Bank Identity Procedure?

[Alistair Robertson 1Participant @alistairrobertson1]

Hi, All.

I have just had to complete the identification procedure for a Registered Charity Bank Account and it has taken a couple of hours with various false starts etc.

This is only to allow me to counter-sign a cheque or allow an online transaction if the Treasurer or Vice Chairman cannot for some reason.

First of all they needed all my details filled in on an on-line form.  No Problem there!

They then needed a “Live” photo taken by a webcam or a mobile phone.  Your face had to be about 75mm from the camera, but of course you couldn’t see the instructions on the screen because you had to remove your specs to get a “Legitimate” photo.   The photo is “accepted” then it says “Please Repeat the Procedure” do it again and “Accepted” again.

They then ask for a scan of your driving license, Front showing your photo. No problem or so I thought but scan is too big?  Sent again, accepted but they need a scan of the back of the license!!   Did that and was asked why did I have a listing for an HGV license. I’ve had it for years but haven’t used it for about 10 years?

Had to send an official letterhead with my address and postcode.  I sent an NHS letter from my doctor but they wanted the whole page? I asked why and they said to check that the letter was genuine. What has my medical history got to do with them?

Anyone else got anything similar/

Stop Press!! They have just rejected my application. Guess why? I have not supplied enough information!!

Alistair

[Martin of WickParticipant @martinofwick]

It is because organisations are dis-functional due to the death grip of lawyers and the fact nobody can be bothered to pick up a phone and query this nonsense to kill it off at birth. The pandemic of stupidity doesn’t help either.

Wait ’til you come to sell a house …( have you ever kept an untaxed vehicle on you property?). Among other stupid questions. WTF has that got to do with anything.

All is complete nonsense of course because the processes are easily circumvented by even the simplest criminal mind. It just criminalises the rest of us and adds to the tedium of everyday life.

 

[ChrisLHParticipant @chrislh]

Yes, similar rigmarole for a gardening club bank account. Half a dozen (I have actually lost count) letters threatening to close the account if I didn’t get in touch by phone. On getting in touch I answered, on each occasion, several personal questions to the satisfaction of the perhaps Eastern European interrogator who was difficult (for me who is a bit deaf) to understand. Then new letter and new interrogation with no indication of any communication between old and new inquisitors etc.and so on. Apparently it’s all to make sure that the club is not involved in money laundering. It must be costing Barclays a fortune the way they are going about it just in phone calls and postage let alone the wages of those they have hired to do the interrogating and the money they ought to be paying me for my time they’ve squandered.

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

Popped into our bank a couple of weeks back to get a small problem with one of my wife’s accounts sorted eventually we were take into a scruffy little room and to cut the rest short they wanted two forms of ID the wife had her driving licence and a letter which they would not accept demanding passport I could not believe they wanted so much ID for such a rival matter. The bank in in the town centre there are about 4 disabled parking bays but if lucky to get one still bit of a walk so faced with having to come back another day wife closed the account and will be moving to one with better parking, I should add it wasn’t just having to come back it was the attitude of the member of staff thinking if you have grey hair you must be thick and unable to understand to stuff

H

[Alistair Robertson 1Participant @alistairrobertson1]

UPDATE!

They asked me to resend all my details including the Webcam to certify that I was actually alive. Did it including looking up my own nose to be told the photo was not allowed to be updated!!

License was out of date, no I just got a new one two weeks ago!

Then “Congratulations You Have Been Accepted as A Signatory of Account No. XXXXXXXX”

I have been able to sign on paper for the last 14 years but with most transactions on-line this whole procedure has become necessary!

[Martin of WickParticipant @martinofwick]

This will get a lot worse before it gets any better (If it will get better at all). Banks are now having to bear the full cost of fraud due to their inadequate systems, complacency and incompetence. Until now they managed to get away with blaming the customer and the punters had to foot the bills, have their lives ruined and so on.

Now banks are getting to understand that the £1.5  billion of financial fraud at current rate, may be a ‘cost of doing business’ that they are not prepared to pay (radical solutions like solving the issues were put in the ‘too difficult box’ long ago). Hence the general panic and knee-jerk measures set out above.

In the end the punters will still pay through higher charges, being de-banked, or de-serviced, etc. On present form, banks are moving to a position where normal business as we used to understand it will become impossible. At that point, naturally they will ask for the taxpayer to be supporting them yet again.

 

[dodmoleParticipant @dodmole]

I know of the perfect identification method.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Include unobstructed closeup photographic evidence of your inside leg measurement.

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

I blame AI  !!  It can’t think for itself.

[Bo’sunParticipant @bosun58570]

No chance for me then.  I don’t have a passport, and I still have a pink paper driving licence.

Why on earth do these organisations assume we’ve all got photo ID.  Not to mention a smart phone.

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

When I first signed up for a bank account the security question was my mother’s maiden name.

Pleased to see it is better than that.

[Mike HurleyParticipant @mikehurley60381]

Unfortumately with fraud being so widespread, I’m OK with extra security – even though it might be a real pain sometimes.

If, like Harry Wilkes you’re not happy with your treatment by staff

a) Complain to the bank

b) If no response, change banks (it’s dead easy these days). We did – to a building society and are well impressed – plus you might get a few hundred quid for nothing.

Mike

 

 

[An OtherParticipant @another21905]

100% with Mike Hurley, take your business elsewhere if the bank doesn’t want to know, but note that if you don’t live in the UK, you can’t start an account at another UK bank without a UK address. I have a pension which will only pay into a UK account, so I am stuck with a bank that has no idea of customer service. (its one of the big ones). Latest cockup was a change in their online login software, which locked me out of my account for weeks. Numerous phone-calls for assistance got me nowhere.

