Problem with Bank Account Verification

[#1]

I am trying to use Plaid and when I enter my bank account number, I get a message it says that it does not match what Etsy has on files. I am 100% it is the same account number. When I contacted Etsy I got a canned response that did not solve my problem at all. It asked my to enter my bank account info through payment setting/billing and on my Etsy page, I do not have a place to enter that other than adding another credit card info. I live in Iceland so I am an international seller. 

Anyone having the same issue? 

[BuyPrintPlay]

@ReaniDesigns But is Iceland supported by Etsy Payments? Or why are they asking you to open a new account with a local bank account if they don't offer the option of etsy payments in your country?

I checked this link to verify if Iceland is supported by them. 

[ReaniDesigns]

Thank you for providing the link. Iceland is not supported by Etsy payment. So, yes, I do not get it either, why they are asking me to open a new shop?!

[ReaniDesigns]

@ButPrintPlay

I check the thread and it looks like an Etsy employee responded here:

Hello, our support team has looked into it, and you can disregard the email you received about the verification process and continue using PayPal.

Having said that, we are closing this thread since this this matter has already been addressed.

So we should just disregard their email?

[BuyPrintPlay]

@ReaniDesigns Yes, they did mentioned the email. But what about the countdown in our dashboard and the warning sign in Payment Settings? 

The thing is there are shops that have paypal only as payment method but no US back account linked. So they are fine. 

They might have checked that I used Paypal only on my front shop and assumed it was ok, but they didn't realized that I used to have US bank account linked to my shop, which is the problem, and that's why chat support opened a ticket for me. 

If they just could give extra information like "ignore the countdown AND email" it will leave me at peace, but they are always vague with their responses.

[NanaLetha]

@delightworthyn  Maybe they don't speak CT??

[delightworthyn]

@NanaLetha yes, haha, that's must be it!

[ADKArtsBoutique]

News for those who do not use big national banks but your local hometown one. Your bank may not accept the small deposits from Plaid.

We have been on Etsy since 2013 and I just finished doing some research.  I talked to my bank's financial officer and she told me "never ever give your password to a third party, they do not accept Plaid and will not even accept a manual money transfer from them, it would be blocked.  They also told me they do not accept any third party affiliations as it is considered a breach of the banks security."  I contacted Etsy with my problem and they told me "That. they are very sorry, all verifications have to go through Plaid"  So those of us with small home town banks that have worked for years are now not eligible to be here!  We have a few choices.  

1. Close our Shops! 

2. Find another bank and if you live in a rural area and you have to travel and extra 20 miles to do it, so be it

3.  Move to Ebay Or Amazon (which isn't much better, but is beginning to look better now)

Well I have been banking with my bank for the last 50 years I'm not changing that now.  I can't close my shop I have way to much inventory to ditch and lets face it I'm here because I need the extra income to make ends meet.  I have two shops that this will be happening to.  So after giving it some consideration my husband and I have opted for the 20 mile travel to a national Plaid supported bank and open up accounts there for our shops.  We will keep a minimum amount in each account as we get paid by Etsy that amount will be moved quickly to our hometown bank.  So when Plaid does get hacked (and I bet someday they will, they have a bad track record already) they won't get much from our accounts.  We shouldn't have to be doing this.  When you need to do a verification they should have a number of options available to everyone, not just one.  I would bet that Etsy is getting some kind of kick back from Plaid for supplying them with so many new customers.  Everyone that just says to HECK with it and decides to give their passwords is a new client of theirs.  If nothing else it looks good on Plaids account books.  It's like one company selling their mailing list to another. 

[CraftyCornishMaids]

or choose the manual option,

then you don't need to give a username or password

then Etsy's plaid transfer file of your deposit goes through ACH - the AUTOMATIC clearing house, so cannot be blocked - the transfer batch file has lots of transactions in it, from multiple sources and for multiple accounts

When the transfer batch file reaches your bank, the banks settle with the federal reserve,

so your bank then has your transfer file from Etsy, and your money from the federal reserve .... and loads of other peoples transfer files and money from the federal reserve, whether they like it, or not. There is no way to block it.

They can then process the transfer file, or investigate it for fraud,

and when/if they investigate it, they will find it is a bona fide transfer, and will have to give you your money

you do NOT need a "plaid supported" bank, if you do the manual option

so be very careful about what you actually ask your bank, the question is,

....will you process batch files from the ACH 

[ReaniDesigns]

I just want to post an update regarding Etsy response. This is the email I received from them:

"In this case, you will have to create a new account and a new shop with a local bank (Iceland)."

