Now that really is a good example of joined-up incompetence.
Only sightly less annoying was TV Licensing requiring me to first to sign up to the Verified by Visa scheme before allowing me to pay with a Visa CC in the name of J.Bloggs card address 8 Railway Cuttings for a TV licence in the name of J.Bloggs Licence address 8 Railway cuttings.
Although I think that only happened the once with TV Licencing and one of the few times I been asked to use V b V, which it appears is still going.
I had that problem when I tried to register for online premium bond access and close a BS term account. Passport expired and no mobile phone, so I don't exist.
I even showed them all four passports with stamps that positively prove my identity, but to no avail. Only a current passport is acceptable, which seems to be the easiest document available to fraudsters.
HMRC have sent my wife a couple of letters refunding tax, as it was wrongly being taken on her NHS pension after she had to quit due to ill health. It has finally been sorted out, but only after a couple of years!
At the time we really needed the money, but the letters said, claim online to get the money into her account in a few days or wait 13 weeks and they'd send her a cheque.
UK passport had expired (her Irish passport was in date, so we'd left it to avoid the extra expense, but that wasn't acceptable), driving licence needed renewing (she wasn't driving due to her health and so she hadn't bothered).
We were told that she could get a form from her employer - but she wasn't employed then.
We were lead around a system that has an online assessment to tell you what to use if you have none of the standard documentation. After some time going around it repeatedly - it kept saying that she should use her (non-existent) UK passport!
They seem to think that everyone travels abroad, keeps an up to date UK passport and drives and hard-luck if you don't. If the state with us to have some ID to enable online access, they should be providing means for people to obtain it without extra expense.
NatWest put a hold on my debit card some years ago when we were getting married. They were fine with a deposit for the reception venue; the wedding cars; wedding suit hire for myself, the best man and the ushers; a whole load of other things, but ordering buttonholes from the florist locked it down as an unusual transaction!
In message <q544mp$gnd$ snipped-for-privacy@gioia.aioe.org>, Andrew snipped-for-privacy@mybtinternet.com writes
No, the family car has always been separate from the various Land Rover type vehicles that we used for towing boats.
It just happened that, because the Disco was lost in my local garage's pre-MOT welding accident, somehow the dates for insurance renewal came almost together. It took a while to find an affordable tow vehicle ( the Jeep that turned out to be dire), which was when the gap closed. The current Rangie probably needs to go soon as I've given the boat to a son. It was far cheaper than any equivalent Disco, and posher, but it's very big. When I had the LR 110's, we had to use different insurers to keep the cost down. When I got the Disco, the NFU became uncompetitive.
I'm the only driver. I've asked a couple of times about a multivehicle policy, but been told no.
I'm very unimpressed by insurers. The current one wants to send the docs as pdf's and I've done that for the last few years, but now their email system seems to have been "upgraded" so their messages are non compliant. I had to revert to docs by mail. The man taking my money didn't know whether they had a department to talk to about that.
A friend, now sadly dead, received an invitation to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party (for his charitable work). They wanted either passpor or Driving Licence as identaity. He had neither. They did, however, agree to accept his GLC Freedom Pass. Sadly he was too ill to attend and died a few months later.
In message snipped-for-privacy@end.of.the.universe>, Bill snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com writes
Sorry to pop up again, but the world has definitely gone mad.
I was also due to renew RAC membership, having changed to them a couple of years back when I got totally fed up with the AA demanding a huge fee and then reducing it when I rang them and argued.
The RAC renewal was in my email in tray, with the "From" field saying "do not reply", so I almost missed it. I then had to register for MyRAC to see the renewal docs. The price quoted seemed OK, but I noticed it said automatic renewal, and the last digits of the card number were not ones I recognised and they said it expired last year. I never agree to automatic renewal.
I rang the RAC. She asked did I hear the crackly line, I said Yes, she said we don't know why it's doing that. She said Yes it says here "No automatic renewal". She then quoted a much higher price. I then said "Hang on, the docs I have here quote a different price". She then said "Hang on, I'll see what I can do", and quoted a price 7p lower than the better renewal price. She then said "There's a £25 administration and documentation fee". I said Hang on, is that included in what I'm paying? She said "Oh yes" and confirmed the total amount to pay, the lower amount. She then quoted me the last four digits of my credit card and asked if she should use that. They were correct, current, and were not the unknown ones on the renewal documents.
I hope they can mend cars better than they administer.
It does make me wonder how the country will cope if we leave without that nice Mr Junker to look after us.
Your unusual usage is what is triggering the fraud system. Large amounts, multiple "customer not present" transactions - not so hard to see what's happening is it?
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