Re: getting bank account / debit card

Any decent colour printer could produce "bills" with any address.

I wasn't opening them with any money, I wanted the account for someone else to pay into :-).

Strangely, the swedish bank needed me to pay in a nominal amount. A right PITA (as I was interviewed at an adminstration branch and had to go elsewhere to pay the money)

tim

Er... two points... Firstly I have not heard any complaints of students being unable to cash their grants cheques (or loans... I have no idea what it is these days).

Secondly why would someone's parents' address be useful... does the student have utility bills there? Does he even stay there for more than a few weeks a year? Would the person of the same age who is living in a hostel for most of the year be able to avail himself of the same procedure?

No, they are not enforced in the same way for everyone.

Axel

Which in itself is hardly any *proof* that the person is actually living at that address. Just get a friend to change the name on the 'phone bill for a couple of months?

The figure of 95% may not be accurate and I certainly don't claim it is exact... but it is probably not far off.

But that is what I was saying... that money laundering is used as an excuse. I mean it would be pretty simple to have an automated computer program which flashed up suspicious transactions which were over a certain amount rather than worrying about accounts which have transfers of money which are chicken feed to any real money launderer.

And if someone did want to launder money at such small sums, the best way would be to get a store card as the checks on obtaining one are fairly minimal.

Axel

I've been working overseas for most of the last 25 years, but I have a BT phone line in my name installed in my parents home. That's proved quite useful several times when I've needed to produce utility bills in the UK for something.

Chris

In message , snipped-for-privacy@white-eagle.invalid.uk writes

To rely on this (which is in place anyway) solely would contravene the Money Laundering Regulations and the bank would be prosecuted. The regs are quite clear that the ML Procedures must be undertaken at the outset.

The subsequent reporting of suspicious transactions is a different matter.

Thats because they satisfy the Money Laundering regs. My direct knowledge is that students must have the same ID as everybody else, the situation is not as you described in your previous post. In my direct experience students always DO have the right ID, so there is no problem.

It doesnt need to be a utility bill, it can be loads of things with the address on.

In reality most university students will already have a bank account.

He would have established his address at the hostel.

Evidence? All you have offered so far is your personal view, supposition and assumptions.

>

Such as? The banks tend to be pretty specific in what they will accept.

How exactly?

For example when I stayed in digs while working in London a few years ago, I would have had no way of proving where I was living... in fact no evidence at all.

No... maybe my personal view, but based on evidence. Let me ask you... how would someone who does not pay utility bills prove his address?

Axel

How times change. Freshers week used to be a scramble to get all the freebies off the banks to open an account..

But I suspect you are right, both my neices have saturday jobs, as I did. They get paid monthy into a Bank account whereas I got cash weekly at the end of each shift, I doubt anyone does that anymore.

tim

I get paid cash every fourth week. An advance is paid on this weekly. Not quite the same as going up to the cash window to collect a little brown envelope, we get white ones.

I also recall the first time I encountered the ML regulations. I went into a branch of my bank to pay in a cheque and was told that due to ML regulations I would have to explain where I got it from. A few days later I opened a postal account with a cheque for nearly all of the original amount and had no questions asked at all. I imagine that different "suspicious thresholds" exist for savings and current accounts.

How about electoral register? Or council tax?

"Due to money laundering regulations we require a utility bill 'cos I'm just a call-centre-droid and my management haven't read

" [0] Ok, SandalsMan: What are the chances of a call-centre-droid being able to quote the relevant parts of the DPA every time *that's* "used as an excuse"?

Would you agree that both the DPA and the AML regs fail as legislation 'cos they piss-off ordinary punters, but don't stop the BadGuys?

rgds, Alan [0] I note that : "5.4.20 Where a member of the firm's staff has visited the customer at his home address, a record of this visit may constitute evidence corroborating that the individual lives at this address (i.e. as a second document). '"may counter the anti-ML-works-against-the-poor arguement *if* the FinCo concerned has read the regs.

Tell me more - I generally do more InfoSec & SOX (mis-interpreted 3 times before it hits IT) stuff[0], but I'm interested in where I musunderstand AML regs - I only see those as a punter.

Do the circumstances I describe - 20 years with a UK clearing bank, ~15 years on the voter's roll, 16 years PAYE, 100 quid a month into a stakeholder pension - *really* warrant the full ML check?

rgds, Alan [0] 'tho I know FSA-registered compliance folks and note that it's

*their* reputation that's a stake, *not* their company's.

How would I know? It wasn't me who was quoting statistics and chances!

In message , snipped-for-privacy@white-eagle.invalid.uk writes

Existing bank or credit card statement, b/soc passbook with address, library card (!), correspondence from Inland Revenue, certain correspondence form Benefits Agency, Insurance documentation etc.,

They do. In practice only the very young or the very old have problems.

So nobody ever wrote to you, about anything? Were you paid in cash?

In message , Alan Frame writes

Absolutely. But what has that got to do with this thread?

In message , rob writes

Who was the drawer of this cheque?

In message , Alan Frame writes

So I can answer correctly, what were the circumstances in which you were asked for ML evidence, and by whom?