Opening a bank account without ID

henm2

For anyone over 18 a provisional driving licence is often not accepted as ID. Your best bet is to get a full passport.

Banks also need to confirm the address. A listing on the voters roll is sufficient for this (the bank will do this check). Other acceptable means of confirming the address include items such as recent utility bills.

solentsusie

My mother is 75 years old and doesn't have a driving license, passport or gun license yet has managed to open a bank account.

I recently opened a Nationwide Flexdirect account online without ever having to show any form of identification.

Does your friend not have any documents showing proof of her name and address? Is she not on the electoral roll? How long has she lived at her current address? Is she much over 18? Has she never had any kind of savings account? If she already has one of these with a bank then she may well find it easier to open a current account with them.

If it really is that much of a problem then surely she can apply for a driving license or passport via payment at the post office? It may well be to her advantage to get herself some form of formal identification if it is causing her such a problem.

I have also never heard of a provisional driving license not being accepted as ID for someone over 18. Where did you get this information from??

ManAtHome

Santander accept "Notification of entitlement to student loan/grant" if you don't have photo ID - more info here https://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/StaticBS?blobcol=urldata&blobheadername1=content-type&blobheadername2=Content-Disposition&blobheadervalue1=application%2Fpdf&blobheadervalue2=inline%3Bfilename%3DMISC1871+APR12+V1+FINAL.pdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1314010522430&maxage=3600 (target is a .pdf).

jonesMUFCforever

OP can get a notification of tax code letter from HMRC.

The friend can introduce the OP to her/his bank if they have a standard bank account for at least 12 months.

rb10

solentsusie wrote: »

I have also never heard of a provisional driving license not being accepted as ID for someone over 18. Where did you get this information from??

For reasons only known to themselves, Natwest do not accept provisional driving licences.

It is complete nonsense - the only difference between provisional and full is that you have passed your test, there's no extra identification requirement when you trade your green licence for a pink one.

They are the only bank I know of that has this restriction though.

pinkdalek

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

OP can get a notification of tax code letter from HMRC.

The friend can introduce the OP to her/his bank if they have a standard bank account for at least 12 months.

Yes and also banks will accept letters from benefits agency.
You can also get letter from your doctor, college, employer. Local tenancy agreement.

Some banks do accept existing family members who bank there also as address verification.

jonesMUFCforever

rb10 wrote: »

For reasons only known to themselves, Natwest do not accept provisional driving licences.

It is complete nonsense - the only difference between provisional and full is that you have passed your test, there's no extra identification requirement when you trade your green licence for a pink one.

They are the only bank I know of that has this restriction though.

Are you sure that they mean they don't accept the old paper style provisional D/L's ?
Up to a couple of years ago I still had my green paper licence and only changed because of an address change.

henm2

The old style green paper full driving licences are usually accepted as ID.

Another bank which will never accept provisional driving licences for over 18s as ID is HSBC.

As others have mentioned the requirements for ID/verification of address are slightly more flexible when opening a basic bank account. Each bank seems to have its own varying list of documents it will accept for such accounts.

pmduk

NINJA1200 wrote: »

Why don't UK have a simple ID card as any other country?
I will never understand this. I makes absolutely no sense at all...
We don't need passports because, we just need an ID card. That's all!

When the last government introduced identity cards, you could only apply if you already had a passport.

System

The UK used to have universal ID cards. Mine was issued at birth in 1949. I still have it. Despite the warning on it that I might be challenged to produce it at any time, strangely I never have.
My signature has changed a bit since then though.