diff --git a/app/helpers/epp/contacts_helper.rb b/app/helpers/epp/contacts_helper.rb
index 20197c7f7..b2bf4d02b 100644
--- a/app/helpers/epp/contacts_helper.rb
+++ b/app/helpers/epp/contacts_helper.rb
@@ -168,8 +168,7 @@ module Epp::ContactsHelper
   end
 
   def ident_type
-    result = params[:frame].slice(/(?<=\<ns2:ident type=)(.*)(?=<)/)
-
+    result = parsed_frame.css('ident').first.try(:attributes).try(:[], 'flag').try(:value)
     return nil unless result
 
     Contact::IDENT_TYPES.any? { |type| return type if result.include?(type) }
diff --git a/app/models/contact.rb b/app/models/contact.rb
index 46156d7b9..abae9e8be 100644
--- a/app/models/contact.rb
+++ b/app/models/contact.rb
@@ -164,6 +164,7 @@ class Contact < ActiveRecord::Base
       contact_hash = {
         phone: ph[:voice],
         ident: ph[:ident],
+        ident_type: ph[:ident_type],
         email: ph[:email],
         fax: ph[:fax],
         name: ph[:postalInfo].try(:[], :name),
diff --git a/spec/epp/contact_spec.rb b/spec/epp/contact_spec.rb
index b9e0ae2cf..9158529e7 100644
--- a/spec/epp/contact_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/epp/contact_spec.rb
@@ -57,6 +57,12 @@ describe 'EPP Contact', epp: true do
         expect(response[:results].count).to eq 6
       end
 
+      it 'successfully saves ident type' do
+        xml = {ident: { value: '37605030299' , attrs: { flag: 'birthday' } }}
+        response = epp_request(create_contact_xml(xml), :xml)
+        expect(Contact.last.ident_type).to eq('birthday')
+      end
+
       it 'successfully creates a contact' do
         response = epp_request(create_contact_xml, :xml)
 
diff --git a/spec/support/epp_contact_xml_helper.rb b/spec/support/epp_contact_xml_helper.rb
index 7fc2747fd..3d13d7805 100644
--- a/spec/support/epp_contact_xml_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/support/epp_contact_xml_helper.rb
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ module EppContactXmlHelper
       },
       voice: { value: '+372.1234567' },
       email: { value: 'test@example.example' },
-      ident: { value: '37605030299' }
+      ident: { value: '37605030299' , attrs: { flag: 'op' } }
     }
 
     xml_params = defaults.deep_merge(xml_params)