I don’t think it’s a unusual or unreasonable thing to ask for - especially for a bank that doesn’t have physical branches and has to comply with money laundering requirements.
I had to provide photo ID at interview for my current job before I could accept an offer of employment. I’ve also had to use it for numerous other things in the last couple of years. I’m surprised you’ve managed so long without tbh.
Except that other banks don’t require it and also have to comply with the same money laundering laws.
In the past year i’ve opened a new Credit Card, Nutmeg Savings, and a ‘B’ Current account all online, with no need for photo ID.
So Monzo’s photo ID requirement is really just a policy decision (probably due to outsourcing identity verification to a third-party who can only do photo ID) rather than a requirement by law.
According to the Electoral Commission report 24% of the electorate (11 Million people) have neither passport or driving licence, so i’m hardly unique. Throwing away 1/4 of your potential customers before you even start doesn’t seem a good step on the road to a billion users.
There was a change in anti-money laundering laws in April or May so actually, it is a law now. This was explained in more details in this blog post:
As i understand it the law doesn’t require specific forms of ID, it’s up to the bank to decide what they want to use to verify identity. So requiring photo ID is a Monzo policy decision.
At least 2 of the new accounts i opened were after the new law came into force and my identity was entirely verified online through credit checks and the electoral roll.
Yeah i saw that when it was originally posted and remember being a bit confused as i was never asked for photo ID (my account started at “full” verification last year and then jumped to “enhanced” around the same time as that blog post without my doing anything) so my identity was obviously verified some other way (probably the same way as every other account i have ever had).
I had hoped that the same would apply to the Current Account but subsequent information seemed to suggest that it won’t. I got my invitation to the preview a couple of days ago and wasn’t going to bother signing up because of this but i guess i should at least try and see what happens.
If they already had you verified - and I think you’re right about it being done via a credit reference agency ID check - then it’s possible the CA preview accounts could take the same route so what’s the harm in checking?
Although I am curious as to what specifically about requiring some ID might put you off using a company’s service or product (aside from not having an ID that is). Personally I judge a bank by its ability to do core banking tasks well and their customer support and Monzo ticked those two boxes before the CA preview launched for me! (And that’s still without having an invite to the CA preview I wish I’d get one though 
)
I’ll dig out a report a Collegue of mine did relating to people without formal IDs as it’s quite an interesting read and research piece on why some people don’t (or won’t/refuse) to get IDs made up as part of the former governments national ID Plans.
One of the highlights how there’s certain groups of people within minority groups that are statistically significantly more likely to not have any form of ID and it found this was due to various reasons and many of them not even financial based (how much is it now to get a provisional driving license these days? A lot of money for some groups of people I’m sure!)
It made me think that some of these groups of people are minority groups that may be less likely to use features such as an overdraft (or be able to afford an overdraft) anyway and therefore might be people that don’t earn a Bank (or Monzo) much profit at all in terms of monetisation and perhaps that’s why some banks do require ID as they want to specifically make their product appeal less (or make it very hard for them to obtain) in some areas of some minority groups.
A way to do discrimination while staying in the law in a way.
The end is result is “I know that indigo coloured people can’t afford or don’t tend to use overdrafts but they also don’t tend to have photo ID so I’ll make sure all customers that want an overdraft have to have photo ID which means indigo people are likely not to even try with our product and we make more of a profit from those who can”.
Monzo overall has been great when it comes to understanding of minority groups in all areas of its business from what I’ve read from staff recruitment through to the intended meaning of neutral words used in the apps and on the website so while I’m 100% confident Monzo isn’t thinking this way and that they’re going with the simplest (for the vast majority) way to verify someone’s ID but it’s worth thinking about as I’m sure some companies do do it this way and discussing it like you’ve raised here is a great start 
I’m personally in favour of forcing everyone to have official ID made up and distributed out.
But I also believe that such an ID scheme must be free (to enrol and get initial card. Lost/stolen cards a small admin fee to cover the admin costs only & no profit allowed) and that you shouldn’t be required by law to take it everywhere you go only for higher risk things (catching a domestic flight or perhaps even linking it to a bus/train fight or high value card purchases that require additional validation). Once everyone’s fingerprints/DNA/photos etc are on a national database the police can easily find out who they’ve arrested just by submitting a fingerprint sample then.
