We’re improving completion rate for users without photo ID
Jaye Hackett
TL;DR: We’re changing our defaults to emphasise referees and reduce reliance on supporting documents in response to user behaviour.
Vouchsafe allows you to prove identity and address in all sorts of ways. We accept at least one photo ID from every country in the world, and a growing list of digital ID.
We are also alone in accepting an extensive list of paper documents; everything from bank statements to degree certificates. And of course, there is the method that gives us our name; a vouch from a trusted referee.
Over the past two years, we’ve found that when someone cannot verify themselves with a photo ID, they often next attempt to provide supporting documents.
Our templates require two of these by default, and one of them is usually a birth certificate.
Although providing supporting documents is more popular, the success rate is lower. There’s a lot more that can go wrong. Names and addresses can be represented in so many different ways on paper documents. Initials and transposition errors abound!
On the other hand, the smaller fraction who opt for a trusted referee nearly always get through.
We think this is because ID poverty has substantial overlap with low digital literacy. If you don’t have a photo ID, you’re more likely to struggle generally to use technology, and that includes taking good scans of paper documents.
Many common disabilities also make document scanning a tall order, as Project Nemo’s research on disability inclusion in fintech has shown.
Providing a referee is much simpler. It’s just typing an email or phone number.
It’s also more secure, as the referee’s own identity can be verified using biometrics.
So, in service of trying to get the greatest number of people verified, we’re changing our templates to disable supporting documents as a proof of identity alternative by default, and instead guiding users to provide a trusted referee instead.
You can still switch it on if you want, and current customers will be unaffected.
This is one of a number of improvements we’re making in the lead-up to Vouchsafe’s big relaunch party on 5 Feb in London. If you’d like to attend, apply here.
