Charter Savings Bank cash ISA account opening - not.

largeronald

Just a cautionary tale regarding the hoops unsuccessfully jumped through attempting to open a cash ISA with Charter Savings Bank.

Last week, my wife decided to move her cash ISA from Moneybox to Charter Savings Bank for reasons of interest rate. Filled in the online form stating that she wished to transfer an existing ISA, printed off the form and sent it off. Letter no. 1. Received an email a couple of days later, asking for proof of identity and address. Printed off a photo of her current passport and a statement from her designated bank account. Letter no. 2.

A couple of days later, received a phone call (allegedly) from Charter Savings asking security questions. The caller flatly refused to say what the call was concerning, so my wife refused to answer any questions, instead phoning the contact number quoted on the Charter Savings website. Went through the usual rigmarole of getting through to someone and learnt that printouts of statements were not acceptable. Also told that sending the actual pdf file of the statement via email wasn't acceptable either. Charter Savings, an online provider, have obviously never heard of paperless statements. After much discussion regarding what was acceptable proof of address (all household bills were in her husband's name and her driving licence was an old paper one and by definition too old to be acceptable) it was agreed that a recent P60 (original paper document) from a pension provider WOULD be acceptable. Letter no. 3.

Received a voicemail a couple of days later asking to contact Charter Savings again. Another phone call ensued, informing my wife that the P60 was NOT acceptable at all. At which point, both of us - rapidly losing the will to live - and unable to think of any other way of providing proof of identity, decided to call it a day.

In summary, in Charter Savings eyes, passports, current bank account statements, and P60 letters no longer provide proof of identity.

I wish any forumite attempting what we failed at miserably the best of luck. Perhaps you could let me know how you got on.

eskbanker

To be fair, they do clarify that a passport photocopy is OK, but that a copy of a bank statement isn't, and neither is a P60 (their staff should obviously know this though):

UK Passport
• Must be current and valid - a photocopy is acceptable. If sending a copy, please send the personal details page (the one with your photo).

[…]

HMRC documentation
• Not a P45 or P60.
• Must be an original document and dated within the last 12 months.

UK Bank or Building Society statement
• Must not be printed from your online banking account or an ATM machine.
• Must be an original statement and dated within the last 3 months.

https://www.chartersavingsbank.co.uk/media/esxfsyyq/01085-identity-requirements.pdf

largeronald

Thank you for your reply.

You are correct, and it is our own stupid fault for applying an iota of common sense to the process instead of thoroughly digesting the small print. My wife is in the process of instructing her bank to no longer issue her with digital statements but to go back to sending her the good old pen and paper versions.

By the way, another of the suggestions during the interminable phone calls was that a printout done from my wife's bank website rather than their app would be acceptable. No, I didn't understand that one either - again, clearly not true.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82115866#Comment_82115866

For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not condoning their stance (and agree in particular that original bank statements shouldn't be specified in this day and age), but just clarifying that it's (largely) consistent with what they publish.

largeronald

I accept what you say, and flippancy aside, we should have read the small print more thoroughly and not rely on what we were told over the phone. However, seemingly unfathomable bureaucracy is not the only reason for the venting of the spleen.

The more troubling aspect of this is that Charter Savings are encouraging people to divulge their account security details to phone callers without any proof that they are who they say they are and a flat refusal to disclose the purpose of the phone call. If that is not the action of a scammer (and I'm NOT suggesting that Charter Savings are in any way dodgy), then I don't know what is, and it goes against all the published advice on how to deal with unknown callers. It makes any assertions that Charter Savings' processes are designed in any way in the interests of security laughable.

poseidon1

I have been with Charter Savings since 2016. Thankfully none of these enhanced ID requirements exsisted back then.

Must confess if I were not already a client and were now faced with this level of intrusive and unreasonable requirements I would not be applying.

Thankfully all my current 18 savings institutions, have been satisfied with standard online checks without my having to supply any supporting data. Keeping the dormant ones in play will hopefully insulate me ( for a while) from enhanced ID requirements.

Money_Stitch

Slight sidestep from the OP's frustrations, but I have never been asked for a P45 or P60 when opening a financial account or ISA product. Is that a thing? Why is that needed?

largeronald

It's not that either of these were required; we were clutching at straws trying to find some form of documentation that we were in possession of that Charter Savings might accept as proof of address. We failed.

Newly_retired

I agree that it is unacceptable practice for a bank to ring up and ask for such information - sounding like a scammer.

Just a thought for future reference, it might be a good idea to to get some of the household bills in both names.

SacredStephan

Did Charter confirm that an in-date, valid UK paper non-photo driving licence is not acceptable, or is it your supposition?

largeronald

It's my supposition, because by definition, it's at least 26 years old. The new licences came in in 2000, I think.