@tomw Also hilarious that utility bills are accepted as proof of anything, when the utility companies send out bills to whatever name they were given with no checks
@tomw So anachronistic to require paper bills with your residential address on them. I had my address all listed as my PO Box and had to change them all when one of my (previous) banks went crazy having to re-identify everyone. Every bill had the property listed on it, but they needed the billing address to be the same. F'ing crazy.
@tomw Using utility bills for ID was daft even before they went online. Utility companies don't care what name is on the bill. Once I was between properties and needed two proofs, one of which had to be a utility bill. Sister offered to add my name on hers. She phoned the power company and gave them my name, which was duly added... unfortunately her name got left off, so she didn't have a utility bill in her own name.
@tomw I recently had to provide evidence that I was entitled to put a registration number on a car. I had an e-certificate, downloaded from the DVLA specifically for this purpose, but all of the people who produce registration plates insist that you must provide physical documents - so they suggest that you print off the electronic document and take it to the shop. Or, worse, the online providers insist that you post it to them. The e-certificate is valid for 3 days.
@tomw When I moved here I was asked to provide proof of address to open a bank account, which I needed to start my first job here, which I needed to rent a flat. I’m paranoid about proof of address - I have one bank account left that sends me paper statements, and I revert every attempt they make to make it email-based.
@tomw Utility bill constantly pisses me off and has done so for like a decade now because I don't get utility bills. Council tax is all online, guess who needs a utility bill to sign up to pay council tax now? The place that doesn't issue them. Energy supplier? Nope! Internets? Nope! Mobile contracts? Nope! Why people keep asking for it is utter madness when hardly anyone under the age of 60 has them anymore.
This is also WAY worse if you're a business. I moved out of my workshop and offices about a year ago but when I first got the building I needed a utility bill for the building, that didn't have any utilities, to get utilities and to get the council to come out and confirm that the premises was small enough I didn't have to pay the business version of council tax, otherwise I'd be hit with thousands in fines. It legit took three months and notorized letters from solicitors to get an official piece of documentation for the building... so I could also get my insurances for the building and to cover "the public" and employees.
@tomw No one has ever really explained to me what a utility bill is supposed to prove. Apart from the fact that someone calling themselves by that name has access to the post delivered to that address.
@ImpossibleUmbrella Yes – "proof of mailbox". But given the push to online billing it is trivially spoofable. I haven't tried it (no reason to) but I bet at least some of these utilities could be persuaded to produce PDFs of bills to outright non-existent addresses.
@tomw That’s a good one. Try offering to pay cash for a medical visit in Canada when you’re there ‘out of country’. They’re understandably not setup to deal with private insurance, but also apparently not setup to accept cash…
@tomw not good enough for the home office and visa applications - a bank account from a charter bank, and then pay through the nose for duplicate paper statements. New online banks don't offer than so out with the new, stick with the old.
@maya_b Yeah, gets more painful as it gets stricter. And of course a lot of neo-banks are not 'banks' at all, they are thin app layers over a prepaid debit card...
@tomw the amusing part is that I actually have a UK id card which is my biometric residency card. valid for everything 😜
Also, as a commonwealth citizen I can legally vote at all levels of HM's gov't, so I am/was one of those foreign people determining UK policy. sigh.
So far I've never had a problem with downloaded bills for id. My issue is usually that neither my (ultra cheap) phone nor my (once top of the range) laptop cameras are good enough for automated online systems requiring either a scan, selfie or a photo of me holding a doc etc.
I had to go use the post office for my last passport having wasted masses of time failing to pass the passport office system. But not for the camera issue. It wouldn't accept my address. 🤦♂️
@tomw I took a job with a UK bank for a while and enjoyed driving them crazy with identity verification. All my utilities, Bank a/cs etc are on-line & I reminded them that Birth & Marriage certs are public docs so ineligible. Ended up with 9 yr old Driving licence & 8yr old passport!
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