 

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

My wife had taken over the family finances and I was lazy enough to let her get on with it. Unfortunately I didn’t realise how poor her record keeping was. She died in November and I’ve been trying to sort everything out. We had savings spread about several banks because of the 85K FSCS protection limits and she had several credit and debit cards – and kept no paper statements.

Mobile phone banking is all very good except when someone dies and you don’t have access to their passwords.

Most of the accounts were in joint names but even then the difference in demands from the different banks was quite astounding. Nearly all do have bereavement lines so at least that reduces the time spent holding on waiting for a person rather than AI gibberish. They also have individual rules regarding limits. Some banks are quite happy to deal with £50K plus just on confirmation of identity but some demand probate for sums as low as £25K.

Its a real PITA when theoretically there is no need for probate between spouses. Probate would be easy without the need for IHT forms where the estate is less than £3 million BUT with a pension plan in trust then gov demands all the IHT forms get filled in.

The easiest bank to deal with was santander. They were brilliant.. able to check themselves that death cert had been filed while I was on the phone and no need to send it to them. Very efficient with posting 18mths of statement on all our accounts and transferring my wife’s balances to my accounts instantly.

Some banks were happy to accept scans by email but some demand a host of documentation sent by post. And you can guess that the postal service has already lost the original marriage certificate than one organisation demanded.

Daftest was my attempt to move some money to a better rate with Aldemore. We used to have a savings account with them as recently as 2 years ago but my attempt to open a new one with all the nonsense OP went through with photos and uploads was refused. I rang them to find out what the problem was and it turned out that there was a  discrepancy with the format of my address (rural, no street name etc) and their credit checks. Apparently they expected me to ring the credit checking company and discuss, sort it out with them. And they wouldn’t do it themselves. After wasting all that time they lost a potential customer.

I’m all for security but this is nonsense as is the time that must be wasted UK wide hanging on phones and punching numbers and waiting for a real person. Saving on staff numbers has to be harming the general economy with more people hanging on phones frustratedly trying to do business.

pgk

[An OtherParticipant @another21905]

I reckon you have hit THE nail on the head, pgk – the one big really annoying thing is the impossibility of quickly getting to talk to a human being in any large organisation when you need help – I couldn’t begin to add up the time I have wasted and the expense I have been put to simply because these companies are afraid to talk to their customers – and now we have AI.

 

[R Johns 1Participant @rjohns1]

I get these problems all the time. My only crime is that I am deaf. All banks state they are ‘deaf friendly’ but they are not. My bank told me to down load an app. When will they work out that if you are deaf you probably do not have  a mobile phone.

Is anyone aware of a company that allows you to have a ‘device’ without having to pay for a telephone that I cannot use? I probably will not get one as I have managed my whole life not having to cart a machine around with me, just curious.

I have to write letters to get hold of my two banks. I wrote last year asking for help with a basic problem. The banks complaints department responded. Apparently people only write if they have a complaint so despite writing to the manager in a town twenty miles away my letter was sent unopened to the central complaints department. They did sort the issue out but in the old days it would have been a quick visit to the local branch and sorted there and then.

 

Elmo

[Bo’sun]

On Bo’sun Said:

 

Why on earth do these organisations assume we’ve all got photo ID.  Not to mention a smart phone.

They don’t …. but they figure the vast majority do and the rest are small loss.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Elmo

The Apple iPad is available in a Wi-Fi only version … there is no need to have one with a SIM

Whether these are compatible with the Banks’ systems, I regret I do not know.

MichaelG.

.

P.S. __ I would be happy to have a look on the App Store, if you let me know what App has been suggested.

[Anonymous]

I’ve had a number of iPad Minis, all of them Wi-Fi only. My bank’s app works just fine and gives me all banking functions including cheque deposit.

I’m sure if the bank has an app it will be compatible with Apple (whether iPhone or iPad)

[peak4Participant @peak4]

Copied from another post I made recently; still no mobile reception at home, so anything requiring mobile phone based two factor authentication when I’m on the PC will fail

O2’s local mast was vandalised early December. Latest updates are at least end of Jan before a fix.
I ended up driving up the Cat & Fiddle a couple of weeks ago, so I could receive a text for 2 factor authentication on my bank account, in order to set up a new DD for Jane’s Plusnet to EE mobile transfer.
I could then phone home, so she could enter it back here before it timed out.
This was due to Plusnet/EE turning off 3G soon.

The lesson for this one, is that if you have 2 factor authentication set up on any account, make sure there is a method available if the mobile signal goes down. 4G/WiFi calling will probably work, or email etc.
In a big city you might be OK,. as a text will often get through, on a weak signal where a mobile call fails, but if there is only one mast in the area, you’re out of luck

Bill

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Two hours to set up / change anything with a Bank?

Thats quick!

My M E S wanted me as an additional signatory on cheques. The process, with one of the big four (early in the alphabet), started in May 2023.

Three visits in one day, to verify my identity.

They then lost the paperwork!

A repeat was photo copied with a post it note over MY bank details (as proof of identity)

A bus pass, with photo, will allow me to vote, but doesn’t identify me to a bank!

Nor does an expired passport, since apparently staff are incapable of comparing the person in front of them with a photograph, or any other personal datails.

It took until November, and the complaint level rising to 3, to finally accept me a to sign cheques on behalf of the Society.

They don’t like having to sign to acknowledge receipt of a letter! Their own medecine is unpalatable.

Am I relieved that I don’t bank there!

My bank insists on a mobile phone number to confirn a pass code to pay for any larger on line purchase.

They don’t have my mobile number, so I can only use my Credfit or Debit Cards, over the phone or in person.

Even then, they froze my card because I tried to pay for my car insurance and my wife’s within an hour!

Impressed by the security, but not the customer service!

Presumably, like Horizon, if it appears on a VDU screen it MUST be true!

Howard

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