Opening a savings account

babs98

This morning I tried to open a savings account paying higher interest than the institution I'm currently with. 

First I tried Yorkshire BS who have contracted out verifying identity to a company called Hooyu.  Their process involves having the applicant's picture taken on the webcam.  It didn't like my face!  It didn't register that I was there at all. But when my husband took my place it took the picture immediately! I gave up.

Next I tried Family BS. The procedure here includes downloading a number of documents and it won't continue the application process until they have been downloaded. Unfortunately the FSCS document won't download.  I tried telephoning and went into a queue - I gave up waiting.

Then I tried Tesco.  It took some time to key in all the information they wanted and when I had finished a message came up saying the process had timed out. So I re-input everything at lightning speed - and it timed out again. I gave up.

Finally I tried Sainsbury's - and succeeded. 

It would be useful if these banks/bs were rated on things like ease of opening/closing an account - it would save me a lot of time.

Albermarle

Normally you do not have to verify your identity when opening a savings account, it happens automatically as the provider can check electronically. However it does happen sometimes for the following reasons;
1) The background checks are flagging up an issue . This could be maybe if you have just moved address or are not on the electoral roll, or other reasons. Names can be misspelt etc 
2) The provider has a policy to fully verify everybody. Only a handful of smaller ones do at most do this. 
3) There can be random checks.

So you have either been unlucky, or there is some issue in the info on you on the public record.

As you have found out the verification processes can be cumbersome, so if it is requested you can just stop the application process and try another provider, and hope it all goes through automatically like it should do.