Aside from costs and potential teething problems I’m not aware of any hard evidence/proof to suggest this shouldn’t or couldn’t happen aside from privacy concerns (which I agree: should be discussed as part of it and not just ignored but balance out between privacy and safety/need for such a system by people much smarter than I am!) I don’t consider just “privacy” in its own right a reason to not have such a scheme personally but that’s just me!
I just enrolled in University. I was required to provide photo ID: a driving licence on its own wasn’t acceptable so they wanted a passport.
Not having photo ID is going to cause more and more problems (for that person) in the future…
I don’t object to companies or government requiring ID, just ID that incurs a charge as it excludes poorer people from being able to easily access services.
It’s the same reason that the Conservatives wanted to require passports or driving licences in order to vote. Poorer people are less likely to have either and more likely to vote Labour so requiring those forms of ID means fewer votes for Labour.
There’s a trend among new challenger banks towards requiring these forms of ID that i worry will lead to a new digital divide. It’s doubly unfortunate because the types of services these companies provide could be even more beneficial to the poorer segments of society than the more well-off.
I’m in favour of such a scheme too although i have little faith that the government could competently pull it off. Something like the Estonian ID card would be great though.
We had one planned a couple of years ago which was supposed to be used to access services etc but it was cut. I was one of the few who volunteered to buy one as it was trialled in Manchester and saw its potential. Such a shame really.
Nonsense. The reason was to prevent electoral fraud with impersonation at polling booths. This problem has been tackled in Northern Ireland where you do need to show passport or driving license, they just wanted to standardise legislation accross the whole of the UK, particularly in light of allegations of electoral fraud in certain large cities
The Estonian ID Card is great but I wonder how the UK would implement similar. With the Estonian ID card it comes with two PINs and the card can be used not just for ID but travel on public transport, banking and tax uses. When they issued a UK ID card it also had a chip. I asked if there was any PIN and they said No but maybe in the future they might possibly consider thinking about that 
So doubt we will ever be as up to date and high tech as Estonia
The World War 2 ID card went from an initial 3 uses to up to 39. The 2006 ID Card was introduced so that “people don’t work if they are not entitled to work, they don’t draw on services which are free in this country, including health, unless they are entitled to” [quote by David Blunkett] but was initially a travel document so I could use it on flights without a passport. It obviously would have expanded.
There was no PIN but they took all my fingerprints and a facial scan when I went for my interview so could have introduced fingerprint or facial authentication instead of a PIN when accessing services and the Act stated they could take other security measures such as iris scans.
I like how you blocked out your name when it’s visible on your profile 
Wow. You managed to get a decent looking photo in an official ID. Kudos.
Also: I’m in favour of this. So many other countries do it fine, and would make things easier for a whole range of activities.
Not Spain. Their system is a mess and doesn’t always work 
That card looks identical to the Biometric ID card my other half has to carry round with him (South African here on a spousal visa). Just different wording in it.
I really don’t understand why we don’t have national ID cards issued in the UK. There are issues (as have been observed) with people not having passports/driving licences and if you aren’t required to have them, and photo ID is required for things like opening bank accounts, the Government should provide an at cost (free if you are receiving benefits) photo ID.
I think the Government see the provisional/full driving license as a kind of national ID, but have to pay for.
If they see it that way, then they should say so!
(And also stop people turning it away as they don’t believe it is valid ID: tl;dr: it is)
Check this Quora thread on the same question;
Coming from a country where everyone gets an ID card I don’t really understand the paranoia behind not wanting to get one. I don’t think it costs us money to get it. We collect even more identifiers like photographs, fingerprints, and iris images to use at immigration checkpoints (automated gates + you look up at checkpoints to get your identity matched. So much faster than waiting in line to get your passport stamped. And instead of having to register to vote every year- you simply bring your ID card to the balloting booth or get your vote sent in with a photocopy of your IC.
If it’s not enforced in the UK I can’t really see people voluntarily signing up for it unless it becomes extremely inconvenient to sort any official business without it.