My Address & Potentional Proof of ID

[Bunny]

When we bought a but to let property last year I thought there would have been a problem with i.d as we have no utility bills and only use my mother's address as a c/o,she has single occupancy we are not on the electoral roll here, but we were found on the electoral roll at our old address of 8 years ago. The house has been sold 3 times since then. My husband also claims his winter fuel allowance at this c/o address , and because we live on the boat and it is only a c/o address my mother allowance is not affected. We also use the previous years tax returns for proof of i.d. Bunny.

[BargeeSpud]

Put shortly and without further ado. Lived onboard for umpteen years, ya dont need and address, doctor, dentist etc dont give two hoots. Just be honest and not scared and TELL em you live on a boat and it dont have an address. End of story.

 

Tim

Now THATS the kind of attitude I like! Love it.

 

Thanks, I really mean that, you've brightened my day mate.

 

[Arthur Brown]

Well I have a rather different experience. I live in a house, I need to add a photo to my driving licence and have found it almost impossible to do this without a modern digital passport -which I now have to apply for with interview even though I have an old blue passport.

 

Before you get caught out for something trivial maybe to be the holder of a valid and current biometric passport would be a good plan. The passport make no reference to your address so it's a relatively hard form of ID which seems to cover for most things.

[mrsmelly]

Well I have a rather different experience. I live in a house, I need to add a photo to my driving licence and have found it almost impossible to do this without a modern digital passport -which I now have to apply for with interview even though I have an old blue passport.

 

Before you get caught out for something trivial maybe to be the holder of a valid and current biometric passport would be a good plan. The passport make no reference to your address so it's a relatively hard form of ID which seems to cover for most things.

 

Hi

 

Thats the problem with living in houses. The government quite rightly realise its very strange to live in a house when there are boats available so need to keep tabs on house dwellers due to them being a bit weird

 

Tim

[Smelly]

Try explaining that to Torridge council!

We owned and my stepson lived in a property down there, we didnt live there but used it as an address including being on the voting register. Because we couldnt give another address where we paid council tax (living on a boat) we were told that he was not eligable for the discount, in the end we had to "remove" ourselves on paper from the property for him to qualify.....

 

Did you dispute their decision or roll over and accept it? I know it' a pain with Ctax as you're expected to pay what asked for rather than what's due. Liability proceedings ensue otherwise.

[GUMPY]

Did you dispute their decision or roll over and accept it? I know it' a pain with Ctax as you're expected to pay what asked for rather than what's due. Liability proceedings ensue otherwise.

I gave in despite being the one paying the bill....

Worse that that because the CT was in my stepsons name when he moved out he got the refund and I then had to argue to get zero council tax as the property was empty they wanted to class it as a second home.......whch meant the CT was going to be more than it was when he was living there.

Finally there was a gap of one week between the CT zero rate running out and the completion date on the property and despite me telling them there there is no forwarding address and I will only deal with them by email they sent me a bill for £25 CT to the flat.

I cant say what I think of TDC on here but you can well imagine. Very glad to be out of that area.

 

They are the ones that applied CT to a boat at Anchor between HW and LW in the river estuary........on the grounds that he was occupiing the land under the boat, last I heard they had won that one.

[JDR]

I recently applied for a renewal passport and a replacement photo driving licence to a PO box.Despite having two bikes already registered at this address DVLA insisted on a drylander address for the licence which I thought was a bit jobsworth as any speeding fines go to the registered keepers address on the V5.Surprisingly the passport wasn't a problem.

[Smelly]

I recently applied for a renewal passport and a replacement photo driving licence to a PO box.Despite having two bikes already registered at this address DVLA insisted on a drylander address for the licence which I thought was a bit jobsworth as any speeding fines go to the registered keepers address on the V5.Surprisingly the passport wasn't a problem.

 

Dave will probably know more than me, but since a lot of govt agencies have moved to using po boxes there has been controversy as to when letters can be accepted as delivered for the purposes of the Interpretation Act. That'll trouble statutory penalty notices, hence no surprise DVLA are finicky about PO boxes

Edited August 16, 2012 by Smelly

[Ange]

Then you have an address, the original Q was regard to not having a postal address.

 

For mobile phones A bank statement can suffice but at least one utility bill is required with it. I'm not sure if car hire firms have to require utility bills like mobile phone companies, banks up to around a year ago were also insisting on 2 utility bills to open an account, I note this has been relaxed now but they still need some proof of address as well as photo ID.

 

Would be handy though to be able to hire a car without too much hassle, I actually have an account with a hire company, so don't have to produce anything but it's based in Dorset, not much use to me when we're on the K&A canals.

 

I took a new mobile phone contract out a few weeks ago and they only needed to see my passport. We haven't had a utility bill in 3 years and it's never caused a problem.

