#Request photocopy of id and credit card registration

But I do not remember any hotel ha ving asked me to provide these copies. I have had to send these before only in instances when I was making a large payment to a travel agent in South Africa, who had booked game lodges and flights for me, or to Burma when I booked a river cruise and a few hotels with another travel agent.

But with the confirmation of the room, the hotel is now asking me for a photocopy of both my credit card, and my I.D. I do not use a debit card, by the way, so I see the charges before I pay the bill.Īll well and good, so far. Going against most of the sage advice here, I sent them my credit card to confirm the booking. I recently booked a hotel in Puebla, Mexico. This could happen anywhere, so is not confined to Latin America. Something similar happened to members of my family (with non-official non-photo ID like credit cards).I am posting this here instead of on the Mexico forum because it will be seen here by more of you. They might seize on the copy to let you go with a verbal warning. Lots of paperwork for something that's not a crime, won't result in a valued outcome in their performance statistics, etc. In practice, even when the police insists that ID is mandatory (possibly illegally), if they are convinced you are an EU citizen, doing something about the lack of ID is just a burden. That's one of the reasons I suspect the photocopy might in fact be useful. Even if the mistake was ultimately cleared up, it would result in a few extremely unpleasant days/hours. I have heard of several cases of citizens being retained and put through the process leading towards a removal. The downstream risks for you as an EU citizen are limited (you won't be found guilty of illegal stay, deported or banned from reentering the Schengen area or anything like that) but without any ID document, you first need to establish that you are in fact an EU citizen. You might also end up needing some identification document following other interaction with the police (accident, etc.) There is at least one country (the Netherlands), where not carrying ID is a (minor) criminal offense, punishable by a fine.

#Request photocopy of id and credit card registration

It's still up to the country to regulate police checks, registration and identification requirements as they like.ĭepending on the jurisdiction, holding or carrying government sanctioned ID might or might not be mandatory and the likelihood of a check varies widely. As often, what the EU mandates is that other EU citizens are treated on a par with citizens. There is no EU resident/citizen database authorities could use to double-check your data and no EU-wide rule regulating this matter. Authorities in one member state can send questions to another, but that takes time. For those without it, there could be inconvenience.Īnd the sort of EU-wide automatic database query which the OP envisions doesn't exist. But anyone could get into a situation where the authorities want to record the ID of all involved persons and take official statements later. In fact, many don't require citizens to carry IDs. What you can do is get yourself both an ID card and a passport if your country issues cards, and take one or the other within Europe.įollow-Up: Just to clarify, EU countries are not in the habit of arresting people just because they don't have ID on them. That way you have the document number when you file the report. The only use for a photocopy or digital scan is as a handy reference of all the relevant data, in case the original gets lost. A copy has none of those - it might easily be photoshopped. They might also be officially invalidated when a new one is issued before the expiry date. Official ID documents have many features to prevent forgery or manipulation.