Savings ac asking for employment details

elektra

I've just come across a savings account application(Abbey) that asks for employment details and net income. It asks for employer name also. So I just put unemployed and £1. It also asks how you plan to regularly fund account - I don't - it wasn't a regular account.

I can understand these questions for mortgage or maybe credit card but they are over the top for a savings account - especially when am existing customer.

Any other organisations asking these questions for savings account ?

opinions4u

Occupation is a money laundering legislation requirement.

I would suggest that anything beyond that (such as income and name of employer) is excessive.

I seem to recall Egg wanted to know the name of my employer though, although Halifax didn't.

Different banks may interpret the requirements of the legislation in different ways.

Fibbing about your occupation probably isn't a good idea. If you pay in a large sum, your unemployed status will probably set the red lights flashing in the fraud department and you'll have the drugs squad round performing intimate body searches before you know it!!

elektra

opinions4u wrote: »

Occupation is a money laundering legislation requirement.

When did that legislation come in ? It is the first time I've been asked for occupation.

Just wanted to add that if these banks didn't keep closing account and bringing out new issues it wouldn't look like I'm money laundering! I'd be quite happy to leave it where it was if they gave me the same rate as new accounts.

dasim

That's new one on me too. I've opened some savings accounts recently and not been asked for occupation or income.

It is totally irrelevant for a savings account anyway as income can bear no relation to the sums you are saving i.e. a pensioner may have low income but substantial savings.

I avoid Abbey anyway but I'd be inclined to look elsewhere.

withnell

I always put £1 in those things, but I normally put in my real occupation - I tell people what I do for a living when asked anyway!

elektra

withnell wrote: »

I always put £1 in those things, but I normally put in my real occupation - I tell people what I do for a living when asked anyway!

but in this case they asked for employer name as well - that is really going too far.

Investor44

A couple of years ago I was going to open a savings account with Scarborough building society but when I downloaded the application form it wanted to know all sorts of questions such as exactly how often I was going to pay in and how much each time - questions I just didn't know the answer to without a crystal ball!

Also, after asking whether I was owner-occupied or tenant etc - it also asked whether my house was detached, semi-detached or terraced!
They didn't get my business.

alanq

I don't believe the money laundering story. If it was the law all banks and building societies would need to collect this information and, unless something has changed in the last couple of months, they don't do so. I willingly provided the information to open a current account but for other accounts I just leave it blank. When opening accounts in branch the staff admit the information is not mandatory. When completing the form on a computer on my behalf they often don't even ask the questions on screen.

I think it is more to do with deciding what marketing to aim at you .

opinions4u

alanq wrote: »

I don't believe the money laundering story.

The FSA are not explicit on exactly what each organisation needs to do. This will lead to different interpretations at what must/mustn't be included. They then like to fine banks £1m for not complying with unclear requirements!

When opening accounts in branch the staff admit the information is not mandatory.

With the greatest respect, they don't always know why things are done a particular way.

I think it is more to do with deciding what marketing to aim at you .

I don't doubt that the opportunity to do this has been taken.

Blah99

opinions4u wrote: »

The FSA are not explicit on exactly what each organisation needs to do. This will lead to different interpretations at what must/mustn't be included. They then like to fine banks £1m for not complying with unclear requirements!

Yes, this is a big problem with the FSA. They publish guidelines and expect organisations to comply to the best of their ability. Take the "lost customer details" problem, for example. If a bank doesn't have a data policy or technical controls (encryption etc) on its IT systems and some customer data gets lost, the FSA is likely to spank the bank.

But if the bank does have a data policy, has made its staff go on training courses, put encryption on some of its computers but not all of them because of technical reasons (eg: computers are too old), the FSA won't punish them. The bank can show that it took reasonable precautions and that's good enough, even though not all computers had encryption.

Same principle with personal details etc. The non-prescriptive approach wasn't a huge issue until about 4 years ago, when banks started getting fined huge amounts of money. Now they tend to err on the side of over-caution.