Establishing an identity

Depraved

It was a nightmare trying to open a bank account here (Philippines). In the end I had to 'pay a optional fee' to a guy in the bank so he would open the account for me.

Mass corruption has its benefits!

daheff

I agree with the op....had to do this a number of times recently.

Bank: address & I'd verification please
Me: here's my driving licence..has both.
Bank: Sorry can't accept one document to verify ID & address.
Me: here's my passport.
Bank: sorry can't accept driving licence for address verification
Me: OK...here's my mobile phone bill
Bank: Sorry can't accept mobile bills as its not proof of a service to that address
Me: WTF!!
Me: Heres printout of gas bill.
Bank: Sorry this isn't an original bill
Me: Its an online account..like most of the 21st century utility providers.
Bank: Compliance wont allow it
Me: So what will you accept?
Bank: original utility bills, bank statements or revenue communication issued within previous 3 months.
Me: Utility bills are all online, bank statements are online & revenue write to me once a year...can't provide anything..what can I do
Bank:........
Me: ????
Bank: eh.....OK I suppose we can take the printed utility bill.

Me: You know the address on that bill is only where the service is provided to....I could live somewhere else
Bank: Really?
Me: Yeah.
Bank: eh.....


In fairness its the fault of the implementation of most recent version of CJA....and a load of overly cautious banking compliance teams....still absolute pain in the ass

darkpagandeath

Papers Please !!

Zippie84

When I moved to the UK and tried to open a bank account they wanted proof of address. Obviously I had none as I'd just moved here, but they were really strict, and said they'd only really take something like a bank statement from another bank etc.

I was just renting a room in an owner occupied place for a few months until I got myself sorted so couldn't even get any household bills in my name. Also needed the bank account as a priority to get my salary paid into.

So... they said they'd accept proof of address off my Irish bank if I got them to change it to the UK address, except... yep... you've guessed it.. the Irish bank wouldn't change the address to my UK one without proof of UK address, ideally from a UK bank....

They don't make it easy, do they?

Thankfully on speaking to my HR department about the problem, discovered they had an arrangement with a local bank who would accept a letter from the company (large well-known organisation) confirming your address.

Not sure what I'd have done otherwise...

beyondbelief67

Had trouble like this when first moved house, I needed to change address.
Only the bank wouldn't do it without seeing a utility bill at my new house !
Informed them that could be 2 months. Sorry but that's policy, I asked what happens if I was with the pre pay meters, no answer, I asked could they not send me a statement to my new address so I could bring that in as proof. Oh no can't do that !
I ended up getting an ml10 form from the garda station, which was lucky as they didn't know me but understood the problem.
Now the public service I'd card solves a lot of problems and is accepted most places.