Choose a side: Vinted v disabled users

[Supersimkin2]

Please say what you think. Vinted asked NDN to verify her ID, which she’s happy to do, or they won’t let her withdraw the £300 she’s made selling her stuff.

Life on disability benefits not so easy right now. Her £300 a big deal.

But she can’t do the checks - cos the only ID Vinted accepts is a passport or driver’s licence, neither of which she has as she can’t travel. All the other ID proofs - she has loads - Vinted won’t accept.

We’ve appealed to Vinted three times and they won’t budge. Mangopay, their money platform, refer us to
Vinted.

So Vinted are keeping NDN’s money. They say ‘We hope you will understand’.

YABU = I’m with Vinted.
YANBU = Shame on Vinted.

This has nothing to do with disability, so YABVU to make it out to be an issue surrounding that.

You can’t make foreign countries or their companies follow your countries ideals.

would you like it if iran said the U.K. must do X…. Or if Sweden that the U.K. must do that? Because it’s their laws and their ids and this that or the other.

No you wouldn’t.

Not everyone has a passport but everyone needs some form of photo ID for almost everything these days.

No you don't. I don't have photo ID. The only thing I haven't been able to do in the last year is vote. (I applied for the free voters ID. It didn't arrive.)

I had a similar problem years ago when I stupidly joined an MLM company. They were US based and needed photo ID to release my funds. As I'd made less than the cost of a provisional licence I decided to write it off. Id never planned to sell, so the discount id got and free products was enough for me.

Why doesn't she do a car boot or something if she wants to sell stuff without this hassle?

It's a new thing if you earn over a certain threshold

Unfortunately, consumer protection law dictates otherwise. Foreign businesses doing business with UK consumers are obliged to comply with UK consumer protection law. Whether they actually do so or not is another question.

she can’t get a driving licence and couldn’t ever need a passport. She has all the other entirely acceptable ID used for larger and more established orgs eg uk govt.

OP, you say she couldn’t ever need a passport but evidently that’s not true — she needs one now! Because she wants to deal with a non-UK-based financial company. (It does not matter that the company is not as large or “established” as the UK government.)

Of course they are going to be legally restricted in terms of which forms of UK-specific ID they recognise.

I get that it’s frustrating because she didn’t realise, but it doesn’t seem discriminatory.

And what are the U.K. going to actually
Do about a foreign bank only accepting drivers or passport.

Vinted do not usually require ID for smaller withdrawals, up to about £80 I've never been asked, it is because the OP has got a larger sum, and this has triggered them to require the ID, which they say (on their website) is due to meeting money laundering regs. They are based in Luxembourg and the bank is Bank of Lithuania, although they do have a UK version (not sure if that's used though). I've already posted the links of the regulations they say they are following, none of which are UK based.

It is easy to change the account name and get someone else to provide ID, I would do that.

In future, withdraw smaller amounts.

HMRC are interested in people using these Vinted accounts, no idea why as the sums are not high at all and they must have higher value people to go after, but anyone earning more than £1000 a year will have to fill in a tax return.

I meant to say I wonder if HMRC taking an interest in Vinted has made them up their checks, I haven't heard of anyone else being checked before, not for smaller sums anyway.

This is the list you're referring to, I believe?
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/proof-of-identity-checklist/proof-of-identity-checklist

Unfortunately, it's not the 5 point framework provided by the FCA, which is here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/identity-proofing-and-verification-of-an-individual/how-to-prove-and-verify-someones-identity
https://withpersona.com/blog/kyc-uk

OP, identity documents are given scores depending on their strength. This is calculated based on, among other things the details they contain in addition to a photograph, and the ease of verifying authenticity (cryptographic features/matching against another government database).

It's not just about mailing them a document for a human to look at and approve. or turning up with a document that has your face on it. Said human also needs to access to the correct government database to verify the information provided which is more difficult for companies based abroad. The more access they need the more stringent the checks and that's not going to make it 'easy and quick'.

Digital platforms usually need an ID document of at least strength 4, and unlike the government they won't have access to a lot of cross-checking information unless they specifically apply for it. That's why they usually accept passports and photo id as standard.

They will have cleared this with the FCA to demonstrate compliance with KYC regulations.

As shit as it is for your friend she'll have to bite the bullet. A disability doesn't prevent people from getting a passport , cost is a different matter.

And, unlike access to a bank account, mortgage or credit card, she is not a 'consumer', rather a seller. The passport is simply the cost of doing business. The way merchants have to pay credit card fees. She is not going to get anywhere arguing r.e. 'protect the customer' because nobody has the right to trade without being able to pay the price of doing so.

It's not money laundering though. It's getting around the rules. She is not 'cleaning' money obtained my illegal means.

Just do it, if they're not prepared to get ID.

They have started to crack down on all these things like eBay vinted esty.

I mean look ops friend has made £300 selling her “old/unwanted” clothes yet is skint skint permanently. Many people are actually buying job lots of clothes on Facebook or from the we buy all clothes buy weight companies and running businesses on these while pretending to be private sellers.

Has she even tried to withdraw £40?

This is nothing to do with disability, in fact I'm leaving the thread.
It's about T&Cs, knowing what you sign up for and leaving too much money in an account that exists in Eastern Europe.

I can't walk, but it doesn't make me naive to tncs and expect everyone to kow tow to me.

I'd put some tat up for sale for 300 and let her buy it pff you. You then withdraw the money and give it to her .

Have you tried selling at a car boot? People want stuff for pennies.

i have worked with the backend on Mangopay eg. merchants view, It is the mangopay kyc requirement. Mangopay blocks the withdrawal of funds not vinted. Mangopay views the id doc sent through and accepts or rejects it. Vinted will not even see the doc, it’s securely handled via Mangopay.

She can’t get to a car boot sale. What part of ‘can’t travel’ etc - can hardly get into
a car.

This. It’s absolutely not money laundering and if you think that’s what money laundering is you’re not the best placed person to be advising her.

@Tarquina When did you friend apply for the passport? As far as I understand, the identity interviews for first adult passports are now taking place via video link.

Wow, Vinted are scum. I’ve not bought anything from there and this puts me right off.

Yep
https://www.gov.uk/apply-first-adult-passport/after-you-apply

OP if you're THAT concerned about 'doing things legally' just lend her the £90 she needs for her passport. And have her pay you back with the Vinted proceeds.

It's the cost of doing business. If she wanted to sell for free then FB marketplace, Ebay with paypal is better

If she could do a car boot sale, she'd have a driving licence, so she would be able to provide Vinted with the ID they want so she can withdraw her money so she wouldn't need to do a car boot sale.
This whole thing is ridiculous and has been going on for years. I worked in banking and we used to struggle so much getting ID&V for elderly people who had not renewed their passports and driving licences as they no longer used them. Expired documents were not acceptable. We used to have to get 4 or 5 other items from different organisations with name and address on and none of them could be online printouts, they had to be original statements or certified (by a solicitor) copies.
If everyone just had an ID card🤔

Your bank should have changed it's policy regarding expired passports. All banks and solicitor firms that I've dealt with have accepted my expired passport as a valid form of ID.