No Photo ID

WeeBawbee

AmityNeon said:

It costs less than £10 a year to maintain validity, so you can either accept it by budgeting accordingly,

Hmm, at £10/year, it’d take 9 years to save up for one. Your tone is very unhelpful, IMHO.

happybagger

AmityNeon said:

I accepted long ago it was never just a ‘travel’ document,

Which is fine as you're concerned, that's what you have come to accept it as. However, that is exactly what it is. I assume you travel abroad, which would be the reason you got it?

Torry_Quine

I'm not eligible for my state pension for several years. However I've never had a driving licence and the only passing ever had expired long before The twin towers attack. It's not just the elderly who are excluded. 

masonic

WeeBawbee said:

AmityNeon said:

It costs less than £10 a year to maintain validity, so you can either accept it by budgeting accordingly,

Hmm, at £10/year, it’d take 9 years to save up for one. Your tone is very unhelpful, IMHO.

In fairness, using it for the NatWest or RBS bank switching incentive would more than cover the cost.

I see a valid passport as the gateway to free money, so wouldn't be without one. National ID card might be a preferable option, but we don't have one and I'd be doubtful sucha scheme would be much cheaper to introduce and administer.

WeeBawbee

masonic said:

In fairness, using it for the NatWest or RBS bank switching incentive would more than cover the cost.

I would if I could but I still need the same ID! 

WeeBawbee

I got on the phone to Chase earlier and they gave me the option, after more security checks, of transferring all the money from my accounts to another bank. So that’s what I’ve done. The problem is the app itself, which is set up to accept one of only the 3 forms of ID. You can only access your accounts through the app so it’s bye bye Chase from me. Their customer service is APPALLING!

masonic

WeeBawbee said:

masonic said:

In fairness, using it for the NatWest or RBS bank switching incentive would more than cover the cost.

I would if I could but I still need the same ID! 

If you paid for a passport, you would have one. Then it would pay for itself by allowing you to profit from the various bank incentives. That was the point of my post.

Expotter

You're all assuming here that obtaining a new passport is a simple and relative cheap and painless process.
Spare a thought for foreign nationals residing in the UK, especially non EU citizens, it can involve booking an appointment months in advance in a Consulate or Embassy in London, paying way more than £90 plus the travelling expenses and  waiting for several months for it to be issued in the country of origin and eventually posted via recorded delivery to you at your own cost. And to top it all it may only last for 5 years. Plus if you're a married woman the name in it probably won't match the one you use in the UK, so you still can't use it for online ID.
Not exactly easy, is it? Considering that most, if not all accounts, are open to UK residents and not nationals, it could be seen as a form of discrimination, just saying.

happybagger

masonic said:

I see a valid passport as the gateway to free money, 

Only ever had one bank reject my online application, which it seemed was due to me putting my middle initial in.  Never had any other issue anywhere. Yet my last passport expired 23 years ago.

For some, it might be a gateway to get free money, I don't see it. For me a passport would be for going abroad, which I believe is its intended purpose. There was a page in it about allowing "safe passage" IIRC, not about "opening savings accounts"

AmityNeon

happybagger said:

AmityNeon said:

I accepted long ago it was never just a ‘travel’ document,

Which is fine as you're concerned, that's what you have come to accept it as. However, that is exactly what it is. I assume you travel abroad, which would be the reason you got it?

My parents forced me abroad when I was a baby. The reason I maintain passport validity is to possess the silver bullet of identity proof for all circumstances, not because I travel; it just so happens I can travel with it. It’s a travel document accepted quite literally everywhere in the world as the gold standard for proving one’s identity, birth place and citizenship, so it serves a purpose beyond simply allowing a person to travel internationally.

I have dual citizenship and maintain two active passports as well as a (free) national ID card. Since I was a child old enough to understand the concept of proving one’s identity, I’ve always wanted the UK to implement (free) national ID cards, but I stopped caring when the British public were seemingly wary of such a concept, so I just accepted the British passport as de facto government-issued UK ID.

Students often have trouble entering 18+ venues without a passport or driving licence, so they front the cost to obtain either one, not because they want to travel or drive, but to bypass the red tape that prevents them from participating in adult social life. The PASS scheme is a poor substitution with countless anecdotes of such cards being refused.