Id Needed To Open A Bank Account

[Tarser]

I have a joint bank account with my wife. She is soon going to start her own business and she has neither a passport nor a driver's licence. These seems to be the only IDs that banks will accept. So, in other words, to get a bank account, she'll have to pay the £100 or so in order to get a passport - useless document to her as we don't go abroad - ever. Not to mention the interview and all the paperwork. As a 'provisional driver's license' isn't accepted, her other option is to spend hundreds of pounds on driving lessons, pass her test so that she can then get a full driver's licence. As her feet don't reach the pedals, I find that somewhat an unlikely outcome.

There must surely be a way out of this situation, with some other form ID being acceptable when a customer has neither....
Thanks!

[bhg481]

What about the new ID that councils are providing for voting purposes? They're free to people who have no other form of ID and, I would have thought, if it's good enough for voting a bank should accept it.

[barry1010]

The easiest way would be to open a second account with the bank she has the joint account with

[bobbinwales]

Can she offset the passport costs against her taxes. Spread over 10 years look at it às 20p a week?
Is the account with the same bank....they might be flexible.. or maybe will accept her cos house or hmrc docs???

[ToraToraTora]

will the banks accept one of these?
https://www.citizencard.com/

[THECORBYLOON]

Which bank is she asking about? I looked at the Barclays website and for a driving licence, it includes a UK provisional photocard one.

"Driving licence – the following licence types are fine. A full UK, European Union (EU) or European Economic Area (EEA) photocard driving licence, a provisional UK photocard driving licence or a UK paper driving licence (as long as the address is current)"

[Buenchico]

Each bank is free to determine their own list of acceptable documents (as long as they can be seen to be complying with the Money Laundering Regulations when doing so). For example, Barclays will accept "an HMRC tax notification dated within 12 months" in place of a passport or driving licence as proof of identity:
https://www.barclays.co.uk/personal/current-accounts/what-do-i-need-to-open-a-bank-account/

Further, if a person applying for an account doesn't have any of the documents listed, they're advised to "please call us on 0345 7345 345 to discuss the other options available".
https://www.barclays.co.uk/help/accounts/opening/what-id/

It's likely that other banks will have similar ways of proving one's ID available to new customers.

It's also possible that, as your wife is already named on a joint account with a bank, that bank might be prepared to accept that she's already proved her ID to them anyway.

[Karamia]

I have just opened a new bank account and do not have any photo ID either - no passport and no photo id driving licence. They were happy with old fashioned paper driving licence plus a council tax letter showing address and my national insurance number. It all went ahead very smoothly. Just explain and ask what other ID you can use.

[tommy39]

i recently came into a bequest a fair sum,no bank//. went online found loyds and opened an account, did it all online