Identity Requirements

DavidAC

Everytime I have applied to open an account I am always asked to send in ID documents, it has never been done by the savings provider searches. This is a real pain since I dont have a photo ID. I am registerd for tax and send in a tax return every year, I am on the electrol roll and receive polling cards, I have worked for the same company for well over 10 years and been at the same address for over 10 years. Is this a common problem? Does anyone know what I could do so savings provider searches verify my ID and address?

chesky369

You have a birth certificate and a utility bill - together they would be OK.

Scousebird_2

chesky369 wrote: »

You have a birth certificate and a utility bill - together they would be OK.

If you are under 18 a Birth Cert is very rarely accepted-you need a passport or Driving License (full).

ID is always asked for to comply with AML regulations and to comply with the law.

chesky369

I assume, as the OP said they'd be on the electoral roll for ten years, then they would be over 18 in which case a birth certificate is fine. There ARE people who actually have never been abroad or learnt to drive - really there are.

Baldur

Scousebird wrote: »

ID is always asked for to comply with AML regulations and to comply with the law.

Not always paper or photo ID though - I opened this year's ISA with HSBC (with whom I don't bank and have no other connection, other than 400 Preferential shares in HBOS from their takeover of Birmingham Midshires years ago) the staff member nervously asked if she could make 'electronic checks'.

I agreed, and she almost fell off her chair when the response was positive, saying that I was the first customer, with whom she had dealt, where she had not had a negative response and had to go on to other forms of establishing a customer's ID.

Meltdown_2

Perhaps she had only been working there for a short while ...
'Electronic checks' would presumably work for most people who are matched on the electoral roll, with a clean credit record.

Meltdown_2

DavidAC wrote: »

Everytime I have applied to open an account I am always asked to send in ID documents, it has never been done by the savings provider searches. This is a real pain since I dont have a photo ID. I am registerd for tax and send in a tax return every year, I am on the electrol roll and receive polling cards, I have worked for the same company for well over 10 years and been at the same address for over 10 years. Is this a common problem? Does anyone know what I could do so savings provider searches verify my ID and address?

Some local authorities can have a very strange way of describing particular addresses on the electoral roll. If the address (as you write it) differs from the way it appears on the ER then an 'electronic check' (data-matching on that element) will fail.
Find out exactly how your address is described on the ER and if it is different to the one you would normally use, then try the ER layout when applying for an account.

Meltdown_2

Scousebird wrote: »

If you are under 18 a Birth Cert is very rarely accepted-you need a passport or Driving License (full).

No, you don't need them, in the sense that they are required. (Though they are, of course, useful ID documents.) As has been said, many people do not have these, and have opened accounts.

ID is always asked for to comply with AML regulations and to comply with the law.

The law just requires you to be (reasonably) sure of the identity of the person you are about to transact business with. This doesn't necessarily require you to ask for ID.

dunstonh

Around 95% of my transactions are verified electronically.

The money laundering requirements are based on risk and guidelines rather than specific rules (although there are many specifics in the consequences if you dont do it right) and being able to prove you satisfied the requirements. Evidence is vital as the FSA generally take the view that if it isnt documented it didnt happen.

Because of it being mainly guidelines rather than rules, you will get differences between providers. Most will follow the standards which are generally accepted but you may find some that dont or will accept a document that others will not.

For example, a birth certificate is no good once you are aged 18 or over. It is good for an under 18.

Companies have also been fined in the past for not having satisfactory money laundering checks and countless times companies get warned they need to do more or change they way they do things. Plus, the rules seem to change quite often. Last change was December 07. So, what may have been done a couple of years ago may not be acceptable now.