How Do I Get Around This?

bowlhead99

Uneducated_Archie wrote: »

especially as it's my computer and I can touch type. We find it better and easier for me to do the typing and the wife to check the information for correctness. Thanx again

Don't worry I wasn't really accusing you of doing stuff behind your wife's back .

But you can see that it would be quite easy for you to do it behind her back and get a deposit or credit account in her name, if there were not lots of checks and balances. Or for you to give someone else the information - or for them to 'socially engineer' the information - and for them to do it behind her back and get a deposit or credit account in her name.

Basically the online cross-checking to Experian that a bank or BS does, can be a useful way of handling the customer onboarding process quickly with minimum fuss by reference to an agency which has a list as long as your arm about current and previous financial & credit relationships of the named applicant. If that list isn't actually as long as your arm then there isn't much corroboration for the personal details which couldn't also be known by the man on the street. Things like physical passports and tax letters and utility bills are more tangible.

The idea of leaving it to 'common sense' is difficult given that bank staff may have differing levels of common sense, so in large organisations they have to come up with very binary yes/no rules about what documents work without needing escalation to someone much more senior, in what circumstances can they rely on the online check etc etc.

Some customers they think the checks are all out of proportion, "...but I lived here 50 years and I'm a very respectable retired teacher, I'm not a criminal!" - but unfortunately when doing an online application the bank clerk is not going to come over and walk up and down the street looking for people who can say you lived there 50 years and conduct background screening on them and do a forensic analysis of your curriculum vitae. It is easier to ask you to pop in with some documents.

enthusiasticsaver

I would suggest your wife takes out a mobile phone deal in her name and a credit card in her own name. Presumably there is insufficient credit data for her to be identified on her own. Using cash and not having mortgages will not help your credit records and savings and employment information again is not helpful when opening bank accounts. Why are you doing all this stuff for her? Is she not financially literate?

Uneducated_Archie

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Why are you doing all this stuff for her? Is she not financially literate?

For the same reason as a dog licks his private parts, because I can!

Regarding the Mobile Phone, she had an iphone from work (Senior Manager in the NHS), she retired earlier this year, as a present, I bought her a new Samsung Galaxy phone. I didn't want a contract phone, if she loses this one, I'll just buy her another one. No problem.

Why should she NOT my utilise my talents for investing money? We don't owe anyone any money. We own our own property. If we want a new car we go out and buy one for cash. We've had 5 holidays so far this year (India, Africa, Europe) and have three more holidays booked this year. Currently we have 660K, in cash accounts and about 104K in unit trusts, none of it has been inherited and she's waiting for her final redundancy payment of something like 47K. She'll want that investing somewhere and I'll search the web for a safe investment - a one year bond or something like that, preferably with a company where we don't already have 150K invested.

She, nor I for that matter, think one should have a dog and bark themselves.

enthusiasticsaver

Uneducated_Archie wrote: »

For the same reason as a dog licks his private parts, because I can!

Regarding the Mobile Phone, she had an iphone from work (Senior Manager in the NHS), she retired earlier this year, as a present, I bought her a new Samsung Galaxy phone. I didn't want a contract phone, if she loses this one, I'll just buy her another one. No problem.

Why should she NOT my utilise my talents for investing money? We don't owe anyone any money. We own our own property. If we want a new car we go out and buy one for cash. We've had 5 holidays so far this year (India, Africa, Europe) and have three more holidays booked this year. Currently we have 660K, in cash accounts and about 104K in unit trusts, none of it has been inherited and she's waiting for her final redundancy payment of something like 47K. She'll want that investing somewhere and I'll search the web for a safe investment - a one year bond or something like that, preferably with a company where we don't already have 150K invested.

She, nor I for that matter, think one should have a dog and bark themselves.

Savings do not show up on credit reports so none of that will help identify your wife when opening bank accounts. Quite what holidays have to do with your query I don't know. Your question was why is your wife being asked for additional confirmations when opening accounts and it has been answered. No one apart from you knows who she is.

colsten

Just an observation on the side: I think when you say "investing", you mean "saving". We distinguish between the two as they are very different approaches. Something in a bank or building society account that earns interest is savings. Something in funds and/or shares is investments.

When you open a savings account, nobody carries out a FULL credit check as you aren't applying for credit. They still check the credit file for your name and address, your presence on the ER, your financial associations, and for any CIFAS markers.

A full credit check is only made when you apply for credit, e.g. current accounts, credit cards, mobile phone contract etc.

Newly_retired

Uneducated_Archie wrote: »

For the same reason as a dog licks his private parts, because I can!

Regarding the Mobile Phone, she had an iphone from work (Senior Manager in the NHS), she retired earlier this year, as a present, I bought her a new Samsung Galaxy phone. I didn't want a contract phone, if she loses this one, I'll just buy her another one. No problem.

Why should she NOT my utilise my talents for investing money? We don't owe anyone any money. We own our own property. If we want a new car we go out and buy one for cash. We've had 5 holidays so far this year (India, Africa, Europe) and have three more holidays booked this year. Currently we have 660K, in cash accounts and about 104K in unit trusts, none of it has been inherited and she's waiting for her final redundancy payment of something like 47K. She'll want that investing somewhere and I'll search the web for a safe investment - a one year bond or something like that, preferably with a company where we don't already have 150K invested.

She, nor I for that matter, think one should have a dog and bark themselves.

uneducated Archie
I know you mean well, but if you should die first, I hope your wife will be able to cope with all the paperwork etc to sort out your financial affairs.

LHW99

Just to encourage you, my OH and I have had a joit account with our main bank for getting on for 20 years (it has good service, we change the other accounts, not that one) - and suddenly they decided that maybe my OH didn't exist or was now a 'dear departed' and insisted he send in a whole load of extra ID documents.
Weren't interested in me sending anything though.