Things You Need to Know

Identifying you and preventing fraud

Why do we ask you for proof of your identity and address?

Before you can open an account with us, we need to verify your identity and address. This applies to all new customers and, in some circumstances, to existing customers.

We ask for this information in order to comply with money laundering regulations and to help stop criminals using our products and services to launder money. It also helps us to prevent fraud.

All providers of financial products and services must have systems in place to prevent criminals from using them to 'clean' their proceeds of crime. Our procedures include obtaining proof of your identity, address and date of birth. We also request information on how you intend to operate your account and where funds being paid into your account will come from. This information achieves the requirements of the Money Laundering Regulations and also helps to protect you and us against fraud.

Proving your identity can occasionally be inconvenient, but please remember that all building societies, banks and other financial institutions will ask for similar information.

How does money laundering affect you?

Criminals who make money from crime need to find ways to hide the money so that it can't be traced back to them. One way of doing this is to put the money into a building society or other financial institution account, in a way that hides where it came from and then to access it safely, later. Criminals may use a false name and address to make it more difficult to trace them and this is why we ask you to provide evidence of your identity and address. Please be assured that these checks do not mean that you are under suspicion. The only way we can catch criminals using the financial system is to check every customer.

Electronic Identification

To minimise inconvenience, we have introduced a new way to identify customers and validate addresses electronically using information held by credit reference agencies including the Electoral Register. If this fails to provide us with the level of proof we require, we will ask you to provide proof of identity and/or address. Full details are listed below.

Opening an account at a Branch or Agency

If we are unable to electronically identify you, we will need to see two original documents - one from the personal identification list and one from the address verification list below. We will take copies of the documents for our records and give the originals back to you.

Opening an account through the post or online

If we are unable to identify you electronically, we will need to ask you to provide us with two certified copy documents - one from the personal identification list and one from the address verification list below. Please do not send original documents to us in the post. If you send original documents to us, we cannot accept any liability for the safety of these documents whilst they are in the post.

Copies of documents must be certified as being a true copy of the original by any one of the following:

Teacher
Doctor
Banker
Post Office Official
UK Lawyer
FSA Regulated Financial Intermediary
Accountant, or
Minister of Religion

Individuals retired from these professions are not able to act in this capacity. Each certified copy must be signed by that person and must appear with the full name, qualification (where applicable), job title, address and telephone number and date of certification (please see example below).

Certified as a true copy by John Paul Smith 
(full name and signature) 
ACA 
Accountant 
Saffron House, 1A Market Street, Saffron Walden, 
Essex, CB10 1HX 
0800 072 1100 
Date certified: 15/05/2009

The identity documents cannot be certified by any party to the account or their relatives.

Existing Customers

We must keep up to date and accurate information about our customers. If you have not used your account for a while, or if we do not hold adequate information about you, there may be a need to update that information and check your identification. At any time, for your protection, we may require proof of your identity before allowing withdrawals from your account.

What happens if we can't verify your identity?

We do not want to stop people using our products or services for lawful purposes. Unfortunately, if it is not possible to verify your identity, then by law, we will not be able to provide you with our products or services.

Giving us proof of your identity

You will be required to provide us with two documents, one from the personal identification list and one from the address verification list.

Personal identification - one item
Current full signed UK/EU passport
Current UK photo-card Driving Licence and paper counterpart (full or provisional)
Current UK full (old style) Driving Licence (provisional not acceptable)
Firearms certificate or shotgun licence
Inland Revenue Tax notification/demand/assessment (less than 12 months old)
Letter from Benefits Agency confirming entitlement to benefits or state pension (less than 12 months old)
Address verification - one item
Council Tax bill or statement (valid for current year)
Utility bill or statement issued/dated in the last three months/current year for water bills (mobile phone statements are not accepted) (internet prints are not accepted)
Bank/Building Society/National Savings statement or passbook containing current address (issued/dated in the last three months and not issued by the Society) (internet prints are not accepted)

If you have lived at your current address for less than three months you must also provide one additional item from the address verification list above that shows your previous address.

If you do not possess any of the identification detailed above please talk to us and we will tell you what other documents can be accepted.

Identification for Minors (aged under 18)

We are unable to identify minors electronically so you will be required to provide us with two documents, one from the personal identification list and one from the address verification list below.

Personal identification - one item
Any personal identification that is listed on the previous page
Birth certificate
NHS medical card
Child allowance benefit book
Address verification - one item
Any address verification that is listed on the previous page
Any address verification that is listed on the previous page, in parent's name

If an account is being opened on behalf of a minor (nominee or trustee basis), the person(s) operating the account must provide two documents, one from the personal identification list and one from the address verification list on the previous page for themselves, as well as the minor's proof of identity as above and proof of the minor's current address if this differs from that of the nominee/trustee.

