New savings account declined

Roundpurse

My daughter is trying to open a savings account online and keeps getting declined. No reason is being given. She has called the bank who say they cannot help and she needs to use the online chat for help. The online chat people say they cannot help and she needs to contact Equifax to see what the problem is. Equifax won’t help unless she opens an account with them. She’s 18 and has no debt or credit history so she doesn’t want to open an Equifax account.  What could be the issue here and how can she get an account opened?

MikeJXE

I had the same problem with a  credit card

I got a free credit report from Experian, applied on line and it arrived in the post about a week later.

I wasn't aware credit checks were done with savings accounts

My granddaughter opened a savings account with Marcus in seconds 

Marcus might be worth a try 

ForumUser7

Roundpurse said:

My daughter is trying to open a savings account online and keeps getting declined. No reason is being given. She has called the bank who say they cannot help and she needs to use the online chat for help. The online chat people say they cannot help and she needs to contact Equifax to see what the problem is. Equifax won’t help unless she opens an account with them. She’s 18 and has no debt or credit history so she doesn’t want to open an Equifax account.  What could be the issue here and how can she get an account opened?

Which provider and account is this occurring with please? Is it by any chance a NatWest Group Digital Regular Saver - I also found they have application support based over chat only, which is most irritating as the team on chat aren't particularly helpful.

Also, if your daughter recently turned 18, she may find for the first couple of months credit reference agencies are still compiling data and she'll fail electronic checks. I found this was the case for me, but now most work fine.

MikeJXE said:

I had the same problem with a  credit card

I got a free credit report from Experian, applied on line and it arrived in the post about a week later.

I wasn't aware credit checks were done with savings accounts

My granddaughter opened a savings account with Marcus in seconds 

Marcus might be worth a try 

It is probably a soft search to act as an electronic ID check - these are done with credit reference agencies by some providers.

If OP's daughter wants to request an Equifax statutory report, it can be done here: https://www.equifax.co.uk/Products/credit/statutory-report

Personally, I made an account with them - be careful to ensure you select the free of charge option rather than the monthly paid subscription. The service allows you to generate new up to date statutory reports whenever you wish online, and they are viewable immediately.

masonic

https://www.clearscore.com/credit-scores will give her free access to her Equifax credit report. She should confirm that her report shows her as on the electoral roll at the address she is using for the application as this is a likely reason she'd fail an identity check. If she has no credit history (i.e. not even a contract phone or current account being reported) then that would be another reason, but most people at 18 would have some form of credit account and these should start reporting data.

xylophone

Has she ever had a savings/bank current account?

boingy

You really shouldn't need a credit reference to open a savings account so I think that might be a red herring.
It's more likely to be that they can't verify her ID electronically because her lack of history - past addresses, electoral register etc.
Which bank is it?
She might need to go into a branch n person with ID and open an account the old fashioned way.