Ok, not been a successful couple of days now!
We went to open a bank account at Raffeisen and it seems that only one staff member had very basic English (completely understandable, we recognise we are guests here and do not expect English to be spoken!) however that member of staff told us we could not open a bank account without Bulgarian ID and rental contract/address.
We were of the understanding that we could open an account with our passports, we will need to pay several thousand to start our rental contract and would rather transfer a large sum to a BG account then pay it from there, rather than several international transfers and not have an account here till we have sorted the house out.
Is it still possible to open an account with just a passport? Is there anyone we could possible hire to assist us with the process if that would be easier?
Thanks for everyones help today, what a lovely friendly forum. To be honest we have found Bulgaria to be friendly so I don't know why I am surprised!