or paranoid?

Is this the price we pay for fighting identity theft and fraud? If so, how come so many crooks get away with it?

I could not agree more. I wanted £5 worth in 50 pences (not exactly a fortune) and went to my own bank. I had no ID on me but I could trot out my account and sort code number off the top of my head so I was reluctantly given my own money, the whole fiver's worth.

A different branch happily gave £250 of my money to somebody who stole my cheque book and did not have any obvious ID.

My DH before I met him used, the money under the bed banking system. He went to buy his flat and took £11,000 to his solicitor in a carrier bag.
It took a good couple of hours of explaining to the police before they let him go

I have had tantrums in banks before now.and I do know the account number off the top of my head. Tried to give my daughter a deposit for a house and had to have character references from our accountant!

I was treated like a criminal because I had the cheek to claim on the PPI I had been payimg. My MCard was closed with immediate effect and as it was linked to a bank I asked their help in sorting it out. They did nothing and I received several nasty letters suggesting I would not pay off the outstanding monies owed all £14 of it.

I paid it off at £1per month, closed all (reasonably good) accounts at the bank and eventually received £5,000 for the PPI. But I would never go into that bank again and cannot recommend it to anyone. They said there was no connection but then why was the bank's name at the top of my MCard?

Wow glad it isn't only me

We took out a mortgage on our old house while building our new one, as it was cheaper than a bridging loan, and the bank where we have been for 30 years wanted to do an ID check (passports, etc). We said that they could forget either the check or the mortgage, and guess what, they saw sense and realised that they did, in fact, know us. It wasn't the local branch which was the problem but some numpty in the next level up. I bet he was surprised when we duly paid back the loan as soon as the old house sold!

I bought Euros for DGC when they went on holiday if I paid cash I didnt need any form of Identity but if I paid Debit card I did whats the difference, surely the debit card can be traced back but the cash cant