Last month Etsy started rolling out verification for sellers based in the US. It’s been a huge controversy ever since. Every day I see questions about verifying account with Plaid, so I decided to explain the process.

Why Etsy Is Asking Me to Verify My Bank Account?

If you live in the US and have an Etsy Shop, sooner or later you will get an email from Etsy asking you to verify your bank account. It is not something that Etsy came up with to make small business owners’ life harder – this happens due to anti-money laundering regulations implement lately in the US. Etsy as a marketplace has obligations to comply with the regulations.

It was explained by Community Manager in Etsy forums here.

How Do I Verify My Account With Plaid?

To verify your account you need to connect your bank account via Plaid. This is the most controversial part of verification process, as many people rise concerns about privacy and possibility of their information being leaked/sold to third party. I’m not going to get to deep into those accusations. All I will say is that other businesses also use Plaid for verification purposes and if you are concerned about possibility of your account being hacked, you can change your password after connecting your account via Plaid.

If you want nothing to do with Plaid, there’s also another option to verify your Etsy account. To verify your account without Plaid, you will need to request manual verification.

How to Verify Your Etsy Account With Manual Verification?

Manual verification method can take couple days, because after you request it, Etsy needs to send you 2 small bank deposits. After you receive them, you need to input the number in Payment Settings tab in your Etsy Shop account.

It is similar procedure to the verification process that you go through after you get your first sale.

Some of the people who are now asked to verify their accounts did it in the past already and know how it works. But if you do it for the first time, verification process is very easy and Etsy guides you through entire process. You can read help article about this here. You just need to have some patience, because it can take couple days to see deposits in your account.

What If I Don’t Verify My Etsy Shop Account?

Unfortunately you need to verify your account when Etsy asks you to do it. If you refuse to do it or you miss the deadline, your funds will not be paid and Etsy might choose to stop doing business with you. If your account gets suspended because you fail to verify your account, most likely you will not be able to open a new shop ever again.

So if you get an email from Etsy asking you to verify your account, go to Etsy.com and log into your account. You may want to avoid clicking the link in the email, because hackers sniffed out an opportunity in this mass verification and some Facebook group members received phishing emails about verification already.

After opening Etsy website you either will see a banner in your dashboard right away, or it will be hidden in Payment Settings tab.

Remember to go through this process on time to avoid any complications. Good luck 🙂