank Account | Current Accounts | The Co-operative Bank
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I pop to McDonalds for a McRib and all hell breaks loose here!
Submitting incorrect documents is silly, you owned up to it, which is admirable. There’s some solid advice on places to get a bank account in here! Good luck…
In tandem, you could enquire about whether the CIFAS can be removed, but step 1 - get an account sorted, and get that salary off your employer! Good luck.
I agree, CIFA annoyed me a lot
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How was it? I don’t think I’ve ever had one.
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This isn’t directed at the OP but rather relates to those earlier who dislike the CIFAS marker and that effectively debanks you.
My question to those is what should happen? How would you stop a repeat?
I’m not sure, I guess these CIFAS markers have to work to stop, let’s say a drug addict who has no care for his financial future and will keep opening accounts for fraudsters to use for £50, but also work on a 16 year old who was offered £100 to setup an app which they naively assume is akin to handing over their Vinted or eBay account.
The punishment has to fit both shoes there
In my view CIFAS for fraud should only be issued after a court has ascertained someone is guilty of fraud. Private businesses cannot judge whether a crime has been committed.
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The problem is sheer volume. How would you handle 1,000+ CIFAS referrals each day, for example? This isn’t an unlikely volume either. I don’t know the most recent stats but a quick Google search provided a 2019 figure of 364,000 new markers. I would guess it’s now higher, not lower.
The Police certainly wouldn’t be able to deal with that many cases, and neither would the court system. The only solution would be to outsource the decision-making, and you would be back to square one - a private firm deciding.
The more likely outcome of even trying to do this, would be that only the most serious 1% of cases would be looked at and 99% of people would get away with it, with no consequences whatsoever…
I do agree with you though, it does seem wrong. I don’t see a solution though, given the sheer volume of deception taking place these days.
TLDR - Too many people are dodgy for this to work.
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I suspect that for 99% of these either don’t meet the bar for criminal prosecution, or no crime was committed, or there was not enough evidence of a crime. So I don’t think would be a problem. As fraud is a crime I imagine for all these cases an SAR is submitted anyway.
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A Cifas marker isn’t an indication of a conviction though. It’s a warning to other institutions about (suspected) wrongdoing by an individual; and then other institutions are free to make of it what they will.
Most of them won’t take the risk though because of the harsh penalties on people in regulated roles if the bank allows financial crime to happen.
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I suspect that fraud would increase as a result though, as there would be no deterrent or consequence. CIFAS exists to protect the financial system. It’s not there to punish, although evidently it does to some extent, in terms of being unbanked.
I don’t know what the solution is… although I do suspect some of the other responses you will get, might be a tad more… unbalanced… 
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