As soon as you come to Florida and get to the stage where you need a local bank account you start to realise the differences from the UK system . Lets face it a drive  through bank is not exactly the norm in London but over in Florida everything is drive through from a burger bar to a bank and a funeral directors...and yes I did say funeral directors and by the way its a Drive Thru here.

Most people utilise their UK financing to purchase their holiday home but need a bank to transfer money over to for day to day use , paying of bills etc.

One thing I would never do is recommend the quality of a bank or financial institute as this is way above something I can quantify and for various license required reasons I cannot make comment on performance. What I can do is tell you my experience with one bank and why I am exceptionally happy with them.

Three years ago my wife and I decided we needed to have a Florida based bank and went around to meet and greet a few of the options before making a decision. One of the key issues for us was that our money was safe if for any reason the bank failed as it was not long after the Halifax fiasco in the UK and at the time our savings were split over a number of banks to keep the balances withing the government protected scheme. To say we were getting confused and frustrated is an understatement.

By luck more than judgement we stepped into what was then an Orion bank on Airport Pulling Road and met a fantastic young lady by the name of Helen Acura who is.....from Essex and yes she wont mind me saying not your typical essex lass, She has the blonde hair and the accent but she also has a fantastic brain and knows her job inside out. She also has a great sense of humour !

The feeling of relief didnt just end at someone understanding us and realising why we were finding it a bit daunting to deal with the differences in UK banking to the US. Helen set our personal accounts up and everytime we had a query was immediatley on the other end of the phone or e mail helping us out.

Eighteen months ago we moved to Naples on a permanent basis to expand our UK company. Helen sorted out our business accounts and put everything we needed in place. She introduced us to services we knew about and new options which make our banking so easy and straight forward.

Just over a year ago the Orion bank was taken over by Iberia Bank. Our funds were fully protected whatever the outcome and Helen and the team have worked around the clock explaining and helping us with the changes in banking services that differed with the two companies.

Helen is part of a great team at the Airport Pulling Road branch headed by a very approachable and knowledgable manager by the name of  Sean Friend. As mentioned at the head of this post, I cannot recommend the performance of a bank and would not want you to take these comments as any indication as to the banks performance, stability or otherwise.
What I can say is that if you need to open an account in Naples and want someone to guide you through the process and understand why you may not fully understand what to them is straight forward go to Iberia Bank on Airport Pulling Road and ask for Helen...give her my regards.