Vinted won’t let me have my £1,500 unless I have a valid passport

My grown-up daughter passed away recently. We lived together and staying in our shared home has been difficult, so I have decided to move. 

I am having a clear-out to make moving easier, and to raise some money as I have spent a lot on things like funeral costs. I started selling clothes on Vinted, and had some designer items so managed to make about £1,500. 

However, I am having problems withdrawing my money from the app. 

First there was a mix-up with my email address. My daughter helped me set up the account before she died, and I’m not very tech-savvy.

Now, Vinted is saying I need to prove my identity by sending a driving licence or passport, which I don’t have. 

I don’t drive, and my passport expired a while ago. I don’t think I will travel abroad any time soon, especially as I used to go on holiday with my daughter and am now alone. 

Applying for a new one is a hassle and expense I could do without right now. 

Is this really needed for selling old clothes online, and is Vinted allowed to keep hold of my money if I don’t provide ID? Anon 

Helen Crane, This is Money’s consumer champion replies: I was sorry to hear about your daughter, and when I spoke to you it was clear that you are going through a very tough time. 

You told me you are taking each day as it comes, though some are better than others, and carrying on as best you can in heartbreaking circumstances. 

It makes your predicament with Vinted all the more unfortunate. The last thing you need at the moment is unnecessary life admin and to spend money on things you don’t really need. 

Initially, you had a problem with your account. Your daughter had a Vinted account linked to her email address which you had both previously used, but after she died you set up a new one using your email. 

When you came to selling the clothes, though, you accidentally used the old account – an easy mistake to make as you used some of the same devices.

When it came to withdrawing the £1,500 you had made via your clothes sales, though, it meant you didn’t have access to the email account linked with your Vinted profile, and couldn’t therefore go through the process to get your cash – or switch the details to your own. 

You contacted Vinted, and it said your only option was to set up an entirely new email address and register as a new Vinted user with that, at which point it would transfer the funds. 

But you were unsure how to set up a new email as your daughter previously helped you with things like that, and besides, you didn’t particularly want a second account. 

You explained this to Vinted and asked if it would send the funds to your bank account or via cheque instead, but it said it couldn’t and that changing your email was the only option unless you wanted to wait three months – the time in which an email address can be re-used for another account. 

Snap and sell: It is quick to list items on Vinted, but in our reader’s experience, getting paid for the clothes that she sold on the app took much longer 

After that, you’d have to set up a new Vinted account and arrange for Vinted to transfer the money to that.  

That is when you contacted me for help. 

As a second-hand fashion app used largely by younger people, I accept that many Vinted users would have no problem setting up a new email address.

However, brands can’t just forget their older customers, and I felt that it could have done more to help you, especially given your difficult circumstances.  

The app markets itself as being quick and user-friendly, but in your experience that definitely wasn’t the case. 

I spoke to Vinted and asked if there was any other way you could get your hands on the cash. 

You’d mentioned to me in passing that you were surprised it had been so hard to sort out the Vinted account, as you had managed to close your daughter’s bank accounts by providing her death certificate and explaining you were her next of kin. 

I felt providing a death certificate to a fashion app was an extreme measure, but you were happy for me to suggest this to Vinted if it might bring an end to this saga, so I did.

It agreed that it would make an exception and close your daughter’s old account, which would allow you to re-use your email address on a new one, if you sent the death certificate and a joint bill to prove you were related. 

After you did, it untangled the accounts meaning you could get your hands on your cash. But sadly, that wasn’t the end of the story.  

Once you tried to withdraw the £1,500, you hit another roadblock. During the process, you were asked to upload a form of identification to the Vinted app.

You uploaded a passport, but it had recently expired. You told me you usually travelled with your daughter, and now don’t plan to go abroad again for the foreseeable future. 

Because of that, and everything else you are dealing with at the moment, you had not renewed it. You also don’t have a driving license.

I checked with Vinted if there was anything else you could do. 

Again, you said that your expired passport or other documents such as joint bills had been proof enough to deal with other aspects of your daughter’s estate, and you were surprised that an online selling app would be so strict. 

But Vinted stood firm, saying that the ID requirement was part of the ‘know your customer’ checks carried out by the third-party company that runs its payments, Mango Pay. It said this was a standard protocol for online selling websites.

‘Know your customer’: Vinted insisted that a valid passport or driving licence was required

Businesses like Vinted have to guard against money laundering, but as you were selling and not buying on the app you posed a low risk of being involved in any criminal activity.

I then spoke to consumer lawyer and Money Mail columnist Dean Dunham, to ask if there were any legal protections you could use to help you get your cash.

He said that unfortunately, as the requirement to provide valid ID was in Mango Pay’s terms and conditions, and you agreed to these by creating a virtual payment wallet on Vinted, it was unlikely you would be able to challenge it.

However, he suggested that a more affordable option than renewing your passport would be to apply for a Citizen Card, also known as a UK ID card.

These cost £18 if you can wait 21 days for your application to be processed, compared to £88.50 for a new passport.

It sounded like a good idea, but before you applied I contacted Vinted to check that this would be acceptable.

Citizen Cards can be used as voter ID, to take a domestic flight or buy alcohol. However, I am sorry to say they are still not good enough to withdraw the money you earned on Vinted.

Vinted declined to give a comment on the issue.  

Identity checks are common on online selling sites now as they look to guard against fraud. Ebay for example will sometimes ask new sellers, or those who have not used the platform for some time, to provide photo ID, while Depop requires it to get paid. 

I contacted eBay and Depop to ask if there was an alternative to providing a passport or driving licence, such as a Citizen Card, but they did not respond. 

While these websites must protect themselves from fraud, I don’t see why they cannot accept alternative – and cheaper – forms of ID. 

I also think Vinted could have shown you more compassion in your time of need. 

You have told me you are reluctantly going to renew your passport in order to get your money. I hope that is the end of it, and that you can finally move on.