Identity verification

terry2

Wixie99 wrote: »

Thanks for your replies. This confuses me even further. I pointed out to the building society that my husband is on the electoral roll, has a driving license, the utility bills are in joint names, and the TV licence is in his name only. He also has a driving licence. As we have lived at our present address two months short of the three years, we gave them our previous address. He doesn't have a credit card, but uses his debit card to pay for phone top-ups, purchases etc, so it sounds as though his identity should be easily verifiable. However, the building society would not refer back to their checking company to see why he had failed.

The critical bit is that he doesn't have a credit card but uses a debit card.

GET a credit card, use it at least once a month and pay it off in full automatically. That builds up a record with the credit agencies, and will make life easier eventually.

My wife had a similar problem as she had no debt history (as I was always the primary card holder(*)), so we got a couple of credit cards with her as the primary card holder and nowadays the identity systems all work fine for her.

(*) we also realised that if I died then all the credit cards would get cancelled and she would be left without one. So we now alternate between cards as to who is the primary card holder.

jonnyb

Just a quick bit of info, in case it helps. Apologies if it doesn't.

Money launderng scores below 20 all have individual meanings; I cannot remember what 19 means right now.

I'm not allowed to give "advice" on here any more, so I have to leave it at that, but Experian staff should be able to help you, if you get through to the right people.

dunstonh

jonnyb wrote: »

Just a quick bit of info, in case it helps. Apologies if it doesn't.

Money launderng scores below 20 all have individual meanings; I cannot remember what 19 means right now.

I'm not allowed to give "advice" on here any more, so I have to leave it at that, but Experian staff should be able to help you, if you get through to the right people.

Thanks for that. It is consistent with my guess that 19 meant something.

Problem is that each time that I have contacted Experian the staff there dont seem to know anything about e-identity check and assume that you are talking about the credit score system. I have even had to give the staff at experian the web link to show that it is a service that they offer. On two occasions, my clients who contacted experian were told it was my own in-house system that gave a score and not Experian. When eventually you do get through to someone who knows about the service, you get a response that they have taken a look and re-input the details and a new score issued which is typically around the 70-80 mark. Never a reason why it changed or even an acknowledgement that there was an issue on that file.

That said, the system works well for the vast majority of people and it saves so much time and administration and I havent had a 19 score for about 18 months now.

mary-op

I've just had similar problems producing ID.
Have lived at the same address for 20 years, banked with the same bank for 17 years, have a healthy current account and small savings, good relationship with bank etc. I do use a credit card if necessary as does OH and we have a debit card.
My mother died earlier this year and I was left a sum of money............off I go to the bank to depost it and make appointment with financial advisor to discuss what to do with it for the best. I was asked to produce ID -don't drive and don't have a passport. Took council tax bill, utility bills etc. But whatever I had wasn't enough............and I wasn't electronically recognised.
I could understand it if I were using a different bank but the same one.............to be honest it just sounded like a lot of 'red tape'.

dunstonh

off I go to the bank to depost it and make appointment with financial advisor to discuss what to do with it for the best.

Sounds like a lucky escape then.

I could understand it if I were using a different bank but the same one.............to be honest it just sounded like a lot of 'red tape'.

Its not the same bank though. It would be a subsidiary company. Also, who is to say that you are now not turning to crime after years of being honest.

withnell

dunstonh wrote: »

Its not the same bank though. It would be a subsidiary company. Also, who is to say that you are now not turning to crime after years of being honest.

Well their identity won't have changed.....

dunstonh

withnell wrote: »

Well their identity won't have changed.....

Some of the more frequent frauds have accounts that are sleepers. They build a relationship with a bank, become "known" and then they commit the fraud. The member of staff that fails to identify the fraud/money laundering/benefits cheat etc is the one that faces 15 years imprisonment for potentially missing it. An irony being that they can actually be penalised more than the criminal.

Money laundering requirements are that each transaction above a certain amount requires identification to be obtained. If you already have it on record then you dont need to ask for it again. Although you do need to find out the source of funds (and a few other things).

The issue with being asked again is that if you are a customer before 1984 then the bank wouldnt have asked for your ID back then and there would be nothing on file. Another issue is that requirements from just a few years ago may not be enough to meet current requirements. So, asking again plays it safe. Years ago, for example, you could accept P60/P45s as part ID as well as provisional driving licences. Now you cant. You cant accept expired driving licences or passports. So, if the passport you took in the past as ID is now expired then you have to ask again to get more up to date data.

mary-op

Money laundering requirements are that each transaction above a certain amount requires identification to be obtained. If you already have it on record then you dont need to ask for it again. Although you do need to find out the source of funds (and a few other things).

The ID of myself and my partner has been given to the bank some years back (can't remember when) and as for the source of the money we deposited........it came from mums building society account to us via the solicitor involved with the estate. All up and above board and was cleared with solicitor prior to being sent to us.
In the past if we've needed increase in overdraft no ID was needed, not for a loan so I just couldn't understand why I should be asked for so much just to bank some money.
Oh well, sign of the times I suppose

dunstonh

The ID of myself and my partner has been given to the bank some years back (can't remember when) and as for the source of the money we deposited........it came from mums building society account to us via the solicitor involved with the estate. All up and above board and was cleared with solicitor prior to being sent to us.

Nice and easy to verify your details then.

In the past if we've needed increase in overdraft no ID was needed, not for a loan

Thats because they are giving you the money and they know where their money comes from. However, even if you had supplied it before, the details would have been put with that application. They wouldnt be available to the person doing the new application. Bank computer software is not that advanced. Although they are making improvements.

so I just couldn't understand why I should be asked for so much just to bank some money.

Complain to your MP. The rules are European. The bank is just doing what it has to.

mary-op

Thanks for your help