Lootman wrote:mc2fool wrote:Lootman wrote:mc2fool wrote:Checking the address you give against your electoral roll registration is a primary factor in the electronic ID verification done by the credit agencies.
There may be checking done versus your electoral roll address but it cannot be necessary or sufficient. I am not on the electoral register. And the address I use for financial matters is not my home address. Yet I have no problem with creditors or government departments identifying me.
So you have said before. but you've also said before that you haven't opened an account with a new institution (e.g. a bank you don't already have an account with, not a new account with a bank you're already a client of) for many years. When was the last time you did so online and it being opened straight away (without them asking for paper ID)?
I opened a new bank account in 2019 and a new credit card account in 2021, both with institutions that I had no prior relationship with.
Of course they asked for iD as that is part of the anti money laundering rules. My point was that being on the voting register cannot be mandatory. At best it is just one of several alternative checks.
I didn't say that being on the voting register was mandatory. I said that it is a primary factor in electronic ID verification and your answer proves my point: they did the electronic check, found you're not on the electoral register at the address you gave, and asked you for ID.
I open accounts with new-to-me banks all of the time (I'm a bit of a rate tart
) and I got a new credit card with a new-to-me provider just a few months ago, and I cannot remember the last time I had to actually provide ID, 'twas many many years ago.
I've had the conversation with several banks (inc. HSBC and Lloyds), and with Experian themselves. While they, of course, won't tell exactly what their electronic ID verification algorithm is, all say that being on the electoral register at the address you give is a very heavy factor and not being so will almost certainly result in you being asked to provide "
one from list A and one from list B..." instead of just being waved through electronically.