First direct hell

[Merrow]

I am hoping that someone (anyone!) can help.

Gist is that my (female) partner and I applied for a mortgage with first direct in March, which went through smoothly - we proved our income, that we had jobs that would cover repayments, that we are who we say we are etc. All that had to be done was to set up a normal bank account with first direct.

Simple. Except apparently not. We had to prove our identity and address again. Fine. Sent off the same paperwork as before. Except now this is not enough.

We've sorted out the identity - our lawyer has sent over certified copies of our passports, but they are frankly getting ridiculous about the address. We always give our address as [flat number] [building number] [street number and name]. The council tax bill we sent over had [flat number] [street number and name]. This is the same flat. There is no other flat it could possibly be. There is no other building it could possibly be. My partner, after being on the phone all morning, has apparently managed to convince them that the address is correct.

The next issue? The council tax bill, when listing our names, gives only initials and surnames, with no Miss or anything. As ridiculous as this sounds, while they seem to accept my identity, they have decided that the other person on the account, despite having the initial and surname of my DP, might not be my DP. She was actually told there was no proof on the council tax bill that she was not a man. She can give bank statements showing the money coming out of her account, but this is not enough (we move frequently, and she is still registered at her parents' address for ease). If she had the address on the bank statements changed this would still not be enough, as she has online banking, and they do not accept online bank statements.

I am frankly at a loss about what to do next.

I am surprised to hear this of FD as they seem to score high for Customer Service- we have never had a any problems.
Perhaps you could show other utility bills such as phone or elec/gas with full names listed?
I guess thay are bisng careful and are making sure the mortgage funds are releaed to the right people, maybe they have been victim of a scam mortgage application.

If you've got the mortgage approved and it's just setting up a joint account that is the problem, could you set up the account in your sole name and then add your partner at some point in the future when the dust has settled? I'm assuming you're too far down the track to change lenders which would be the obvious suggestion. I understand that they have to be wary of fraudsters but what you describe sounds more like stupidity and incompetence than any rational objection

I'm surprised as well - it was the customer service record that made us choose them in the first place, and they were certainly very helpful about all the questions I had about the mortgage. We've only rented until now, so I was particularly clueless.

I have an odd Scottish surname, so annoyingly the council tax (which we applied for online) is one of the few that comes with my name correct! We sent the water bill as well, but as we're billed every 6 months apparently it's out of date. I've forwarded them the email we got from the council confirming our account opening, which does list our full names, but I'm worried they won't accept an email as proof. My next idea for this saga is to go to the council office directly, and get a letter from them with our full names, but I'm not sure if this is something they would do.

What is so odd is that it's not the mortgage - we've got the mortgage fine, and that part of the company are telling us all they need is the go ahead from the new accounts team. I would be far more understanding if they wanted to verify in greater detail we could borrow thousands of pounds!

A sole account is a good idea. I had assumed they would need a joint one as we'll both be contributing to the mortgage, but I'll try that strand of attack.

I think the problem with First Direct is that there is nowhere you can go to sit down with real people and real pieces of paper and get some face-to-face understanding. Have a good reputation but it's too easy to get into 'computer says no'.

That was definitely the situation I found myself in! Just had a half hour conversation with a woman where I tried to convince her that missing the word "Miss" off a council tax bill was not actually a reason not to accept it as proof of address (the reason there isn't a Miss is that I applied for council tax online, filled in all my details and, when they asked for the other occupier's name, gave the name, rather than the name and title which the bank seems to expect.)

I asked about going to the council directly to get a letter with the word Miss, but it has to be a bill. I asked about the possibility of the account being solely in my name, but that would apparently require a redo of the mortgage application. At the moment that actually might be quicker.

It's just awful timing - all this house stuff was supposed to be sorted ages ago, so at the moment it is looking like our renting contract will be up before we actually get the house purchase sorted, which makes us, oh, sort of homeless! Even if its just for a few weeks, where we could feasible stay with other people, the cost of storage for our furniture will be astronomical.

Can you ask First Direct what - exactly, precisely, to the letter - they require in order to verify your (collective) identity?

They seem to be just saying no to everything. Do you think they don't want your custom or something?

That's my mother's conspiracy theory ? the mortgage we've applied for is quite a good rate, and she thinks they're trying to fob us off so they don't have to fulfill it.

Apparently we need an official utility bill that states:
Miss [Full name] [Surname] and Miss [Full name] [Surname]
With our full address which, depending to which person you get on the phone, must also include the house name, not just the flat number and street address.

It has to be a bill. It can't be acknowledgment of an account opening, it can't be a different official letter. It can't even be a copy of our renting contract which, quite clearly, shows where we are living! They will accept a bank account registered to the address, but they will not accept a bank account that is online, even if you go into a high street branch of the bank and get them to verify the statements (which was what was required for the mortgage application - why it is not valid now seems absurd).

My current plan of action is to call the council and get them to reissue our bill with our titles and full first names, and get in touch with the water company and ask them to send a bill early.

If you currently only bank online, your existing bank should send you a statement in the post free of charge if you ring and ask for one. Alternatively, why do they need 1 letter proving who both of you are, can't the council tax be used for you and something else be used for your partner? That's what they would do if you weren't currently living together.

Only other thing would be to complain re discrimination for your sexuality, as presumably if you were in a heterosexual relationship they wouldn't care that your partner's name didn't say mr against it.

Fascinating - I had no idea that titles were required for official proof. Actually, am sure they aren't as they are only courtesy anyway and if I wanted to call myself Mr [am female] I don't think anyone could stop me.

Other thoughts:

• get mortgage arm to tell banking arm to stop being ridiculous sort them selves out.
• get a complaint going.

It is sort of fascinating, I'm finding the whole thing a bit surreal - it's like I'm living in my own monty python sketch. Of course the stress of potentially not having a place to rent and our flat purchase falling through takes away some of the enjoyment.

I would have thought it was actually discriminatory to require titles, as some people prefer not to use them. They just seem a bit baffled by the idea that the Council Tax bill doesn't have them. I could sort of understand if we had sent them a photocopy, as it would have been relatively easy to change the name on a computer before printing it off, but we sent them the original bill! I am not that much of a master forger, although I'm tempted to learn just to I can forge a bill to prove our address... It does seem, as someone said above, a "computer says no" problem rather than any discriminatory grounds, so I don't have a complaint in that regard.

The problem with providing a different proof is that we don't actually have that many bills at this address. We moved here in February and we've got a water bill from then acknowledging our change of address, but that doesn't fall into their 3 months requirement. We've got a council tax bill, which have the above problems. And we should have an Eon bill to cover gas and electricity, but they are in some dispute with our landlord about how long the property was vacant for so we haven't actually got anything official from them yet . We don't have a phone line or internet, we don't have a TV, we don't receive any benefits. We've got mobile phones, but bills for them aren't accepted by first direct. Madness!

I shall get DP to pursue the bank statement though, thanks.

I've sent them an email outlining our experience and how contrary it is to their customer service claims, and theoretically that should have a response within 24 hours. Of course, based on my luck so far I'm not actually expecting a response.

Finally! Some good news - I managed to get through to the Council, and a very helpful woman was as baffled as I was at the requirements but has arranged for us to get another bill issued with that apparently crucial word "Miss".

Stay tuned for the next reason we somehow fail the make the requirements...