Can't open savings account

Kim_13

It’s certainly lazy - if an electronic check has failed, they should give her the option of sending in the required proof of ID rather than declining.

A current account should be on there, but sometimes ones that were opened decades ago are not. This may be why your wife’s would have nothing on it, but it should still report her as on the electoral roll at your address. The credit card you have will only appear on your credit file as the primary account holder and not on hers.

Jaguar98

It might be worth having her check her credit report for any inaccuracies and consider contacting the banks directly to discuss alternative ways to verify her identity.

Vendee

So I just put my wife's information into the Transunion credit checker via the MSE link and it came back:- 
"We can’t provide your credit score because you have a ‘thin credit file’ "
That doesn't mean she doesn't exist, it just means the bank is using a flawed/cheap/lazy method of confirming her identity. If she was wanting to borrow money then this would be grounds for rejection but not for investing a reasonable amount of money. 

Nasqueron

Vendee said:

So I just put my wife's information into the Transunion credit checker via the MSE link and it came back:- 
"We can’t provide your credit score because you have a ‘thin credit file’ "
That doesn't mean she doesn't exist, it just means the bank is using a flawed/cheap/lazy method of confirming her identity. If she was wanting to borrow money then this would be grounds for rejection but not for investing a reasonable amount of money. 

It is neither flawed, nor cheap, nor lazy - it's a system that has been used for decades to verify identity. If you are unhappy with their business model, use a different firm, their approach to identity verification is their choice and allows them to do their their legally required identity checks/know your customer

Vendee

Nasqueron said:

Vendee said:

So I just put my wife's information into the Transunion credit checker via the MSE link and it came back:- 
"We can’t provide your credit score because you have a ‘thin credit file’ "
That doesn't mean she doesn't exist, it just means the bank is using a flawed/cheap/lazy method of confirming her identity. If she was wanting to borrow money then this would be grounds for rejection but not for investing a reasonable amount of money. 

It is neither flawed, nor cheap, nor lazy - it's a system that has been used for decades to verify identity. If you are unhappy with their business model, use a different firm, their approach to identity verification is their choice and allows them to do their their legally required identity checks/know your customer

Disagree strongly. They are using a system designed to rate your creditworthiness to verify your identity. It disadvantages people who have done nothing wrong except not having had the need to borrow money in the past 20 years. There are better ways to establish a persons identity, ways that don't exclude a certain group of people. As for using a different firm, she has already tried 2 banks. If they are all using the same credit agency then the results will be the same. They are using a method of verification that unfairly discriminates against a group of people.

eskbanker

Vendee said:

So I just put my wife's information into the Transunion credit checker via the MSE link and it came back:- 
"We can’t provide your credit score because you have a ‘thin credit file’ "
That doesn't mean she doesn't exist, it just means the bank is using a flawed/cheap/lazy method of confirming her identity. If she was wanting to borrow money then this would be grounds for rejection but not for investing a reasonable amount of money. 

But there's a difference between a credit score and a credit file, and she obviously has the latter if it's described as 'thin' - you/she can presumably see what's recorded there?

Nasqueron

Vendee said:

Nasqueron said:

Vendee said:

So I just put my wife's information into the Transunion credit checker via the MSE link and it came back:- 
"We can’t provide your credit score because you have a ‘thin credit file’ "
That doesn't mean she doesn't exist, it just means the bank is using a flawed/cheap/lazy method of confirming her identity. If she was wanting to borrow money then this would be grounds for rejection but not for investing a reasonable amount of money. 

It is neither flawed, nor cheap, nor lazy - it's a system that has been used for decades to verify identity. If you are unhappy with their business model, use a different firm, their approach to identity verification is their choice and allows them to do their their legally required identity checks/know your customer

Disagree strongly. They are using a system designed to rate your creditworthiness to verify your identity. It disadvantages people who have done nothing wrong except not having had the need to borrow money in the past 20 years. There are better ways to establish a persons identity, ways that don't exclude a certain group of people. As for using a different firm, she has already tried 2 banks. If they are all using the same credit agency then the results will be the same. They are using a method of verification that unfairly discriminates against a group of people.

Again it's not a disadvantage at all - if you're on the electoral register and have a bank account in your name, that is all you need - you don't need any credit history to be on the credit agency sites. There are three major agencies in the UK, most firms report to all of them though only use one for credit checks. You need to drop accusations of discrimination, there is none.

An online bank like Atom can freely choose to use whatever ID checks they are required to by law then any further checks like submitting a photo of your ID in the app and doing a selfie as part of the checks

Vendee

eskbanker said:

Vendee said:

So I just put my wife's information into the Transunion credit checker via the MSE link and it came back:- 
"We can’t provide your credit score because you have a ‘thin credit file’ "
That doesn't mean she doesn't exist, it just means the bank is using a flawed/cheap/lazy method of confirming her identity. If she was wanting to borrow money then this would be grounds for rejection but not for investing a reasonable amount of money. 

But there's a difference between a credit score and a credit file, and she obviously has the latter if it's described as 'thin' - you/she can presumably see what's recorded there?

No option to see any more information. It just says:- 

What’s a thin credit file?

It’s when you don’t have enough credit history for a score to be generated.

Vendee

Nasqueron said:

Vendee said:

Nasqueron said:

Vendee said:

So I just put my wife's information into the Transunion credit checker via the MSE link and it came back:- 
"We can’t provide your credit score because you have a ‘thin credit file’ "
That doesn't mean she doesn't exist, it just means the bank is using a flawed/cheap/lazy method of confirming her identity. If she was wanting to borrow money then this would be grounds for rejection but not for investing a reasonable amount of money. 

It is neither flawed, nor cheap, nor lazy - it's a system that has been used for decades to verify identity. If you are unhappy with their business model, use a different firm, their approach to identity verification is their choice and allows them to do their their legally required identity checks/know your customer

Disagree strongly. They are using a system designed to rate your creditworthiness to verify your identity. It disadvantages people who have done nothing wrong except not having had the need to borrow money in the past 20 years. There are better ways to establish a persons identity, ways that don't exclude a certain group of people. As for using a different firm, she has already tried 2 banks. If they are all using the same credit agency then the results will be the same. They are using a method of verification that unfairly discriminates against a group of people.

Again it's not a disadvantage at all - if you're on the electoral register and have a bank account in your name, that is all you need - you don't need any credit history to be on the credit agency sites. There are three major agencies in the UK, most firms report to all of them though only use one for credit checks. You need to drop accusations of discrimination, there is none.

An online bank like Atom can freely choose to use whatever ID checks they are required to by law then any further checks like submitting a photo of your ID in the app and doing a selfie as part of the checks

I understand that Atom are required by law to establish a clients identity. The method they are choosing to do this is discriminatory. People with insufficient credit history are disbarred from using their services. Your credit history and your identity are completely separate things. 

Inbetweeners

Repeatedly saying something is discriminatory doesn't make it so. Lets run with your opinion that it is - it is not unlawful to discriminate unless it's a protected characteristic, which is not the case here.

Call it lazy, or whatever, with Atom being an online only presence they are not interested in other methods.