Some organisations already do, in effect. For example, BT give a discount for paperless billing - which *effectively* charges extra to those who stick with paper bills.
I'm in favour of paperless billing in principle - and get my discount from BT. But I don't do it with *every* organisation simply so that I can produce original utility bills and bank statements when required for ID purposes.
Both my bank and credit card PDF statements from Nationwide come with "Duplicate" stamped across them. Don't yours?
Chris
So how would they know? In practice the pieces of paper you present at the bank are given a cursory glance and then handed back to you (they may copy them, but that doesn't help much in checking what they're printed on!). The counter clerk who looks at it is hardly going to be able to tell an investigation several months (years?) later whether the piece of paper they looked at was genuine or not.
I was actually suggesting that it wouldn't be all that difficult to produce a perfectly valid looking utility bill that was actually totally fictional. There are hundreds of 'utility' companies now and they change names etc. frequently so there's no way a bank can keep track of them all.
I've never left a utility bill with any institution, they've always copied it and written to say they saw the original, and returned the original. I doubt any cashier would be able to tell the difference between the paper feel of an original bill and a copy.
If there was an investigation, then the same is true of an altered printed PDF file. Fraud is fraud, irrespective of whether the document is a doctored copy or a doctored printout. Where there's a will there'll always be a way.
For identification purposes, all a bank requires is to show due diligence to confirm identity. If it has a notorised copy of a utility bill in it's possession, it's discharged it's duty.
Money laundering laws only hinder the innocent.
In message , Roger Mills writes
I have just remembered where the most exacting demands were made of me for I/D and *two* different utility bills. It was when I had to switch to a new solicitor to make changes to my Will. (The previous one was closed down by the Bar). ;-)
The "justification" was "due to stringent money-laundering laws now in place". In practice they were satisfied with my passport and my mature appearance. :)
In message , tim..... writes
It was something like that reason that my new solicitor asked for three lots of paperwork to I/D me.
Absolutely. How would they know? I did say 'assuming they can tell that it's not an original'. But if they can't then they have done their duty.
Rob
On my bank statements:
o a cash deposit shows only the amount - not where it came from or what it was for o a cheque deposit is no better as it does not show the account on which the cheque was drawn or anything else.
Unless your statements are different the only thing they show is that you received a sum on or before a given date. (In the case of a cheque that'd be limited to 6 months before IIRC and the banks are on their toes.)
In message , neverwas writes
They didn't want a bank statement, just a solid I/D before they were party to the re-distribution of my modest wealth.
Should not be an issue. Duplicate would mean that it was produced by the originating institution.
However in general terms it would seem overkill by Nationwide to make the first original a Duplicate, a by definition it cannot be...
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