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November 17, 2015 6:38 PM

Bank transfer by Stripe asking for my passport number?

My publisher's online purchasing utilizes Stripe for book sales. Which is fine. And the money transfers directly into my bank account. Also fine. (Actually, WOOHOO!! VERY FINE!!!) But today, after a good year of such business Stripe-as-payment-provider (via my publisher's online portal) asked for my passport number.

When I asked publisher about it, they replied "it's not us, it's Stripe". Which I get, their site is just utilizing Stripe's merchant API.

What I don't get is where does Stripe get off asking for my passport number since 1) it's not connected to my bank account, and 2) it's not connected to my bank-ing? Am I correct in scratching my head and questioning whether I should proceed, or make other financial arrangements?

posted by Mike Mongo to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

(I wrote a book about Stripe)

Stripe's managed accounts feature, which your publisher appears to be using, will ask for verification information for new accounts. This can include a number of things, including scans of government IDs. I have no idea why they would be asking for the passport number, however.

I would push back, honestly. Link them to this page and point out that it asks for a passport scan, not the number.
posted by zrail at 6:51 PM on November 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

is this an international transfer? (sorry if this is a dumb question, i don't really understand the context. but i do know - am paid by international transfer - that laws related to money laundering (and i guess terrorism funding) are placing more and more requirements on banks).
posted by andrewcooke at 6:52 PM on November 17, 2015

Response by poster: andrewcocks: Not international. I'm native Floridian. Publisher native Californian.
posted by Mike Mongo at 7:14 PM on November 17, 2015

I am not a stripe user, but it sounds like an anti money laundering compliance know your customer sort of thing. I would still push back because i do not give out my personal identifying info readily.
posted by AugustWest at 9:26 PM on November 17, 2015

"I don't have a passport." This has to come up on occasion, and they must have a workaround for it, not "why don't you skip on down to the passport office and get one."
posted by user92371 at 10:39 PM on November 17, 2015 [3 favorites]

Seconding AugustWest; sounds like it's a SOX compliance thing. Driver's license scan also seems to be acceptable ID. When I worked in online financial things more than a decade ago, having a scan of ID for US citizens was standard practice.
posted by scruss at 7:23 AM on November 18, 2015

Is someone throwing a form between you and stripe to scrape data? Have you asked Stripe customer support about it?
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 8:22 AM on November 18, 2015

Best answer: I'm sorry for the confusion here -- Stripe actually doesn't require passport numbers for identity verification. For more context, that platform uses Stripe Connect's managed accounts for a seamless integration so that sellers like you can have a quick and lightweight setup process. As zrail mentioned, identity verification's an important part of this process -- like a scan of a government ID, but not a passport number. Unfortunately, it looks like there's a disconnect with the platform here about what Stripe requires, and I'm sorry for any confusion or frustration on your part.

I hope this helps -- feel free to email us anytime at [e-mail] or send me MeFi Mail here if you have any other questions or feedback.
posted by edwinwee at 10:40 AM on November 18, 2015 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: For the record, Stripe reached out to me via twitter. My publisher discovered oops, mistake, and it has been fixed. Thank you, Metafilter, once again the hive mind abides. Awesome.
posted by Mike Mongo at 5:28 PM on November 20, 2015