No passport, no driving licence - anyone know what I can do?

travelodger

A friend suggests I open a cash isa with a building society, and then give its sort code and account number to the companies who currently pay into my Santander account. Anyone know if that would work?

sheramber

travelodger said:

sheramber said:

Do you get asked for ID by banks where you already have these numerous accounts?

I opened my personal current account 43 years ago and my Santander business account 23 years ago and I cannot recall what they wanted from me.  Of course back then I had a passport...

If you opened another account now with these banks they should not need ID.

I have opened several additional accounts with banks I already have accounts with , one as recent as last week, and never been asked for ID.  

EarthBoy

travelodger said:

sheramber said:

Do you get asked for ID by banks where you already have these numerous accounts?

I opened my personal current account 43 years ago and my Santander business account 23 years ago and I cannot recall what they wanted from me.  Of course back then I had a passport...

You didn't need any ID back in 1982;  none at all.  I remember walking into the Bradford and Bingley to open an account, around the same year, and all they wanted was my signature on the application form.  It was the same at the Nottingham Building Society, and at Williams & Glyn's when I opened a current account.

I think it was around the late 80s maybe even later, when they started asking for ID.  

Kim_13

travelodger said:

A friend suggests I open a cash isa with a building society, and then give its sort code and account number to the companies who currently pay into my Santander account. Anyone know if that would work?

Doubt it, it is an Individual Savings Account so the money should only be paid in by you. Only £20,000 can be paid in per tax year.

A normal savings account might, but they would be entitled to close the account if they considered you were using it for business purposes. Equally a savings account can be closed if they think it is being used too much like a current account.

You could try a personal account - but not Santander as I imagine they'd quickly identify it as an attempt not to pay them and close the account.

The MSE guide may be helpful: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/business-bank-account

travelodger

SOLVED!

Last night I tried applying to one more bank, mainly in order to get the screenshots demanding the documents I don't have, so I could print them out and present them to an actual branch, along with every other document I have that confirms my ID. To my amazement, it let me through without passport or DL and this morning I got an email welcoming me to the bank and saying that I had passed all the security checks etc. 

I could not be happier! I cannot WAIT to tell Santander where to stick their £9.99 a month fee. 

The bank I applied to was Virgin Money, which has recently been bought by Nationwide, with whom I have had a current account for 42 years. I don't know if they found that out behind the scenes and whether that affected my application.

BooJewels

Glad that you got something sorted.  They probably do make the connections behind the scene.  I went to open a Santander account years ago and they found an old Girobank account - that had become Alliance and Leicester and then absorbed by Santander.  They asked if I wanted to keep the same account number and even gave me the £1-something that was in there.

Kim_13

travelodger said:

SOLVED!

Last night I tried applying to one more bank, mainly in order to get the screenshots demanding the documents I don't have, so I could print them out and present them to an actual branch, along with every other document I have that confirms my ID. To my amazement, it let me through without passport or DL and this morning I got an email welcoming me to the bank and saying that I had passed all the security checks etc. 

I could not be happier! I cannot WAIT to tell Santander where to stick their £9.99 a month fee. 

The bank I applied to was Virgin Money, which has recently been bought by Nationwide, with whom I have had a current account for 42 years. I don't know if they found that out behind the scenes and whether that affected my application.

Thanks for the update. 

Nationwide are reasonable - they try to do electronic checks and if those fail, ask for items to be brought to branch. They accepted paper driving licence (full) and council tax bill from someone who had never had a passport, therefore no photo ID. Virgin Money presumably similar, so anyone with a credit history and address that has been current for a period of time should pass. 

App only banks demanding photo ID is to be expected, since they don't have branches that people can bring original documents to. But we don't expect the same insistence on the high street.

HedgehogRulez

Have you considered getting a passport? I think they’re valid for ID verification purposes. You can also go on holiday abroad with them which is a bonus.

Eco_Miser

HedgehogRulez said:

Have you considered getting a passport? I think they’re valid for ID verification purposes. You can also go on holiday abroad with them which is a bonus.

Obviously NOT reading the OP's post, where she states 

I'm a disabled old age pensioner. Never had a driving licence and not renewed my passport since 2020 because due to disability, I cannot travel abroad.

nor the more recent one where she states

 SOLVED!