Proof of ID

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1

Hi there,

I’ve invited a friend of mine to sign up for Monzo and they’ve started the process. However they’re getting mixed messages from COps as to what is acceptable proof of ID.

He’s got a passport but the name is different as he’s changed his name via deed poll. He has the certificate for this. One minute COps are saying this is acceptable, the next they’re sending him to your website where it tells him they need his passport.

This, twinned with a long delay between replies is quite embarrassing when I’ve spent 45 minutes talking up the benefits of joining.

Could someone advise what he can do to get this resolved? (I appreciate you can’t offer account specific advice).

Many thanks

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2

Maybe Monzo will say something else, but publicly they say they need a valid ID (passport, driving license, national ID card, or other government issued photo ID). Your passport is still technically a valid travel document even with the incorrect name, but im not aware of anything requiring Monzo to accept it as valid photo ID if the details are no longer correct.

You need to tell your friend to just keep contacting them. Hopefully when its picked up they’ll read the backlog and understand the issue.

3

Your friends passport is now all but invalid if it has his old name and he legally uses a new name. Monzo is right not to accept it as valid ID.

You need to get a new passport if you change any of the following:

  • your name
  • your gender
  • your appearance, if you cannot be recognised from your passport photo any more (for example, you’ve had plastic surgery)
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4

They aren’t stating law here. You cant travel using your passport if your travel is booked under a different name, obviously. This doesn’t invalidate the passport though unless the law was changed recently the passport is still technically valid.You just need to book travel under the name in your passport.

5

It’s not really identification if it doesn’t identify who you are because it shows a completely different name.

Have you not got a drivers licence or provisional? I’d suggest you get one of the things on the list as you’re going to run into this problem in other places - these are very common forms of identification.

You’d need ID for something as simple as picking up a parcel from the Post Office for example.

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6

Hi @oliver.nash :wave:

Generally speaking, we’d normally ask for a ID document that matches the name of the account a user has used when creating their account in the sign-up flow

So, for example, if a user used John Doe as their account name, but provided a document that reads Jane Foster, then the system will flag this as a reject

To make sure the sign-up process is as easy-flowing as possible, it’s always best to use an ID document that matches the name of the account :slightly_smiling_face:

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7

I changed my name by deep poll and it was pretty painless to get a passport with my new name. It’s obviously a bit of extra hassle but if it’s a name they want to use day to day it’s probably worth it in the long run.

8

Thanks for the responses everyone. I agree, ideally he needs to sort a new passport. I guess my question here was 'why are COps saying one thing and then backtracking 24 hours later and saying something completely different.

9

They’re most likely telling you what they think is right, rather than what they know is right.

Having an ID document in a different name is probably fairly unusual, so any individual COp (especially if they are new) is unlikely to have come across it.

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