 

We haven't hired any cars in that time though

 

One thing that is annoying is that some shops simply can't sell you something unless you give them a post code. I can understand it when you're buying a TV because it's a legal requirement, but an aerial from Maplins? They insisted their till wouldn't work without a postcode so in the end we gave them one for a house we lived in years ago.

[cheshire~rose]

One potential glitch that hopefully most people would not come across very often..... My Daugter lives in a caravan and uses my mailing address for post so is in a very similar situation to many live aboard boaters. When she was due to get an inheritance from my Dad's estate the solicitor dealing with it was unable to pay her the money because she did not have a bank account in her own name and did not have any utility bills at her (my) address in her name that she could use to open one. She was also not on the electoral register.

 

It is something that is becoming more and more of an issue, even with peole who do have an address as the various organisatons get more and more twitchy about insisting on you proving who you are. I recently (almost) fell foul of it as I moved in with Dave 2 years ago but have not had my name added to any of the utility bills for this property. I do not work so do not get a payslip and have not yet updated my passport into my married name. I had already sent my driving licence off to one organisation who wanted to be certain I was who I said I was - they returned it by special delivery, I was not in when they tried to deliver it, The Post Office wanted proof of my identity in order to hand me the envelope that had my identity in it!

[jelunga]

Be aware if you get put on the electoral register you will be breaking the law. Also if the flat is let to a single person by being on the register you will void their single persons discount .

Not if you register using the "local connection" rules. We register under the local connection rules and that still shows our old rented out address. I checked with the Elec Reg dept. all correct

[DaveP]

One thing that is annoying is that some shops simply can't sell you something unless you give them a post code. I can understand it when you're buying a TV because it's a legal requirement, but an aerial from Maplins? They insisted their till wouldn't work without a postcode so in the end we gave them one for a house we lived in years ago.

 

I feel your pain. B&Q in this instance. Very happy to sell me stuff without a care in the world. But crediting a return - onto the credit card used for the purchase - required a postcode. They wouldn't accept my French address, insisted on a UK postcode and baulked at SW1A 1AA. Eventually they put it through on their own postcode. All in the name of fraud prevention....

[Ex- Member]

I took a new mobile phone contract out a few weeks ago and they only needed to see my passport. We haven't had a utility bill in 3 years and it's never caused a problem.

 

We haven't hired any cars in that time though

 

One thing that is annoying is that some shops simply can't sell you something unless you give them a post code. I can understand it when you're buying a TV because it's a legal requirement, but an aerial from Maplins? They insisted their till wouldn't work without a postcode so in the end we gave them one for a house we lived in years ago.

 

Hi Ange

 

That might be because you either took a new contract out with the same company or ceased a contract and renewed one through the same retailer and ported the number. If you want a new contract with a different provider unless you port your number you would have to provide the necessary. Although I moved from BT to Orange porting both the numbers (2 phones) and still had to provide utility bills simply because I transferred payment of the new phones to another company even though registered at the same address.

 

 

 

[Ange]

Hi Ange

 

That might be because you either took a new contract out with the same company or ceased a contract and renewed one through the same retailer and ported the number. If you want a new contract with a different provider unless you port your number you would have to provide the necessary. Although I moved from BT to Orange porting both the numbers (2 phones) and still had to provide utility bills simply because I transferred payment of the new phones to another company even though registered at the same address.

 

Hya

We were with T Mobile before and walked into Tesco phone shop and set up a brand new contract with a new number with 3. As far as Tesco were concerned we might never have had a mobile phone before - nothing was asked about previous retailer (T-Mobile shop) or provider.

 

ETA in fact I'm sure when we set up our T-Mobile contract 2 years ago, again brand new provider no porting involved, no utility bill was required. It can't have been as it would have been an issue for us

Edited August 17, 2012 by Ange

[Ex- Member]

Hya

We were with T Mobile before and walked into Tesco phone shop and set up a brand new contract with a new number with 3. As far as Tesco were concerned we might never have had a mobile phone before - nothing was asked about previous retailer (T-Mobile shop) or provider.

 

ETA in fact I'm sure when we set up our T-Mobile contract 2 years ago, again brand new provider no porting involved, no utility bill was required. It can't have been as it would have been an issue for us

 

I'm surprised, I was told it's a legal requirement for mobile phone companies to do this, even with a PAYG, same legislation as banks, to do with money laundering terrorism. Not a fan of Tesco, but if they don't need proof of address they a good option.

 

 

 

[Ange]

I'm surprised, I was told it's a legal requirement for mobile phone companies to do this, even with a PAYG, same legislation as banks, to do with money laundering terrorism. Not a fan of Tesco, but if they don't need proof of address they a good option.

