Ulster Bank and Driver's Licenses

Chessala

Heya all,

I had an appointment at an UB branch today to open a new current account as I'm not too happy with AIB anymore for several reasons.

Now it says everywhere that they accept driver's licenses and not having my ID or Passport (from Germany) available atm I went usually use my European driver's licenses for identification purposes. Usually there is no problem with that and everything went fine with opening the account too.

So I went home and suddenly received a call telling me that my driver's license is not enough proof of my identity?

I've been in the country for over a year and never had a problem with this so far. Actually I have been asked for my driver's license for identification more than once before as national ID's don't seem to be very popular here and I have no passport (one would think in the EU that shouldn't be a problem.

Any thoughts or experiences on that? It doesn't make sense to me why they would accept the licenses they have in the country but not a european on ethat is valid in all EU countries....=/ (at least that's how it should be by European law)

unclebill98

Firstly, this should have been said to you before the appointment, secondly it should have been said to you in the interview.

It's central bank of Ireland rules so the bank will not bend them. There are other forms of ID allowed and again this should have been explained.

Not off to a good start. Contact the branch service quality advisor(sqa) and repeat what you said above. They'll get you clear instructions as to what happens next.

Chessala

Thanks for the replay.

I agree that it should have been mentioned. I made the appointment yesterday and asked if my driver's license would be sufficient and was told yes.

Even today the license was copied and all seemed fine until I got the call about 30 mins after I left. I find all that rather confusing especially as a driver's license is listed as a valid proof of identity...

unclebill98

It's a full or provisional Irish license. Simple mistake for the person making the appointment and to late for them to ring prior to the appointment to fill you in.

Still, poor service.

Chessala

It's a full license. Not issued in Ireland though but in Germany. Still it's been accepted by AIB and all other places I went to and while reading up online about this it says that it is valid in all EU member states.

It's one of EU card ones (not a paper one)

unclebill98

Wellmif you still wanna go ahead read this link.

http://www.ulsterbank.ie/roi/personal/daily-banking/current-accounts/useful-information/identity-proof.ashx

Chessala

It's exactly the same as the UK photo type card just that it has been around since 2002 in Germany =/

dublin daz

They probably assumed it was a UK/IRL license. It must have only come to their attention when signing off on the aml file.

If you do proceed with the application process you won't be disappointed with Ulster Bank.

My mum opened an account the other day and was done there and then.

She used her passport and utility bill.

f9710145

I worked in a bank about 15 years ago and we had ructions when a customer, who had been told that a drivers license would be adequate id, was then requested to provide more. Granted his license was written in arabic and could have been anything as far as the staff were concerned. Point is, that if noone in the bank knows what a valid, legitimate German drivers license is supposed to look like then they'll be a bit reluctant to accept it. However explaining this would be a lot more reasonable than just appearing to 'change their minds'.