advertisement


Car Hire proof of address issues

cctaylor

cctaylor

pfm Member
I'm trying to make arrangements for a trip down to Bristol in July. As my travel arrangements are a bit complex a hire car is really essential. Coming up against a bit of a barrier. Many of the hire companies are looking for a "posted" utility bill as proof of address. I haven't been able to find how get one out of Octopus Energy.

Does the pinkfish collective have any ideas on how to get round this conundrum?
 
Gas, electricity, broadband bills tend to be online only these days, so i suggest a recent council tax or water “rates” bill could be acceptable. Do they want a “hard copy”? Hard copies of the latter should be coming out around now. Or local council voting slips? We’ve had all of those in the last month.

Driving Licence could be donkey’s years old - mine was last renewed 28 years ago when we moved to our current address (amusingly, I’m now going through the process of renewing it….coz I’m about to hit the grand old age of 70!)
 
I do everything online so find that a bank statement from my banking app is quickest and easiest because I use the app daily , so it’s second nature to find one -and print if necessary.
 
It's shocking how many organisations havent caught up with the times with respect to this issue. It's made worse when they say the paper copy must be less than X months old (often only 3), meaning unless you're just lucky even council tax & water bills are not acceptable.
 
I had to ID myself with a bank for LPOA not long ago and they (Barclays) accepted printed downloaded bills as proof of address along with Driving Licence and passport
 
I needed three proofs for a recent dbs, council tax and water were out due to being older than three months it was actually a real struggle
 
gez said:
It's shocking how many organisations havent caught up with the times with respect to this issue. It's made worse when they say the paper copy must be less than X months old (often only 3), meaning unless you're just lucky even council tax & water bills are not acceptable.
Click to expand...

This /\ /\ /\ /\. Utter ball ache nowadays. :mad:
 
cctaylor said:
I'm trying to make arrangements for a trip down to Bristol in July. As my travel arrangements are a bit complex a hire car is really essential. Coming up against a bit of a barrier. Many of the hire companies are looking for a "posted" utility bill as proof of address. I haven't been able to find how get one out of Octopus Energy.

Does the pinkfish collective have any ideas on how to get round this conundrum?
Click to expand...

I have two different formats of the statement on my online bank account, one looks exactly the same as the old posted one so most places accept it as such.
 
In all honesty, I question the very need for proof of address for a lot of the stuff for which it's requested. Please tell me exactly how does "proof of address" prove someones identity more than say ownership of a banking app in your name for example. Why does a car rental company need to know where you live when you've already provided a drivers licence which is a legal document that you had to provide proof of ID to obtain in the first place. Should you be involved in an accident and say "just do a runner" they have your DL info, they can contact the police and the police will trace you with that information, or do they want your address so they can "send the boys round"? It's somewhat ludicrous.
 
gez said:
It's shocking how many organisations havent caught up with the times with respect to this issue. It's made worse when they say the paper copy must be less than X months old (often only 3), meaning unless you're just lucky even council tax & water bills are not acceptable.
Click to expand...
The company I work for insist on seeing paper bank statements dated within the last three months. As more people switch over to online and paperless banking, it can be a real PITA for our clients, especially as we won’t accept statements downloaded and printed from a banking app.
 
Last edited:
I recently had to go to my bank for a 'bank copy' of my current account, downloaded statements couldn't be used, the bank's branch statement was marked 'digital' I then had to photocopy the statement then take said statement along with actual photocopies of the statement to the PO but not just any old post office it had to be post office branch that certifies documents so the photocopies of the bank statement were certified and signed as such by the post office person and I also had to fill in a PO form which also had to have the receipt for the certifying service attached and also signed by the PO staff member.

This was for a pension lump sum payment being made to my bank account by a pensions company who, incidentally, communicated all of this and subsequent other information by email but refused point blank to accept the statement downloaded from my banking app and sent to them via email.

I had to post all of those documents including both sets of the bank statement to the pensions company.

You honestly couldn't make some of this shite up.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gez
twotone said:
I recently had to go to my bank for a 'bank copy' of my current account, downloaded statements couldn't be used, the bank's branch statement was marked 'digital' I then had to photocopy the statement then take said statement along with actual photocopies of the statement to the PO but not just any old post office it had to be post office branch that certifies documents so the photocopies of the bank statement were certified and signed as such by the post office person and I also had to fill in a PO form which also had to have the receipt for the certifying service attached and also signed by the PO staff member.

This was for a pension lump sum payment being made to my bank account by a pensions company who, incidentally, communicated all of this and subsequent other information by email but refused point blank to accept the statement downloaded from my banking app and sent to them via email.

I had to post all of those documents including both sets of the bank statement to the pensions company.

You honestly couldn't make some of this shite up.
Click to expand...
To make it worse, bank branches are closing all over the country at a seemingly ever increasing rate. My nearest branch was 3 minutes away, it's now at least a 20 minute public transport journey away (or 10 minutes in a car but plus also have to pay for parking). Sure, that's doable for me, but what if was infirm etc?

Plus how many times are we asked to "go paperless" to save the planet. Ironically often by the very organisations that insist on paper document proof.
 
I haven’t hired a car for a while now. The last time was Europcar about 18 months ago. All booked and paid for online. When I turned up at the depot they said they’d need my NI number- which I didn’t have and don’t know off by heart. I managed to get it from my bank, but would have been screwed otherwise.

They say it’s part of their stated T&C’s but it certainly wasn’t highlighted during the booking process, so be warned.
 
gez said:
To make it worse, bank branches are closing all over the country at a seemingly ever increasing rate. My nearest branch was 3 minutes away, it's now at least a 20 minute public transport journey away (or 10 minutes in a car but plus also have to pay for parking). Sure, that's doable for me, but what if was infirm etc?

Plus how many times are we asked to "go paperless" to save the planet. Ironically often by the very organisations that insist on paper document proof.
Click to expand...

Not only that nonsense above but the pension mob told me that the bank would certify the statement but they don’t the teller told me that they’re not allowed to sign anything.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top