Nationwide....

[STG]

Hi All,

Not car related but about a Bank called Nationwide here in the UK

My eldest and youngest sons have a bank accounts with Nationwide..

My eldest has had an account a Nationwide Saving account from when he was 5 that his granny put money into each month. At the age of 18 he got a Bank account as well. He is now 31 years old.

My youngest had an account a Nationwide Saving account from when he was 5 that his granny put money into each month. At the age of 17 he got a Bank account as well. He is now 27 years old.

Today both of them received a letter from Nationwide. The DEMANDS are quite strong and I believe ridiculous.
The letter states that they have to come to a branch and provide either a copy of their passports or Driving license WITHIN 35 days else their accounts will be blocked and if nothing happens within an extra 25 days the accounts will be closed!!!!

This feels quite strong that they only have 35 days to sort things out else all the payments incoming and outgoing will be blocked. My eldest has a problem as he does not hold a passport and does not have a driving licence, so trying to get them will cost money, money which they are being forced to pay out just so the bank who has happily had their accounts and money most of their life is able to tick some stupid box on some form for someone.

On a another note, my banking app with Halifax has started bugging me to give the Halifax all my personal and financial data, where i work and how much am i paid and any income from elsewhere etc.

I suspect some new government financial thing has been brought in from beginning of April 2026 to make all customers be identifiable with photo ID and personal info. And how long before that data is breached in a hack and released onto the internet.

On another note, I was at the doctors last week when I overheard a person arguing with the receptionist. He wants to be able to see his medical records and test results and get them on the NHS app. The receptionist states that he has to provide Photo ID along with utility records to prove his address before he can access them. He states that he does not have any photo ID of a passport or Driving license as being 75 he has no intention of going abroad so does not need a passport and he gave up driving at 70 so does not have a driving license.
The receptionist won't budge, and then the guy shouts that he has been coming to this doctors practice all his life of 75 years, the doctors have prescribed many controlled drugs and are still prescribing them now, he has attended many many appointments and never in that time as anyone asked him to provide photo ID.
He said you treat me as Mr XXXXXXXX for 75 years and now I want to see the results of a blood test I have to provide YOU with photo ID and then walked off saying he would make an appointment with a doctor and give some phoney medical condition and when he is sat with the doctor he would ask for the test result so this means wasting everyone's time and you can bet the doctor won't ask for photo ID when the patient is sat opposite them.

Ohh you got to laugh especially as it cost £140 for a passport

 

[Bam Bam]

Hi All,

Not car related but about a Bank called Nationwide here in the UK

My eldest and youngest sons have a bank accounts with Nationwide..

My eldest has had an account a Nationwide Saving account from when he was 5 that his granny put money into each month. At the age of 18 he got a Bank account as well. He is now 31 years old.

My youngest had an account a Nationwide Saving account from when he was 5 that his granny put money into each month. At the age of 17 he got a Bank account as well. He is now 27 years old.

Today both of them received a letter from Nationwide. The DEMANDS are quite strong and I believe ridiculous.
The letter states that they have to come to a branch and provide either a copy of their passports or Driving license WITHIN 35 days else their accounts will be blocked and if nothing happens within an extra 25 days the accounts will be closed!!!!

This feels quite strong that they only have 35 days to sort things out else all the payments incoming and outgoing will be blocked. My eldest has a problem as he does not hold a passport and does not have a driving licence, so trying to get them will cost money, money which they are being forced to pay out just so the bank who has happily had their accounts and money most of their life is able to tick some stupid box on some form for someone.

On a another note, my banking app with Halifax has started bugging me to give the Halifax all my personal and financial data, where i work and how much am i paid and any income from elsewhere etc.

I suspect some new government financial thing has been brought in from beginning of April 2026 to make all customers be identifiable with photo ID and personal info. And how long before that data is breached in a hack and released onto the internet.

I'm also with Nationwide but haven't had this.

No doubt doing their due diligence for security or other reasons.

Sadly fraud is a thing.

