First Direct want proof of identity years after account opened: anyone else affected?

Archi_Bald wrote: »

As it happens, I have. It cost me £18.65 for my passport, in 2012. And yes, I do know the difference between solicitors and notaries.

Treacle1983 wrote: »

...called a few ...people registered as public notaries near me and will cost £150 inc their fee to get the documents authorised and stamped.

jobbingmusician wrote: »

...Don't use a notary or other professional who is not a friend, as they are likely to charge through the nose for this service. Solicitors can be reasonable, however.

Notarised in the UK means something rather different to the US and some other countries. In the latter it just means a certified copy.

Here a notary will go through it letter by letter and probably run a check that it's genuine. £50 if you are lucky. A solicitor might just glance at it and charge a fiver to sign it's a true copy

How much will document certification cost?
A solicitor is likely to charge between £5 and £10 for certifying your information. If you use a solicitor’s services they will usually be able to certify the documentation quickly and charge a far lower fee than a notary. You should also be able to see a solicitor fairly quickly without having to make an appointment (in most cases).
However, a notary public will usually charge a higher fee and it will often take them longer to certify the documentation. Notary public fees vary but you should expect to pay in the region of ten times the amount a solicitor would charge for certifying a document. A notary public will justify this on account of the additional training and examinations they have had to take in order to qualify as a notary, and the extra checks on the documentation they will usually have to carry out.

Why does it cost so much to certify a copy of a document as a true copy?

Most people rarely ever need a notary. For matters or transactions etc in England you do not need a notary. The result is that the role of a notary, and what s/he has to do are largely unknown.
A very common view is that the only role a notary has it put their seal and signature on a document after a person a signs a document, or on a copy of a document. Other than that a notary has nothing else to do. That is the notary is not concerned with (or should not be concerned with) the matter, transaction etc the client is involved in.
This is not so. For every client a notary sees a notary must do a number of things:

• identify the client
• understand why the client wants to sign a document or have a document copied
• prepare a document which is attached to the signed or copied document which contains certain information (or write that information on to the document signed by the client or the copy of a document)
• make (and keep) a record of what has occurred

None of these are optional, but do mean that for something as simple as certifying a copy of a person’s passport the cost can seem quite high. As a comparison, solicitors are often ask to certify copies of documents. As a solicitor I would not need normally to do any of the above. Most solicitors would just write on a photocopy of the document words such as

‘I certify that this is a true copy of the original’

and then add their signature, print (or use a rubber stamp to add) their name and firm details and state the date, and that would be that. For an example of a notarised copy of a passport see the attached, and the equivalent what a solicitor might do. For a breakdown on time spent and costs involved in dealing with a copy of a passport as a notary and as a solicitor see this document.