Apologies in advance if this is not the right place to ask. Please remove if not allowed. I also apologize for the long post.
For context, I recently turned 18, and there are financial services that I have/want to sign up for. However, the fact that many of these services have restricted my accounts in some way has got me thinking that there may be something wrong “behind the scenes.” While I’ve heard it’s somewhat common for people that just turned 18, like myself, I can’t help but wonder that there must be something funky with my information.
I’ll start with perhaps the most egregious example of this: Strike. For the uninitiated, it’s an app similar to Venmo and Cash App, and it allows one to make BTC payments on the Lightning Network. The issue, though, is that I couldn’t get my identity verified, even though I entered my SSN correctly and uploaded my real, genuine ID. In fact, I uploaded it twice, but they still wouldn’t accept it. Now, I can’t use their service for life, never knowing what exactly the issue was.
RANT: This is why I hate KYC laws with a passion. If they can’t 100% verify who you are, you are banned for life from that service, and they legally cannot give the full reason why. In addition, the KYC process invades privacy and costs hundreds of billions worldwide to enforce, while only being 0.1% effective. This does not even include how it can be discriminatory and provide an incentive for black markets (like some places on BlackHatWorld). In short, I feel they need to be abolished, but getting that through Washington would be tough and unlikely to do anything.
Anyway, on to more examples.
One of the more prominent is with Venmo. I had signed up for it and used it a few times with family, only to discover that my account was frozen for violating their terms of service (allegedly). I did not receive any notification about it, and I had to upload my ID (again), after which I would hear back in 6-7 business days. I tried to reach out multiple times, but either they wouldn’t respond, or they innediately closed the new ticket. Finally, I decided to call them, and a couple days after that, my account was no longer frozen.
Meanwhile, over at Revoult, they are supposedly still in the process of verifying my SSN, even though it’s been nearly three weeks since I submitted it. Apparently, many of these companies are experiencing higher than normal volumes, but I have a feeling it’s because of staffing shortages.
Now, my most recent example is with Sable. It’s a company that allows you to get a secured credit card to build history, and it comes with some unique features. Now, they have also restricted my account, and I have been trying to contact them about it and will continue to try.
While I have not done any illegal activites on these accounts (and never will), the best I can do is come up with educated guesses.
For Strike, I really don’t know. It could’ve been as simple as the photos of the ID, but there was probably something they could see but I couldn’t that would‘ve triggered an odd response. As for Venmo, I’ve heard of people having the same issue, probably from an automated system, that people had frozen accounts for no reason, but I do have it verified with a temporary phone number (the same with Strike), and other people in my house use it. I’ve also heard of similar issues with Sable, but it might be because some of the transactions might have been suspicious. (The most recent one was funding a new bank account, but I did also fund temporary number services, which could’ve also triggered it after a little while). Or maybe there is something wrong that I have yet to discover and could take awhile to fix.
Let me know what you all think of this. Am I just cursed with bad luck, or is there something I need to do to fix this issue? Will I need to wait it out and let more data come through? Thank you for reading my super long post, and I wish you all a good day or night!
For context, I recently turned 18, and there are financial services that I have/want to sign up for. However, the fact that many of these services have restricted my accounts in some way has got me thinking that there may be something wrong “behind the scenes.” While I’ve heard it’s somewhat common for people that just turned 18, like myself, I can’t help but wonder that there must be something funky with my information.
I’ll start with perhaps the most egregious example of this: Strike. For the uninitiated, it’s an app similar to Venmo and Cash App, and it allows one to make BTC payments on the Lightning Network. The issue, though, is that I couldn’t get my identity verified, even though I entered my SSN correctly and uploaded my real, genuine ID. In fact, I uploaded it twice, but they still wouldn’t accept it. Now, I can’t use their service for life, never knowing what exactly the issue was.
RANT: This is why I hate KYC laws with a passion. If they can’t 100% verify who you are, you are banned for life from that service, and they legally cannot give the full reason why. In addition, the KYC process invades privacy and costs hundreds of billions worldwide to enforce, while only being 0.1% effective. This does not even include how it can be discriminatory and provide an incentive for black markets (like some places on BlackHatWorld). In short, I feel they need to be abolished, but getting that through Washington would be tough and unlikely to do anything.
Anyway, on to more examples.
One of the more prominent is with Venmo. I had signed up for it and used it a few times with family, only to discover that my account was frozen for violating their terms of service (allegedly). I did not receive any notification about it, and I had to upload my ID (again), after which I would hear back in 6-7 business days. I tried to reach out multiple times, but either they wouldn’t respond, or they innediately closed the new ticket. Finally, I decided to call them, and a couple days after that, my account was no longer frozen.
Meanwhile, over at Revoult, they are supposedly still in the process of verifying my SSN, even though it’s been nearly three weeks since I submitted it. Apparently, many of these companies are experiencing higher than normal volumes, but I have a feeling it’s because of staffing shortages.
Now, my most recent example is with Sable. It’s a company that allows you to get a secured credit card to build history, and it comes with some unique features. Now, they have also restricted my account, and I have been trying to contact them about it and will continue to try.
While I have not done any illegal activites on these accounts (and never will), the best I can do is come up with educated guesses.
For Strike, I really don’t know. It could’ve been as simple as the photos of the ID, but there was probably something they could see but I couldn’t that would‘ve triggered an odd response. As for Venmo, I’ve heard of people having the same issue, probably from an automated system, that people had frozen accounts for no reason, but I do have it verified with a temporary phone number (the same with Strike), and other people in my house use it. I’ve also heard of similar issues with Sable, but it might be because some of the transactions might have been suspicious. (The most recent one was funding a new bank account, but I did also fund temporary number services, which could’ve also triggered it after a little while). Or maybe there is something wrong that I have yet to discover and could take awhile to fix.
Let me know what you all think of this. Am I just cursed with bad luck, or is there something I need to do to fix this issue? Will I need to wait it out and let more data come through? Thank you for reading my super long post, and I wish you all a good day or night!
