I have re-verified my "details"

and I am not about to do it again...and again.

The bank wants me to "reverify" my details. This is now a "legal requirement" which is more about trying to stop money laundering than it is about the safety of small accounts like mine. I accept it needs to be done but doing it once should be enough. I should not need to do it three times. 

I have my everyday working account. This is the one my debit card is attached to. I have my savings account which, for reasons best known to three government departments and myself is where I get my miniscule allowance. I also have an account which has almost nothing in it but is there for a very specific purpose. The money in it does not belong to me. The bank is fully aware of the purpose of that account.

Now I have had three separate requests to "reverify" my accounts. Simple? No. I fall at the first hurdle. I do not have a driver's licence. My passport is being renewed and I cannot use the old one for this purpose. Medicare card? You are supposed to be able to use that but, for some reason, the system will not accept mine. Birth certificate? How does that help? It does not give them my current address or the address to which my mail is sent? Why cannot I simply say, "I live here. You send my mail here. Now look it up on the electoral roll. I am not a "silent" voter." (Silent voters do not appear on the public electoral roll.) 

Banks probably do not have access to the electoral roll now. Once upon a not too distant time everyone had access to it. There would be a copy in the local library. Now it is "protected" information. You have to have good reason to want to consult it, indeed you will hand the information you have over to someone else to do it for you. Only MPs have that information available for personal use outside the offices of the Electoral Commission. 

The idea that this is somehow about keeping our personal information "safe" is something I find hard to understand. It seems there is a demand for more and more personal information every time we interact with any service at all. Our GP had to provide two different forms of ID this week just so she could sign off on a form for me. It used to be that just her provider number and signature were enough but not any more.

I am not sure where all this information goes or how it is used or even if it is used. It seems unlikely but government departments seem to be in love with it. If they can dream up something new to ask they will. 

I reverified my details once. I provided the old passport number before I sent it off to be renewed. It is out of date but all the other information is up to date. It is all the bank needs - until I get my new passport...or they decide to accept my "proof of age" card. It would be easier to really be a cat.