On another note, I was at the doctors last week when I overheard a person arguing with the receptionist. He wants to be able to see his medical records and test results and get them on the NHS app. The receptionist states that he has to provide Photo ID along with utility records to prove his address before he can access them. He states that he does not have any photo ID of a passport or Driving license as being 75 he has no intention of going abroad so does not need a passport and he gave up driving at 70 so does not have a driving license.
The receptionist won't budge, and then the guy shouts that he has been coming to this doctors practice all his life of 75 years, the doctors have prescribed many controlled drugs and are still prescribing them now, he has attended many many appointments and never in that time as anyone asked him to provide photo ID.
He said you treat me as Mr XXXXXXXX for 75 years and now I want to see the results of a blood test I have to provide YOU with photo ID and then walked off saying he would make an appointment with a doctor and give some phoney medical condition and when he is sat with the doctor he would ask for the test result so this means wasting everyone's time and you can bet the doctor won't ask for photo ID when the patient is sat opposite them.

Ohh you got to laugh especially as it cost £140 for a passport

The joys of bureaucracy and the application of policy.

Rules always have these ridiculous consequences.

The alternative is to leave it up to discretion, but that means that mistakes, security problems and fraud can happen much more easily and be much harder to uncover and undo.

 

[Giller]

Hi All,

Not car related but about a Bank called Nationwide here in the UK

My eldest and youngest sons have a bank accounts with Nationwide..

My eldest has had an account a Nationwide Saving account from when he was 5 that his granny put money into each month. At the age of 18 he got a Bank account as well. He is now 31 years old.

My youngest had an account a Nationwide Saving account from when he was 5 that his granny put money into each month. At the age of 17 he got a Bank account as well. He is now 27 years old.

Today both of them received a letter from Nationwide. The DEMANDS are quite strong and I believe ridiculous.
The letter states that they have to come to a branch and provide either a copy of their passports or Driving license WITHIN 35 days else their accounts will be blocked and if nothing happens within an extra 25 days the accounts will be closed!!!!

This feels quite strong that they only have 35 days to sort things out else all the payments incoming and outgoing will be blocked. My eldest has a problem as he does not hold a passport and does not have a driving licence, so trying to get them will cost money, money which they are being forced to pay out just so the bank who has happily had their accounts and money most of their life is able to tick some stupid box on some form for someone.

I suspect this comes down to the length of time they've held their Nationwide accounts and what proof of ID would have applied when they were initially taken out and what applies now, banks etc are expected to apply due diligence to confirm ID and show they hold the data if asked by UK Gov.

I've held Nationwide accounts over the years and also had a mortgage with them, while I did not provide ID for accounts I did for the mortgage so they can tick the ID proved box, I have to say I've always found them very helpful so would it be worth your son's giving their helpline a call and explaining the lack of passport and driving licence and exploring what alternatives if any they could use?

Ohh you got to laugh especially as it cost £140 for a passport

Irish ones €75 and also less queues the other end

 

[5teep]

Might not be quick enough but they could apply for a citizen card which is acceptable photo id.

CitizenCard - UK Photo ID card & Proof Of Age

Get your national photo ID and proof of age card - apply online for a UK ID card today. Trusted identity cards since 1999 bear Home Office and police-approved PASS hologram.

www.citizencard.com

Or phone the bank and ask if there's any other way.

 

[Kenp1]

Nationwide is not a bank, it is a building society.

 

[Anon70]

This will prbably be due to changes in financial regulations. For proof of ID I would ask Nationwide if they will accept other photo ID such as the Post Office ID card which is only £15

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/identity/pass-card

As for Halifax asking for that info this would usually be related to having some form of ISA as it is the info they tend to need for these type of accounts

As others have mentioned a lot of this stuff is to do with data protection and due diligence (the company has to proove they checked you are who you say you are). How would you like it to be easy for anyone to just claim to be you and have access to your accounts of medical information?

 

[Giller]

Having a Financial Services background I'm well aware of the requirements for checking ID, when I have to phone one of my banks /building societies and the member of staff gives me the "I'm sorry I have to ask you some security questions" my response is always the same "I'd be concerned if you didn't".

Things have moved on though, I opened a account last week online with a building society I'd not dealt with before, first they validated the email address I'd provided, then the phone number, then I had to send a picture of my passport or driving licence, and finally I had to take a facial picture and send it via the phone previously validated. Took about 10 minutes but as the end user I was happy to do it aster is way to much financial fraud these days.

 

[mg4mc]

I've had it the other way around. The bank called me about something and asked me to provide security details to prove I was the account holder. I said, you've called me on my mobile phone, I don't know you from Adam, you tell me some of my security details, so I know you're genuine. Stalemate!