Identification for company and club accounts

Limited Company
Copy of the Certificate of Incorporation
Memorandum and Articles of Association
Resolution of the Board of Directors to open an account and confer authority on those who operate it
Names of all Directors
Identity and address verification (one document from each list on the previous page) of at least one Director and all persons authorised to operate the account
Clubs and Societies
The Constitution of the Club, Society or Association
A written authority signed by all officials approving the opening of the account
Identity and address verification (one document from each list on the previous page) of the person(s) authorised to operate the account.
Charities (including Charity Tracker account)
The Constitution of the Charity
A written authority signed by all officials approving the opening of the account
Identity of the person(s) authorised to operate the account (one from the personal identification list and one from the address verification list above)
Charity number
Solicitors
Declaration confirming that you are acting for a client/ estate
Solicitors' Reserve Account
We will also require you to provide an acceptable form of organisation identification detailed below.
There must be two partners signing to open the account
Accounts may only be opened by cheque or transfer from an account in the firms name
We will check with the Law Society for confirmation of your status and that of the firm

Data Protection Act

The Society may make searches about you at credit reference agencies who will supply it with information, including information from the Electoral Register, for the purpose of verifying your identity. The agencies will record details of the search whether or not your application proceeds. The identification searches will not be used by lenders to assess your ability to obtain credit. The Society may use scoring methods to assess your application and to verify your identity. Credit searches and other information which is provided to the Society and/or the credit reference agencies, about you and those with whom you are linked financially, may be used by the Society and other companies, if you, or other members of your household, apply for other facilities including insurance applications and claims. Alternatively, the Society may ask you to provide physical forms of identification.

You have the right of access to your personal records held by the Society and the credit and fraud agencies. Under the Data Protection Act 1998, you have the right to see and receive a copy of any personal information that the Society holds about you. The Society will charge an administration fee of £10 if you make a request to see your personal records. Further information is contained in our leaflet, 'Your guide to data protection', which is available here.

Fraud Prevention

Criminals can sometimes use the name, address and other details about an innocent person to open a bank account or carry out a financial transaction. They may get this information by sorting through your household rubbish for bills, credit card statements and other papers. By looking after your personal documents in the following ways, you can help prevent this happening to you:

Keep your personal documents in a safe place, preferably in a lockable drawer or cabinet at home
Destroy any unwanted documents, preferably using a shredder
Check statements as soon as they arrive. If any unfamiliar transactions are listed, please contact us immediately
Check your passbook balance before you leave the branch and let our staff know if you think there is an error
Report any lost or stolen passbooks to us as soon as possible by calling 0800 072 1100 (there is a message service available for out of hours) or contact your local branch.
When paying cheques into your account, do not make them payable to Saffron Building Society. Please make the cheque payable to the name of the person holding the account (e.g. Mrs J. Smith)

The Society's savings charges

Effective 1 November 2009

Returned cheque fee	No charge
Telegraphic transfer fee To UK bank account	£30
Duplicate records Section 975 Certificate (Formerly Section 352 Certificate)	£25
Duplicate investment transaction statement	£30
Duplicate investment interest statement	£25
Copy cheque fee	£10 per cheque
Stopped cheque fee	No charge
Lost passbook fee (provided only one lost passbook in a 12 month period per account, otherwise £10)	No charge
Return of unpaid Direct Debit	£30
Transfer to another ISA Manager (Applicable only for Postal 30 day ISA account)	£30

Charges for limited companies:

If the cleared balance on your account is less than £20,000:

20 free cheque receipts per month, thereafter 75 pence each
10 free cheque withdrawals per month, thereafter 75 pence each

Data protection

You have certain rights of access to personal data the Society holds about you. If you require access, there will be a charge of £10.

These charges are inclusive of VAT where applicable and may be subject to change.

Internal complaints procedure

As a mutual Society, our members are at the heart of everything we do. While we want to provide the best service possible, we recognise that sometimes things can go wrong. When they do, we want to know so that we can help sort them out as quickly as possible.

This page explains how you can help us to deal with your complaint and what to do if the problem has not been resolved to your satisfaction.

If you have a complaint

If, for whatever reason, you are unhappy with our products or services, please follow the process below.

Stage 1

Contact your local branch or our Saffron Direct team at Head Office either by telephone, email, in writing or in person at the branch.

Wherever possible, please provide your account number and a daytime contact telephone number.

Stage 2

In the unlikely event that we have been unable to resolve your complaint at the first stage, you can contact the Executive Secretary at our Head Office, either in writing or by telephone.

The address is:

Saffron House, 1A Market Street, Saffron Walden,
Essex, CB10 1HX.
Telephone: 0800 072 1100

All aspects of your complaint will be reviewed by the appropriate person who will provide a final response.

Stage 3

If you are unhappy with our response, you may be eligible to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service. You must do this within six months of our final response.

Details of this service will be given to you with our final response. It is important that you give us the opportunity of solving the problem before referring it to the Ombudsman Service, as they normally only consider a complaint when it has not been possible to reach a satisfactory outcome with a building Society directly.

How long before I get a reply?

We will acknowledge your complaint within five working days and endeavour to provide you with a full response within 10 working days. We aim to resolve the complaint within four weeks. These timescales should allow us to fully investigate and respond to your concerns. However, where possible, we will do our very best to respond to you more quickly.

If after eight weeks we are not in a position to issue a full response to your complaint, we will confirm this, together with the timescale within which you can expect a final response. At this stage, if you are dissatisfied with the delay you may refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Finally ...

We hope you never need to use this complaints procedure. However, if you do, please be assured that we will deal with your complaint as quickly and fairly as possible. As a customer, you are important to us.