Sign Up Issues: Unable to Verify Identity

[SmartinDesign]

I have made 8 attempts to confirm my identity, using two different email addresses. I am not inputting any incorrect information whatsoever - from my drivers licence, medicare card or passport. I reached out to customer service, however I got a generic response (copy and pasted text) which was not helpful in any way. I have been through the forums and am absolutely mind-boggled by the amount of people who have experienced this as well, over a period of many years, and with all of this technology I cannot comprehend how this is still an issue for many people?

I have already ordered the square machine (didn't have any problems with that part!) and my husband has had to create a Square account instead - no problems with his verification whatsoever!! So it's got nothing to do with our names or our address or the many other reasons in the unhelpful checklist. I just feel frustrated that I have wasted a precious day trying to confirm who I am and his went through literary in a few minutes!

I run a market stall periodically (cash only), we have a big event happening and so I need the ability to be able to accept card payments. Can I use his Square account (he has a different ABN to me) to take my payments and then invoice him for the total sales at the end of the event to 'Square' things up?! The sales transactions will go into our joint bank account so no money will be moved. 

I cannot understand why this has to be so complicated! I have looked elsewhere but the majority of businesses in our town use Square and recommend it. I'm just not having the best of experiences so far and reluctant to move forward with this payment method for mine or my husband's business.

Any advice greatly appreciated! 😊

[Gina_ggees]

I have been trying to verify my identity with multiple different IDs, however it keeps failing to verify, I am new to the country, would this have something to do with it?

[Laurie_]

Hi @Gina_ggees,

Welcome to the Seller Community! 

I've merged your post with an existing thread where we've previously addressed a similar question. In some cases, we may not be able to verify your identity on your first attempt but we encourage you to try again in the future as your circumstances may have changed.

Have a read-through of our responses for now and let me know if you have any further questions!

[Masonsanderson]

Hi guys. 

I’m a backpacker from the UK, I’ve been in Australia for 1.5 years and I’m going to be selling some of my photography at a market here in Perth. 
 

the thing is, I’ve signed up for square but when trying to verify my identity, it says to provide my medicare or Australia drivers license (I don’t have any of these as I’m from England) so I select provide passport, fill in all my information (my address is a UK address registered to my passport) but then I get rejected. Is there anyway that I can sign up to square as someone who’s currently living in Australia but has an address in the UK?

[Arie]

Hey @Masonsanderson,

I've merged your post to this thread where someone else had trouble signing up. Please check out the best answer, and let us know if this workaround could be an option for you. 

[Laurie_]

Hi @GCNSW,

I'm sorry to hear you're running into some issues when trying to sign up for Square!

I've taken the liberty of merging your post with an existing thread where we've previously discussed possible reasons for encountering issues with the identity verification step. Additionally, we've covered various troubleshooting steps in that thread.

I hope this information helps!

[JGL]

You are absolutely right. I have used square periodically for several years with no issue. I went to use it yesterday - it firstly wouldn't connect to the app so I updated it and tried to log in with existing details - no changes, and it wouldn't allow me to take a payment without going through hoops and providing all sorts of additional information such as my trust docs, which I had never had to do when I set it up. 4 calls to find a real person and 4 transfers to the 'chat' system which couldn't find my email address or details. In the end I set it up as an individual and new user with different bank account and different email. Very quick to take my payments then but this morning they emailed to say they won't release MY money until I upload a lot of other personal information including bank statements, invoices for the payments, this was money owing from a friend so there was no invoice, but I had to make one up to suit their system, still had to upload my drivers license and passport. This is so dishonest. What right do they have to accept the payment without disclosing to me before payment were accepted that I would be required to give additional information. Also how much of this 'required' information is actually used for Square information gathering rather than ATO compliance? VERY unhappy

[Breffni]

Hi @JGL, I understand that this has been a distressing experience for you, and I appreciate you sharing your concerns.

Square periodically reviews all accounts to ensure the safety and security of the card processing environment for both our merchants and their customers.

We may request additional information at any time to maintain a secure payment environment - this is stated in our Payment Terms when you created your account. 

A typical review takes 1-2 business days once all the required information has been submitted. Once we’ve reviewed the information, an agent will email you letting you know when to expect your balance. 

I will pass your feedback about the process onto the relevant team so that we can consider it for future updates.

If you have any specific questions that you'd like assistance with, please feel free to share, and I'll do my best to help.