National ID Cards

When I moved to the UK from Denmark about 15 years ago, I thought great, no personal identification number, so nobody knows who you are.

Whenever you want to open a bank account, get a store card, buy anything on credit (i.e. car or house), etc. you have to fill in a million and one forms and provide several pieces of paper etc. for identification. But that's fine, as long as you know which pieces of papers to bring up front, and you are prepared. Right? Yes, unless you have more than one surname, and have used more than one of them over the last 6 years, in which case they cannot find your credit history, and you get refused.

So I have to make sure I only use one of my surnames for the next 6 years, and don't move house (another thing that confuses the tracking of your credit history) if I want to buy a car, a house or get a credit card?

Lucky I prefer to pay cash for smaller purchases like furniture and electrical goods. Or I would have to sleep on the floor!

Someone get me an ID, please! I am a law-abiding citizen who have had enough of being treated like a criminal in my home country.

"My home is where I hang my hat"