For withdrawals over a certain amount, two forms of ID are required at my bank. Fair enough. Go with my two forms of ID, which were my two passports. "Why do you have two passports?" "I have dual nationality". "Sorry, but you can use only one. But Sir may use a credit card"
So I'm just wondering why a credit card is a more secure form of ID than a passport issued by a different country? The photos were identical in both passports. My credit card has only my signature.
Marcus
Banks like a diverse range of items. They accept my passport and my credit card - but the credit card has a different name to that showing on the passport.
What really puzzles me is that Barclays accept certain employer ID cards
- does this mean that Barclays are told when those employees quit their jobs?
In message , Marcus Fox wrote
Why is a utility bill that any competent person can construct in half an hour on a their own computer proof of an address?
A friend of mine has a set of headed letters he keeps in his car for the places that offer 'discounts' if you are 'in the trade' and where the proof they require is paperwork with the company letterhead.
"Fred Smith" wrote
Why on earth would they need to?
The person doesn't stop being that person when they quit their job - so the card would still identify the person just as well as when the person still worked for that employer...
Which brings up another point - why are expired Passpoprts / credit cards etc sometimes not accepted as proof of ID? Possibly because the validator wants *recent* ID? In that case, unless an employer's ID card was regularly renewed (unlikely?), even current employees' ID cards shouldn't be accepted as valid ID (the card could be several years old).
It may identify the person as being an employee of company x - which in this case they clearly aren't. In my opinion an employer ID card does not identify the person.
If you accept for a moment that an employer ID card expires when you quit that job - then it becomes like an expired passport. Few employers I know place an expiry date on such ID cards. Clearly they should.
Recently a Barclaycard statement showing a UK address was not accepted by the Halifax as proof of address - because the document was more than three months old. When challenged, the Halifax could not point to any legal or indeed their own rules which stipulated the document must be newer than three months. The whole system sucks. This was for my Mother who already had two recently opened accounts with the Halifax.
In message , Fred Smith writes
The CII (presumably inter alios) accepts employer ID for entrance to exams. On one occasion, at which time I had neither a photo driving licence nor a reasonably up to date passport, I made up a company ID for myself, printed it out signed it and then laminated it and I used that as my ID to prove it was me taking the exam.
A friend of mine did something similar when he had lost his student ID and wanted something to get student discounts at the cinema, cheese-on-toast (pizza) shop, or the like.
"Fred Smith" wrote
If that is the case, then it shouldn't be accepted even for *current* employees.
"Fred Smith" wrote
Unless it shows an expiry date, then - no, it's clearly different to an expired passport. No-one would know it is "expired" just from looking at it.
"Fred Smith" wrote
If they *did* do this, then I wonder what date they would choose - perhaps normal retirement date for the employee concerned? Would that really help?
"Fred Smith" wrote
I understand that's quite a common requirement. Of course, you've gotta wonder why the actual Barclaycard holder wouldn't have any of the last three month's statements (even if it is just a day-or-two after statement date, without the new statement having been received yet, then they should have the previous two; if both of those were lost in the post, then the accountholder should have been worried long ago!).
The expiry date should apply to the card and not the contract of employment. One company I work with does do this - their cards are re-issued to staff every 12 months, and a new photograph is taken on each occasion.
The three-month old statement showed a zero balance - no further statements are sent with zero balances - until a new charge appears.
"Fred Smith" wrote
Does that mean that they've been using a *different* credit card, which will thus have had non-zero balances and so they'll have the other card's statements during the last 3 months to show as ID?
My mother only has the one Barclaycard - her only other card is a debit card associated with her Halifax account. She only uses the Barclaycard when abroad where the debit card doesn't work.
She could prove her address by using the Halifax statements - but that would be too easy for the Halifax. Don't forget this was when trying to open a new savings account with them!
'Employer ID' strikes me as even sillier than a utility company bill. I have my own Ltd. company which has only ever had me and my wife as employees (mostly at different times). It would be trivial to set up a Ltd. company and 'work for yourself' at very little cost, it's only £100 or so to form a Ltd. company. For someone who wants to launder money this would be relatively cheap and easy.
"Fred Smith" wrote
Did Halifax actually refuse the latest Halifax statement as proof? :-(
Well she didn't have them with her - since an earlier call to the call centre setting up the appointment didn't require them - she had been told to take proof of ID with her (her passport). I was with her - and I was furious. My mother doesn't understand why any proof of address is needed to move existing money in one Halifax account to a new Halifax account.
Yes, it was Barclays too. Having dual nationality, I had to jump through extra hoops when applying for my passports, and provide all sorts of extra certificates. When I got my Barclaycard that the bank accepted as ID, I was just 18, and had moved address three times in the past year, so wouldn't have been on electoral roll at any of them.
Marcus
I do not have a Barclaycard but I do have a couple of other cards... I have noticed that they are not in the habit of sending out statements if there have been no transactions and nothing is owed.
Axel
Perhaps the answer is to open a Barclays offshore account.
Or just a bank account in a European country other than the UK.
So much for the EU... the UK is a member but it is impossible to give a non-UK address for just about anything.
Axel
You don't even need to do that, at the time of my exams I would have been self-employed so, just print your own letterhead and ID however you want.
I don't get statements for dormant credit cards unless they want to send me the enclosure that tells me about new T&Cs on the account.
"Jonathan Bryce" wrote
Yes, but have *all* of your credit cards been dormant for *all* of any three-month period? Or have you always had at least one which had a statement in the previous three months?
Usually, if a credit card is dormant for three months it's because you are using another one, isn't it?
Possibly
That is sometimes the reason. But there are times when I don't use use any credit cards. I pay for my regular food shopping and so on using cash, and only use the credit card for larger purchases where I don't like carrying around that sort of cash in my pocket and I get the benefits under the consumer credit act.
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