Unbanked 'pay £500 extra a year' on bills

General Chat
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Was expecting to see Monzo’s name against this when I first clicked :blush: never heard of Pockit before.

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Pockit charge fees, which will be adding to the £500 a year extra.

Not sure where Monzo are at with accepting alternative ID for accounts

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Do monzo even offer accounts to those who normally only qualify for a basic bank account?

I’d be interested to know who those without an account aren’t opening a basic account with a bank.

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Yes, unless you ask for an overdraft there’s no credit check. Although the ID requirements are stricter than a basic bank on the high street because of regulations

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What counts as alternative ID?

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Its not that they are alternative forms of ID, there are just acceptable documents, they are all equal.

Here’s a decent list What do you need to open a bank account? | Barclays

There are other forms which can be accepted as well which may not be listed.

There’s a soft check i believe which i think is the same as most other banks. So essentially you get a ‘basic’ account with Monzo anyway. The lack of id documents doesn’t help though, im unsure how they can improve that.

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Utility bills, birth certificate, electoral card etc. For those without passport or driving license

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Oh, and I assume the difficulty in accepting them is due to the lack of a photo?

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It’s the regulation Monzo have to work with. High street banks are allowed to accept them as they’re seeing the person face to face but Monzo et al need to check via DVLA or passport numbers

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Photo ID isnt required to open an UK bank account. Its just what Monzo require, I assume (they can maybe give more detail) they require it as they feel it meets their know your customer needs or similar.

I’ve opened accounts (not with Monzo) without photo ID online without issues.

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Is this one of the weird situations where is if I were to suggest a face to face Skype call(or any other sort of video call) for example that wouldn’t be part of the regulations

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Honestly don’t know. It’s not been discussed that much but if they have no photo ID how can they compare the Skype face to the real person? Applies equally in branches though but apparently that’s not a problem

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I don’t think it has anything to do with branches. As far as i’m aware they just need to verify you are you to a level they feel is acceptable to meet their obligations.

You can open an account with zero photo id so long as you have the right documents with most other banks, so they’re not checking your photo against you in person in these cases.

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I think the way to do it would be with a PASS ID(they cost £15) then the cost of a phone etc so barrier would be £45 for a Monzo account

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Which is exactly what I said :thinking:

Also what I said. Monzo have different obligations to banks with branches

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This is news to me. Why would having a branch change their obligations?

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Guess you’d have to ask the FCA that but it’s been said numerous times here that it’s a KYC requirement and that they’re actively trying to change that

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Makes zero sense, but then there’s the answer. I don’t know why Monzo doesn’t just say that they’re restricted by the FCA to photo IDs only. That clears up a whole load of questions people keep asking.

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I would agree but also not :rofl:
The FCA handbook didn’t have any specific reasons as to why Online banks require more stringent tests. If anything I think its an education thing(Both for the person attempting to get the account but also the Bank themselves)
HM Government did research two years ago into it:
https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN03366#fullreport
There are lots of ID that should be accepted.
Contraversially, I wonder whether these barriers are due to the perception that undocumented person(s) are more likely to be victims/ perpetrators of Financial crime(Complete and utter rubbish :angry:)

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So they don’t have stricter rules from the FCA…