HSBC Extra Information

hiltopuk

Good morning all, I am a domestic customer with HSBC and have been contactacted by them for extra identity information.


A certified copy of my passport and residency address.


I am told every HSBC customer will have to do this but chatting to a friend who is an account holder I find out he hasn't been approached.


Has anyone else been approached for this extra identity confirmation which needs to be notorised legally?


Thanks very much for your help.

xylophone

If you are a domestic customer you can take your passport and proof of address to your branch?

worriedindebt

hiltopuk wrote: »

Good morning all, I am a domestic customer with HSBC and have been contactacted by them for extra identity information.


A certified copy of my passport and residency address.


I am told every HSBC customer will have to do this but chatting to a friend who is an account holder I find out he hasn't been approached.


Has anyone else been approached for this extra identity confirmation which needs to be notorised legally?


Thanks very much for your help.

This is fairly standard and whilst not every customer will be approached, those that were not required to provide adequate ID at time of account opening will most certainly be asked to bring some in. Nothing sinister, just ensuring they have proof of who their customers are. Sign of the times!

gt94sss2

Have you seen https://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/contact-and-support/security-centre/hsbcsafeguard ?

Regards
Sunil

Archi_Bald

From that link that gt94sss2 kindly provided

Please note that we will require a certified copy (not the original).

I can see an exodus of customers from HSBC. Although they do appear to accept Post Office certified documents. PO will certify up to 3 documents for £8.75. I think I might be able to afford this from one of the monthly "Save Together" tenners. That's if they actually do ask me.

Kim_13

Further problems come in that they want the documents to be dated within the last four months (not just the latest version.) So anyone with benefits letters or council tax bills to use had best hope they don't get asked until the next ones get issued. Many bills are now e-billing because the companies wanted to charge for paper bills. I presume print outs wouldn't be accepted, even if certified.

My father has a business account and a personal account with them, however he hasn't been very happy with them for a while now. I imagine he'll be straight out of the door if he's asked.

Not accepting originals shown at branch is insane (and surely hurts the most vulnerable who are struggling to make ends meet, given the cost of certification.)

FireWyrm

Archi_Bald wrote: »

From that link that gt94sss2 kindly provided



I can see an exodus of customers from HSBC. Although they do appear to accept Post Office certified documents. PO will certify up to 3 documents for £8.75. I think I might be able to afford this from one of the monthly "Save Together" tenners. That's if they actually do ask me.

This is nuts. If you don't have a current passport or a driving license, you are screwed. Even if you do, you have a spend £8.75 getting them unnecessarily certified since for some totally insane reason, it is beyond the whit of a bank employee to look at the original and you and correlate the two bits of information? Goodbye HSBC...so long and thanks for nothing.

masonic

This all seems very reminiscent of what has been going on over at First Direct over the past year: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5037121

Perhaps HSBC has been using FD to try out it's potentially unpopular policies before adopting them itself. If so, perhaps it will be introducing the next phase of customer 'torture' shortly: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5353377

I've only had my HSBC account a few months and HSBC was happy to accept my original passport in branch.

Archi_Bald

FireWyrm wrote: »

If you don't have a current passport or a driving license, you are screwed.

No you are not, as you can

1. use another document from their list (did you read the link?); or
2. switch your account to somewhere else, and perhaps even get paid for it

spenderdave

You need to send the documents via the post for this procedure (it specifically says not to take them to the branch) and hence the need for certified copies as you wouldn't want to send your passport via the post. There is a long list of what documents you can use (and note if you use a council tax bill it can be for the current year and not limited to 4 months). Also a long list of suitable people who can sign including ministers of religion and doctors - no doubt you will have a friend who qualifies to sign it without charging. When I had to do this for our church account I got a medical friend to do it (couldn't use the church minister to approve something for her own church...).

sgun

I haven't been asked but I really don't have time to faff on with all that so if they do ask I'll move to another bank. I've been with them for 21 years but I was also not massively happy that they changed my current account to the Advantage(?) account without asking.