This is SO upsetting. I have been on Etsy since 2009 and amassed nearly 6000 sales and hundreds of 5-star reviews. I have paid tens of thousands of dollars in fees to Etsy. They simply do not care about sellers since they ask me start over. 

This was my response: "I already have Paypal where I receive my payments from Etsy so I am not sure why I need a bank account registered with you. I also do not understand why you can not fix this problem on your end with me retaining my sales record and reviews, rather than me having to start from scratch. I earn my living through this platform so please suggest an alternative solution. Your previous suggestion does not exactly reflect a commitment to Etsy shop owners."

Is there anyone else in my situation? And were you able to solve it?

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@ReaniDesigns 

You can no longer open a shop in Iceland, as it is not supported by etsy payments,

Etsy stopped shops opening new paypal only shops a while ago

there have been threads from people in other countries, where they have had to verify with small deposit, after moving to paypal only a while ago, that they were forced to open a new shop, because etsy can't change banking country.

@Spellbinderie  I know it's August and you are in France, if you are around, do you have any better recollection of this?

[ReaniDesigns]

@CraftyCornishMaid I read that somewhere too! But how come the email I received from Etsy support was asking me to open an Etsy shop in Iceland? So puzzling.

So in short, if your country is not supported by Etsy payment, you can no longer have an Etsy shop, correct? 

[Spellbinderie]

Hi, I haven't read all the responses so forgive me if this has been covered already. First, I'd ignore support, they are just giving you the canned response we've had for years.  

I'm assuming that you decided to stay a Paypal only shop when Etsy forced Etsy Payments.  Etsy did allow that for a select group of older established shops, myself included but I eventually decided to turn on Etsy Payments again using my US bank account. (Since then I switched to using Wise which is not a real bank so I'm guessing that's going to be problematic but I haven't been asked YET to verify.)

I'm mentioning all this because I suspect that you need to activate Etsy Payments using your US bank account and then verify via Plaid. Plaid can't verify you because you don't have a bank account attached to receive payments, your payments go to PAYPAL. 

All US shops are supposed to have Etsy Payments with US bank accounts  - accounts that must now be verified (mandatory) leaving those who were given exemption left in the lurch. Etsy would have to change us to non-US shops to get around this legally required verification (US anti-fraud laws) and we know they aren't going to do that.  So I think the only possibility is to enable Etsy Payments and make sure you have the US address associated with that bank account entered in your shop.  To cut to the chase, the exemption to be Paypal only is no longer in play.  I know when they offered it to me, it was stated that it wasn't given in perpetuity.

I'm also marking to see how this goes because I've yet to be asked to verify my account via Plaid.  To be honest I'm starting to believe that those of us who moved from US to another country are all going to be forced to close shops due to this new rule.  Thankfully I have 2 other shops I opened in France which have become my main income earners or I'd be in a huge panic too.  Fingers crossed that you can enroll in Etsy Payments and get this sorted out.

[BuyPrintPlay]

This information is very valuable @Spellbinderie 

I had a question regarding it though. I found my old us bank account number, but it's already deactivated since I haven't used it for 3 years now. 

Even if I contact my old US bank and somehow figure out a way to activate it back, it wouldn't work right? Etsy would ask me for a physical address and US tax papers right? Or they dont?

I don't live in the US anymore, I moved back to my country where etsy payments is not supported. But I am wondering if this is something I can do?  Like verifying my US bank account will immediately enroll me on etsy payments? Or would I be able to keep using paypal even if I verify that bank account?

[Spellbinderie]

@BuyPrintPlay 

I really do not know the answer.  I think your only choice is to try it out and I'd only do that when there is no other option. I honestly do not know if a US address is MANDATORY for the verification. My US bank does allow me to also have my French address attached to the account.  No idea though if the verification process requires a US address or just that the address on your bank account matches the address you have on Etsy.

Have you been asked to verify?

By the way, you can try to see if they'll accept a WISE account.  Wise will let you open a virtual US bank account from most places in the world.  Not sure it's going to be accepted though... thought I saw someone in the forums who had moved from the US say they had a problem with verifying their Wise account with Plaid.

[ReaniDesigns]

Thank you for your response. Etsy was the one who put me on Paypal because I live in Iceland and it is a region that is not supported by Etsy Payment. So it was not a choice for me

For some reason, I still have my bank account on file with them (and I do not have access to that). 

So in short, I am not a US shop because I moved countries a few years ago. And I agree with you, Etsy support responses are canned and confusing.

[Spellbinderie]

@ReaniDesigns 

Unfortunately since you opened your shop in the US originally / have a US bank associated with your account, you are considered a US based shop regardless of your location.  That's for the life of the shop and that is the problem. However it came about allowing you to stay operating with Paypal doesn't matter, I was just assuming your situation was more similar to mine.  Problem is that our shops are flagged as US based due to having a US bank account associated and that will always be the case unless Etsy makes a change to their system.  I've spoken to them many times about this as I face a few other issues and have had to ask for their assistance on the backend due to requirements in France.  

