Proof of identity for Cynergy Bank

medgoode

I recently encouraged my girlfriend to open a new savings account with Cynergy Bank, as her current savings account with Halifax was a pitiful 0.10% and Cynergy Bank was the best seller at the time. It took a lot of persuading, as she is not one for filling out forms and did not see much benefit considering how much she was going to deposit, but in the end she did it.

Cynergy Bank asked her for proof of identity, citing the Post Office as one place where she could do this. As the other options were a solicitor (we don't know one personally and have never used one) and a bank (she tried her own bank, but they wouldn't provide the service) she went to the Post Office and used their document verification service. This cost £10.50. She duly posted the documents to Cynergy Bank.

They replied a short while later saying that the documents were not valid as the person at the post office had not put their name, position and address on the verification. When she returned to the Post Office to complain they said that they do not do this as part of the service, therefore would not give her a refund.

Since amount of interest she would receive from the savings account is less than the money (and time) she has already spent trying to get the documents verifed she says she is giving up. I advised her to call Cynergy Bank to at least tell them that there is no way of her getting the documents verified that meets their criteria and that they should just stop the application process.

Having explained the situation I have a couple of questions:

1. Has anyone else had a similar experience trying to prove their identity with Cynergy Bank?
2. Has the Post Office provided a misleading service, considering their validated documents were not of any use?
3. Is there any way my girlfriend could recover the money she has lost?
4. Would terminating the application affect her credit history?

Unfortunately the consequence of all this is that she is very unlikely to want to try opening another savings account, so will probably stick with the awful rate Halifax is giving her :-(

medgoode

I see the a thread with ID 75319876 ("Trying to open an account with Cynergy Bank!!!") asks a similar question. Sorry, it won't let me link.

However, it does not address the fact that there does not seem to be any method available to my girlfriend for proving her identity to the satisfaction of Cynergy Bank.

Furthermore one of the three options they cite (Post Office) is not actually acceptable to them!

777Steve

It seems all savings accounts are similar to this now unless you’re already a customer.
I’ve given up this week trying to open a Kent Reliance savings account. I was also trying to open a Sainsburys bank savings account and they were slightly better but only just. To avoid the certified bit my only option was to send my actual driving license along with a council tax bill. God knows if I’ll ever see it again but I decided it was my only option if I was ever going to get one of these accounts open. The certified process is ludicrous and must put off 99% of applicants. It really needs looking at.
I’d hope the PO would refund you as they really haven’t provided the service for which they charged. Keep complaining and good luck.

Shedman

When we got ID documents certified by the Post Office late last year they were signed by the clerk , name written in Capitals,, position stated I.e, Post Office Clerk and stamped with official PO stamp that clearly shows the relevant PO branch and certified with the words "I certify I have seen the original of this document" This should meet all of Cynergy's requirements so if the PO haven't done this then complain again as that it was their service should be providing and clearly in your instance the clerk did not know what they were doing.

firestone

My wife used the Post office service not sure they put their position (and don't think its mentioned on form) but they certified each photo copy and printed name & signed plus date stamped
Complain again if thats not been done

colsten

I have used the PO verification service before. They stamped, dated and signed it. Anything that isn't stamped, dated and signed isn't certified. There's a contact form on the PO website that you can use to ask them what their practice is, and to complain if necessary.

Is your girlfriend on the Electoral Register (ER), with her current address? Is she using the exact same address on the ER, on her credit files, and on her application? Because then she should have sailed through the electronic ID verification.

Lastly, would your girlfriend be tempted by sharing £200 with you and getting a 5% AER account?

Or £150, and getting a 3% AER account?

Or both?

If you have neither a Nationwide nor a TSB account yourself, you could make even more money, as someone will be happy to refer you to get the ball(s) rolling. It's a bit more involved as you'd need to switch an existing current account but you can set up switching donor accounts if you don't want to switch an existing current account.

OceanSound

medgoode wrote: »

....
.....They replied a short while later saying that the documents were not valid as the person at the post office had not put their name, position and address on the verification. When she returned to the Post Office to complain they said that they do not do this as part of the service, therefore would not give her a refund.
.......
Unfortunately the consequence of all this is that she is very unlikely to want to try opening another savings account, so will probably stick with the awful rate Halifax is giving her :-(

You shouldn't need to jump through hoops like this to prove your ID.

There are other providers offering 1.50% rate or close to it.

Virgin Double take e-saver (note you can only withdraw money 2 times every year) offers 1.50%. If you are okay with their corporate probity and social responsibility, you may want to consider Marcus at 1.50%.

The new AA savings account also offers a rate of 1.47%. I opened AA savings account about 2 months ago (with rate 1.36%) and remember the process was straight-forward. You can also earn some cashback if applying through Topcashback.

medgoode

Thanks everyone for the advice. I will try to persuade her to open a Virgin Money monthly saver account, as that must be opened in the branch and so therefore she can just take her passport. She could also then open the access twice account mentioned.

The root of the problem I think is that some of her financial accounts had her previous address and others had her current address. This may look suspicious to some providers. But to make it so complicated is complete unnecessary.