Electoral roll

churchrat

Hi

just a quick question, not sure which board to put it in, so please move if wrong, or could get a different answer elsewhere.

My (adult) son opened a new bank account yesterday, no problems, all fine. But while he was there they checked that he was on the electoral roll.
It made me wonder what did they check? He recently moved back in with us (parents) after some years at his own place, where he was on the roll. He now is added to our address, but we always tick the box for no information to be given to third parties.

How did the bank know he was on the roll? This is not a problem, but I do not see the point of a roll which is supposed to be private if banks etc can see it when they choose.

thanks for any response

churchrat

Scarpacci

The electoral roll isn't supposed to be private, the edited and full electoral rolls are very public documents. There are two editions of the electoral roll, both of which can be seen by many people. You can opt-out of the edited register, which can be commercially bought by marketers and anybody for any purpose.

The full register, which you can't opt out of, can be see by Joe Public under supervision and is also shared with creditors and political parties. Whether you opt-out or not, banks can see whether you're on it. If they couldn't see the full roll, it could make life difficult for any borrowers who opted out of the edited register.

Vortigern

Bank probably didn't check the electoral roll directly. They'll have checked with a credit reference agency, which will have data from the roll.