3 Myths about Document ID Verification

There’s just no getting around it: most businesses will need to have a form of ID verification in order to do business and build trust with users. ID verification isn’t the blocker that businesses might think it is however. From talking with our customers, here are the top three most common myths around ID verification:

Myth: Document ID verification will add 3-5 minutes onto my customers’ onboarding time, causing me to lose out on legitimate users.

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Fact: Legacy document ID verification solutions can take upwards of 3 minutes to verify a customer’s ID. Automated and instant document ID verification solutions take only a maximum of 35 seconds.

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It’s true– most legacy document ID verification solutions can take up to 3 minutes (or more) to verify someone’s government-issued ID. This is because many of these solutions rely on either outdated systems to parse through the machine-readable components on an ID (like the barcode or date of birth) or a human on the other side of the screen to manually verify the ID.

The fact of the matter is that users expect to be able to sign up, onboard, and start using a service in seconds. And leveraging a legacy solution can throw a serious wrench in that– giving customers a potentially negative perception of your brand.

Don’t forget– onboarding is often the first experience that a customer will have with your brand. Just because ID verification is legally mandated doesn’t mean it has to add so much friction to the process that it turns legitimate users away.

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Myth: ID verification is just another avenue for fraudsters to steal my customer data.

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Fact: Document ID verification solutions are in the business of security, and most have some of the strongest fraud deterrence and detection methods available. From strict data retention policies to regular vulnerability and penetration testing, the PII we verify stays secure.

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The vast majority of document ID verification software solutions take security and protecting customer data very seriously. Leveraging a vendor to handle government-issued ID verifications doesn’t only free up the time for your business to focus on growth– it also helps as an added layer of security to protect customer ID data.

And customers who use your offering will appreciate the added trust in your brand that an ID verification solution gives them. This trust is critical to most businesses’ longevity– with customers actively seeking out businesses that they trust to do business with.

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Myth: ID verification software means that my customers will have to re-verify their ID every time they log in, creating a terrible experience for my users.

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Fact: Document ID verification solutions are designed to work with you. If you want an ID check but don't want to continuously ask for an ID, you can set your solution up to do so. For added security, businesses can use Berbix’s Selfie Reverification feature, which enables customers to use a real-time selfie to sign-in to their account– which is much more secure than a password.

Most document ID verification solutions will give businesses the flexibility to set up their verification flows how they’d like– whether that’s prompting customers to go through the verification flow each time they sign in (which, to be honest, sounds like not the most ideal customer experience) or once a year. More modern solutions have an added feature, which we call Selfie Reverification.

Selfie Reverification enables users to sign in to their account using their real-time selfie– no reverification required. This makes the sign-in process much simpler and more secure.

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