Icici & I D

moonrakerz

Norman-B wrote: »

I also voted with my feet! I went to Icesave and it was sooooo easy to open the account.
I supplied ICICI a certified copy of my passport (certified by Abbey BS) and they would not accept it!!! Bye bye.

Likewise !

I applied to ICICI, when I saw all the rubbish they wanted, I went to Icesave instead who merely wanted my passport number. If one bank can make it simple, why not the rest ?

derrick

dunstonh wrote: »

Its not just a signature. Its a legal liability for life. Up to 15 years imprisonment if found to be party to money laundering, whether you knew about it or not.

If you call a plumber out to change a washer on a tap, how much would he charge?

Sorry I stand by my statement, on your basis it's not even worth doing it for £10-30, whilst the penalty might be there it is a maximum,( and who ever heard of maximums penalties being implemented?) and all they are doing is verifying that they have seen the original, hardly likely to get prosecuted.

With a plumber, he comes to me with all the time it takes, for certification I do the traveling, professional sits there and takes the money, same old same old, the less you do the more you get!

dunstonh

Sorry I stand by my statement, on your basis it's not even worth doing it for £10-30, whilst the penalty might be there it is a maximum,( and who ever heard of maximums penalties being implemented?) and all they are doing is verifying that they have seen the original, hardly likely to get prosecuted.

I guess you are not self employed and therefore dont understand the need to justify your time and risks.

Being knowingly involved is up to 15 years but failure to report carries 2 years. As at this time, no banker has been prosecuted. However, a laywer has been found guilty on failure to report and he was sentenced to 5 years although that was reduced to 6 months on appeal. Of course, anybody in law or finance who gets successfully prosecuted can forget their career after that.

There have been plenty of fines dished out. Two of which were in excess of £1 million. The first individual to be fined was in 2005 and he was hit for £30,000.

So, as you can see penalties and imprisonment have been implented.

derrick

Put all the spin you want, £10-30 for 2 minutes work is daylight robbery, even plumbers don't charge that much, and your examples don't relate anything to the ratio of making a mess of checking docs and the cost to poor Joe Public again.

I did have to to this a few years ago, it was a doctor that signed,£5 for a signature that took 10 seconds.

When signing, these professionals do no checks save to look at the person if it is a passport, and if memory serves me, haven't they to have known them for 2 years? if that is the case I can't see how anyone but an idiot could get prosecuted for anything, it's just a money making exercise and could be signed FOC for the few seconds it takes, the people who have been prosecuted must have been involved in something!

masonic

dunstonh wrote: »

If its your business, then its what you do and you get paid for it. You also know what to look out for.

But teachers, doctors etc. are allowed to certify documents for some applications. I wonder if they are aware of the risks and know what to look for.

derrick

masonic wrote: »

But teachers, doctors etc. are allowed to certify documents for some applications. I wonder if they are aware of the risks and know what to look for.

That is because they are not at risk!

I think this is dunstonh scare mongering to justify the rip off fees professionals charge to sign their name The following is a list from HERE, (Lloyds), but they are basically the same:-
The following people can act as ‘certifiers’:
• Lawyer
• Chartered Accountant
• Serving Police or Customs Officer
• Notary Public
• Member of Judiciary
• Senior Civil Servant
• Actuary
• An Embassy, Consulate or High
Commissioner of the country of issue of the
document
• Director, Officer or Manager of a regulated
financial services business (e.g. Bank Manager)
operating in an equivalent
jurisdiction to the UK*

I have also seen elsewhere that a member of the armed forces,a teacher and a vicar can also sign

Now you cannot tell me that, Serving Police or Customs Officer, member of the armed forces and a teacher or vicar have the know how or justification to do checks? Nor would they have the authority, Data Protection for example

The only check for certification is to be one of the above, known the person for 2 years,(at least it used to be), and to confirm that they have seen the original document, any thing else would be out of the field of most of them, and I cannot see a professional doing that sort of work for £10-30.

These “pillars of society” are only signing to say that they have seen the originals and nothing else, it is then up to the receiving institution to do any checks that they deem necessary, and it "might" be these people dunstonh is taking about in relation to the fines and prison sentence, and that has nothing to do with the certifying of documents, itself a 2 minute,(tops), job.

The examples given by dunstonh of million £ fines and imprisonment, (if they exist), will be for something far in excess of a wrongly signed certification copy, otherwise no one would certify the documents unless they had done a full background check, which will cost a lot more than £10-30.

Certifiers’ Instructions
• Insert: ‘I have seen the original document and I certify that this is a complete and accurate copy of
the original’
• Insert: Signature and date
• Certifier’s name must be in BLOCK CAPITALS
• Must include position or capacity, e.g. lawyer, and contact address
• Official stamp must be clearly impressed

If the above, in blue, is adhered to, then the certifier has fulfilled their obligation

sham63

I was also asked for certified documents when I applied to ICICi a few months ago. I 've opened many accounts recently and not been asked for certified docs - just original bills & statements, often nothing at all (electronic verification).

Because of the hassle and cost, I told them I no longer wished to proceed with the application.

Why not cancel your application and go for the Sainsbury's Internet Saver instead? Seems like a good bet at the moment and probably less hassle to open!

droopsnoot

I applied for one of these accounts at the beginning of June, and received a tracking number by email. Last Wednesday, as I had heard nothing else, I emailed them and received no reply. On Friday I phoned them, explained that I had heard nothing either from my original application or from my email. He said an email had been sent requesting a cheque, which I had not received so I asked him to resend it, which he could not do for some reason. I also mentioned that if they can't respond to emails more quickly, they should have an auto-responder to ackowledge receipt and let me know when I could expect a reply. By coincidence, I got an acknowledgement a few minutes later.

As I have heard nothing further from them, I have just sent an email instructing them to cancel the application, remove my details from their database (some hope!) and cancelling my direct debit authorisation.

I accept they might have many satisfied customers, but I just worry that if it's this hard to get a response when I'm trying to open an account, how hard will it be to get a response when I want my money back? I hate organisations that don't respond to emails in a timely fashion - I work for a small business, and if we don't reply same day or at the very latest next day, our customers slate us. So I expect the same or better from others.

rcotterill

Just to add my 2p worth: I've also been asked for the certified copy: they asked for one certified by another bank (among others), which I thought was cheeky, but gave it a go: both HSBC and Halifax refused point blank to do another bank's work for it.

The discussion about the cost of certification is besides the point. This is about good customer service, and putting processes in place so that the account opening process goes smoothly and the bank can get its mitts on your money as quickly as possible, leaving you witha warm fuzzy feeling aabout them (Both Egg and First DIrect do this very well). Of course ICICI need to protect themselves against money laundering, but if other banks can do it without requiring us to jump through these hoops (and I've opened 10- 15 savings accounts over the last 10 years), then they should too, or not expect to get our business.

A £20 certification charge would take ten years to pay back in extra interest on a £1,000 deposit, when compared to the next best payer (only 0.2% lower)

Norman-B

Save yourself the bother! I opened an account with Icesave and am very impressed at how easy it was. I am also impressed with the ease of use. Well done Icesave!