If you’re planning on opening an account with a bank for the first time, you should know that it isn’t a daunting and time-consuming process, as long as you ensure that you gather all the necessary documents and take them with you. In most cases, you’ll need some form of ID or a real paystub, however, you’ll also need proof of residence that’ll verify where you reside.
Nonetheless, there is a wide range of valid papers and statements that you can and should utilize for confirming where you live, and the ones you could choose will vary from state to state, as well as the financial institution you’re planning on using. If you’re unable to obtain these records, the entire process of opening an account will be delayed.
This is why you may be wondering – what records and/or papers could I use as proof of evidence? Luckily for all individuals that are searching for an answer to this question, the article below will shed some light on the entire topic. But, before we take a look at what you could choose to use, let’s first learn more about proof of residence papers:
Proof of Residence: Explained
As the name implies, proof of residence is a report that will verify where you reside at the moment. This is also commonly referred to as “proof of address”, and every financial institution will demand it, mostly because they want to ensure that individuals aren’t lying about where they currently reside.
Basically speaking, they want to ensure that they can send all the important mail to the right address, meaning that they’ll want to ensure that you receive the mail, no matter if it’s a real paystub or if it is your financial statement. You must remember, there are specific criteria that’ll guarantee that the proof of residency is accurate, which incorporates the subsequent things:
- The info on it needs to match the information on your ID card or other identification,
- It needs to contain your actual and exact address,
- No matter what document it is – a real paystub or an energy bill provider – it needs to feature your name and other info,
- It has to be precisely dated.
Keep in mind, there has been an increase in people trying to produce fake records of where they’re staying, which is why some banks started asking for 2 proof of address papers. However, this will rely on the state you live in, as well as the financial institution you opted for.
So, What Records Could I Use?
There is a wide range of reports that you could utilize for proving your address, which includes the subsequent things:
1. Your Utility Bills
One of the first things that you could use for proving your location is your utility bills. Keep in mind, some financial institutions may not accept bills that are older than 4 months, hence, ensure that you bring newer ones with you. The utility bills that are allowed are gas, power, water, cable company, as well as landline bills.
2. Your Real Paystub
You could also use the real paystub you’re getting from the company you work for. However, if you’re self-employed, you’ll have to learn how to make pay stubs, mostly because you’ll be your own boss. Now, there are various platforms such as paystubsnow.com that offer check stub generators, all of which will show you how to make pay stubs
Keep in mind, no matter which check stub generator you opt for, ensure that it’ll produce a real paystub that is professionally-looking, but more importantly that’ll feature all the correct information about your salary. A real paystub must be accurate, meaning that you should be really careful about the figures.
Hence, before you use the check stub generator, you should do some digging online and determine what information you’ll have to feature on the real paystub, all of which will help you with guaranteeing that you produce a report that’ll be allowed by the financial company you opted for.
3. Your Identification Card
If you’re unable to secure a real paystub, you may want to opt for utilizing your identification card, but, it needs to feature a photograph. Additionally, your address has to be featured on the card, it has to be accurate, and it cannot be the same card that you provided as a confirmation of your private details.
What does this mean? Well, it means that, if you’ve, for instance, submitted your license for proving your identity, you’ll have to provide another report that’ll prove where you reside, even if you have the exact same address on your driver’s license. Hence, ensure that you choose right.
4. The Tax Assessments You Obtained
Yet another thing that you can utilize for validating your address are the tax assessments that could be given to you by the state or monetary authority that is in charge of verifying where you reside. This indicates that banks won’t allow tax assessments given by, let’s say, German governments to verify an address in the United States.
Remember, this particular report needs to be issued in the last year and it also needs to feature some important info, including, of course, name and surname, the exact address, account or tax amounts, and, of course, the time the report was obtained. If you’re unable to obtain this paper, there is another thing that you could try.
5. A Certification That You Registered to Vote
If you’re a resident of the United States of America, you’re eligible for voting. Hence, the certification you get can also be utilized for validating your actual address. Nevertheless, there are some criteria that this paper needs to meet, including all of the things below:
– The certification has to be distributed by the state accountable for recording the people (voters) in the location you’re in,
– It cannot be issued for more than a year,
– It needs to feature the name & surname, and the address of the voter.
Conclusion
If you’re planning on obtaining a bank account or if you need proof of residence papers for any other thing, there are some alternatives that you can choose from, ranging from getting a real paystub, all the way to utilizing your voter’s certification to prove where you currently reside.
So, now that you’ve learned what records you could use for proving your address, you might not want to lose any more of your time. Instead, you should return to the beginning of this article, go through it once again, and then determine which of the options above suits your needs best.
