Ask HN: Looking for Advice in Dealing with Dwolla
Dear HN:

At this point, I'm looking for advice, and to some extent to shed some light on Dwolla, and my current experience with them.

A quick background on my situation: I left my full time job about 6 months ago to pursue a business idea I had been working on for a while. For a variety of reasons, I have put that on the shelf, and as my savings is nearly gone, I have been pursuing freelance work to try to stay afloat while I figure things out.

And that is where this story begins. I completed a 3-week freelance job, sent the invoice, and was told by the consultant that they pay via Dwolla, so I should setup an account there and he would send my payment. I did this. The initial portion of the setup process was fairly simple, fill in a few fields, and you're setup. The only field that caused me to hesitate was SSN, but I decided to proceed. After that, I started the process of linking up a bank account, which takes about 2 days as they ACH a few cents to your account and have you verify. So far, so good, I can see it's going to take longer to get my money than I'd hoped, but nothing too concerning yet.

After my account was setup, and bank account verified, I let the consultant know the ID to send payment to. A day later, I received notice that the payment had been sent. After spending some time trying to transfer that payment to my bank account, I finally found that the payment takes a full week to clear and be available in my Dwolla account. OK, I figured, things move pretty slow at Dwolla, so I'd better stay on top of it and make the transfer to my bank account the instant the funds clear.

A week later, yesterday morning, I received notification that the payment had finally cleared, and was available in my Dwolla account. I logged in, and initiated the transfer of the funds to my previously verified bank account. They claimed that it would take another 3-5 business days to complete that transfer. This is where the trouble started.

A few hours later, I received an email from Dwolla stating that I must verify my account by uploading a scanned image of my driver's license or passport, before any action can continue on my withdrawal of funds. I'm sorry, I don't want to give an electronic copy of my driver's license to some startup with millions of dollars in lawsuits already pending against it...my own banks don't even have copies of my driver's license, just the number. Why did they not ask for this during my account setup or bank account verification, or clearly indicate anywhere that it would be required? Because people wouldn't sign up if they did that. I sure wouldn't have. And now, my money is being held for ransom, it would seem.

I emailed their support, and was told that I must upload a photo ID to proceed, or I can call their support line to get my money transferred. So, I called support. I was extremely frustrated by the time I made the call, but it went okay. They stated that they would allow the transfer through this one time, then suspend my account unless and until I uploaded a photo ID. This was fine, I told them, and assumed I was all set. Sixteen hours later, another email stating that I need to verify my account for any action on my withdrawal to proceed. What?

I called support again to see what the issue was. I was told that while my account was temporarily verified yesterday, the verification team put it back in the 'requires ID' status, with no exceptions. I again asked if I could transfer the money to my bank account - NO. I asked if the money could be returned to the consultant that sent it to me, then he could just write a physical check - NO. The only options I have are to upload a photo ID, or forfeit the money.

Are my concerns unjustified here? Do I have any other options? I am realistically about a week and a half from running out of money.

Thanks.

[OT - Shameless beg for charity: If anyone is in need of freelance development work, and is feeling charitable, please see info in profile.]