Can someone please advise re: natwest CHAPS and I.D. required...

lauraland

Went into branch today to arrange a CHAPS payment of £95000 to be sent to my solicitor in order to complete the purchase of a property on Friday. I brought my provisional driving licence, student card and several utility bills as proof of I.D. I was then told that my I.D. wasn't sufficient enough and that i needed a full UK driving licence or a valid UK passport - neither of which i have.

I phoned to arrange an appointment with the passport office to use their fast-track one day passport service in order to get proper I.D. , but as i have lost my previous passport I cant use this service.

I'm really stressing and dont know what to do now, everything is booked for the house move on Friday. Can anyone advise me please? Should I insist natwest accept my Provisional driving licence (& paper counterpart) as I.D.? TIA

elsien

Birth certificate usually does the trick. Do you have any correspondence from the student loan company? Rather than taking the branch staff word for it, I'd contact natwest on one of their helpline numbers. Try this one for starters.
General Product
Information 0800 200 400
There are usually ways round it as not everyone does have a driving licence or passport, but the branch staff aren't always fully clued up.

rb10

You can't insist that they accept your provisional driving licence - it's up to them what they do and don't accept (although most other banks will accept provisional licences; Natwest are unusual in this respect).

Go back to Natwest and ask what else they can accept - there must be something! If they can't help, then speak to a manager until you have agreed suitable ID. For example, Halifax will accept a credit or debit card from another bank (as they can check that it's valid and was issued to you etc).

Or, can you do it by telephone?

lauraland

Hi thanks for the replies. I will phone the manager first thing in the morning, I hadn't thought of my birth certificate, hopefully that along with my provisional should do the job, and i also have my student loan letter. Unfortunately i cant do the transfer online or by telephone due to the amount that is being transfered. Trying not to panic too much, and your replies have put me a little bit at ease so thank you both very much.

mclaren32

Tricky one this, I can see why they sent you away.

You cant insist they do anything as it sounds like you dont have any of the standard ID for making a payment of that size and telephone banking may not be a huge amount of use as they dont make chaps payments so they may be less helpful than the branch as they would have little experience of them.

Speaking to the manager or at least someone senior within the branch would be sensible, I would suggest you do it in person and go in armed with the things you mentioned and they may still make the payment for you. It sounds like it would be at their discression though so staying calm and working with them to find a solution is the approach to take.

I am a Natwest branch manager so speak from experience.

p00hsticks

elsien wrote: »

Birth certificate usually does the trick.

assuming the id requirements are the same as for opening an account, Nat West only accept birth certificates if you are under 20

A tax coding notice from HMRC might do the trick though....

http://www.natwest.com/personal/current-accounts/g2/id-required.ashx