 

I don't think they have to have a utility bill - passport or driving licence suffices. We've not had a utility bill since we moved aboard over 3 years ago and since then we've taken out two mobile phone contracts - like I said it wasn't just Tesco but the T-Mobile shop as well.

 

I'm pretty sure utility bill is just one of a number of either/or proofs of ID they're obliged to ask for.

Edited August 17, 2012 by Ange

[Ex- Member]

I don't think they have to have a utility bill - passport or driving licence suffices. We've not had a utility bill since we moved aboard over 3 years ago and since then we've taken out two mobile phone contracts - like I said it wasn't just Tesco but the T-Mobile shop as well.

 

I'm pretty sure utility bill is just one of a number of either/or proofs of ID they're obliged to ask for.

 

Clearly not a legal requirement for them to do so then. The hassle I had to go through to port 2 phones from BT to Orange just because I wanted to register the new contracts in my other business name. Not only proof of business address x 2 but personal address also x 2 + photo proof of ID, maybe me being so obviously annoyed he suggested it was a legal requirement to keep me calm

 

I just found his though, so maybe TESCO will be scrutinizing their future applications a little closer in future.

 

Fraudsters sail past Tesco security to open mobile account in stolen names

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/jun/29/identity-fraud-tesco-mobile

 

 

 

 

[Ange]

wasn't me honest!

 

I'd be interested to know the true legalities - especially as we would be stuffed if utility bills were essential. I think someone mentioned earlier that they used their BW licence renewal in lieu of a utility bill.

[mrsmelly]

 

 

One thing that is annoying is that some shops simply can't sell you something unless you give them a post code. I can understand it when you're buying a TV because it's a legal requirement, but an aerial from Maplins? They insisted their till wouldn't work without a postcode so in the end we gave them one for a house we lived in years ago.

 

Hi Ange

 

Ive come across this over the years and they talk bshit. Its that they want postcodes to bombard you with junk mail. As for the tv. I went to currys for a new telly a couple of years ago and at the till was asked postcode etc and said didnt have one ( I always do ) Till body refused to sell me telly and I started to walk out and was stopped by a guy who asked what problem was and he took me to a till and hey presto took my cash and sold me the telly. I asked what he did and he simply said he submitted the store postcode, simples.....he was a manager and I suppose it all adds up to his weekly sales target.

 

Tim

[john6767]

Hi Ange

 

That might be because you either took a new contract out with the same company or ceased a contract and renewed one through the same retailer and ported the number. If you want a new contract with a different provider unless you port your number you would have to provide the necessary. Although I moved from BT to Orange porting both the numbers (2 phones) and still had to provide utility bills simply because I transferred payment of the new phones to another company even though registered at the same address.

 

Just to add a piece of actual current experience to this.

 

On Thursday I went with my son (well done to him on his A level results!) to the 3 store in Solihull for him to take out a new contract on an iPhone 4S. Before we went I called them to ask what documentation he needed to bring with him, bear in mind he is 18 and has lived at home all his life, so I was hoping that his bank statement would be ok instead of a utility bill which of course he does not have. They don't need either, all they needed is the debit card which he in paying the monthly contract and up front charge with, and his driving license. Perhaps other providers are different to 3, but they don't want to see any more proof of id than that, and you can walk out with a £600 phone.

Edited August 18, 2012 by john6767

[Bobbybass]

Hi Ange

 

Ive come across this over the years and they talk bshit. Its that they want postcodes to bombard you with junk mail. As for the tv. I went to currys for a new telly a couple of years ago and at the till was asked postcode etc and said didnt have one ( I always do ) Till body refused to sell me telly and I started to walk out and was stopped by a guy who asked what problem was and he took me to a till and hey presto took my cash and sold me the telly. I asked what he did and he simply said he submitted the store postcode, simples.....he was a manager and I suppose it all adds up to his weekly sales target.

 

Tim

I recently bought a tube of own brand 'no-nails' from Wickes..price £1.20

 

The girl wanted a postcode..

I said I moved about on my boat and had none...

She was totally stumped....

She said " well..where do your bank statements go!!?".

I said..into cyberspace...

"OK then..where does your tax bill go !!?"

I said again..cyberspace..

The queue got long...

I said..'please..just take my £1.20...I want to go'..

She was still lost and called the store manager..

 

if I had not needed the glue..I would have gone..but I needed it...

The store manager came..and almost grilled me..for a post code...

I said to him...put your post code on it then..but he wouldn't..

 

The till wouldn't allow a transaction without it...!!

 

In the end the customer behind me said "for christ sake use my postcode"..so in the end they did..!!

[JDR]

If a shop insists on a postcode try RG45 7EG. Alternatively PH33 6SY is the postcode for the summit of Ben Nevis. If you are feeling particularly malicious the Falkland Islands have apparently been granted the postcode of FQ11 1ZZ.

Edited August 18, 2012 by JDR