It sounds like you aren't able to access your bank account from your finance page without having Etsy Payments enabled.  If you can't enable EP, you will have to ask support for help.  Whether they will allow you to enable EP at this point, knowing you are NOT in the US any longer is the question.  Previously it was possible to continue from abroad with EP enabled attached to a US banking number.  Whether that will still be the case remains to be seen. 

ETA:  It used to be possible to get better information from customer support but now it's mostly farmed out and responses are canned. It has become clear to me in the past couple of years that those of us who were originally US shops and moved were going to face more and more problems with less and less support from Etsy.  I don't think they have any interest in helping those of us in this bind.  Their solution now is OPEN A NEW SHOP.  End of story.  It'll be up to us to try to figure out workarounds -- if there are any left.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@BuyPrintPlay 

Just from a technical standpoint, from the way that etsy is set up....

If you are paid in USA$, then behind the scenes, you are still a USA shop to etsy, and they will expect to verify you as such

If you are paid in Krona,  then behind the scenes, you are an Icelandic shop, and will expect to verify you as such.

Hopefully etsy can come up with a solution for you,

at least you have some more information to go with, so you can explain to the first few tiers of etsy support, and they pass you higher up the chain, to a specialist

...

at the time you moved, you could have opened a new shop, in Iceland,  but Iceland does not have etsy payments, and etsy is not letting any new paypal only shops open..

so if they say open a new shop - ask them how you do that in a non-etsy payment country

[Spellbinderie]

@CraftyCornishMaids 

Since the OP's shop is Paypal only with Etsy Payments no longer enabled, they can select any available currency on Etsy and receive the money in their Paypal account in that currency since it's not going thru Etsy.  

I think that what you mean is that if a shop can only receive USD deposits when Etsy Payments is (or was) enabled, then that shop is considered a US based shop despite shop location / current residence.

ETA: I think you meant to @ the OP and not buy print play who is in Honduras.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@Spellbinderie 

ooops, trying to do too many things at once,

questions from a couple of customers about postal strike,
and BT (my internet provider) strike, whilst trying to upgrade the new virus protection from BT, that I should have done a while back..... I didn't realise they were on strike, or I wouldn't have tried it today!

[BuyPrintPlay]

@ReaniDesigns I received an update, but it still feels vague. They said they will try to find a solution of me not being able to verify my bank account through plaid. Even though I explained around 3 times that I don't have a US bank account anymore... They told me to continue manage my shop as normal. But it also makes me wonder.... for how long can I do it? What happens if the countdown expires? 

They didn't close the ticket, but it somehow felt like that was all for now. I still believe the solution will be to let them close my shop when the timer expires and work on my own thing. I've been feeling so heartbroken and destroyed this past few days about this whole situation, but the back and forth with no real solution it's very tiring . I just think I should invest all the effort I have left on working on something of my own.

Thanks so much for all the help and advice @Spellbinderie @CraftyCornishMaids  ! And I'm sorry Reani I started asking so many questions in your thread.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@BuyPrintPlay 

if you go to

community and help - contact us, top right, click your avitar, you can click to see your tickets that are logged,

I would go in, at least every other day, and ask for an update, as you are still waiting for their solution, so it keeps the ticket active, and they just don't close it down

[BuyPrintPlay]

@CraftyCornishMaids I will do that!! Hopefully they find a solution for those us who are in a similar situation. Thank you!!

[ReaniDesigns]

Thank you for the update.  I too am wondering how long I can be on Etsy using Paypal only. I am heartbroken because I can not do anything, really. Even opening a new shop is not an option for me since Iceland is not supported by Etsy payments.

[BuyPrintPlay]

@ReaniDesigns we are in the same boat! I got a another response yesterday but it seems they are definitely not reading emails. Four different persons have replied to my inquiry and the four haven't even show a grain of interest in my case. 

The last one told me they talked with plaid and that I can now verify my account through plaid manually.

I explained them it was ridiculous that after so many replies they haven't taken the time nor make any effort to read and understand I don't have a US bank account anymore, that it is deactivated, that I am working from a country where etsy payments is not supported, and that I just want to know if I can ignore the countdown. 

I don't know if my English is so terrible that I can't get anyone from etsy to understand what my problem is. It really feels like a lost case.

[QuiltsKnitsnMore]

Is it possible that you have to add zeroes before the number? I had the same error, when I tried to verify my account. It appeared that initially I entered the account with 2 zeroes before the number.