Outofluck

Just an update on my original post. I started the process of getting a passport, but before I could complete that, Coral suspended my account because I hadn’t provided the requested ID quickly enough. I emailed them and said I was happy enough for them to refuse withdrawals until I sent them ID, but asked them to leave the account active in the meantime. They replied: “Your account was temporarily suspended for a routine security review. This is now complete, and we have reopened your account. You can now log in and withdraw and also start playing.” That sounded promising, but I still waited until I had received my new passport before repeating my original withdrawal request. Sure enough, as soon as I made my request, I got a new email about providing ID. Everything went smoothly once I’d sent them a picture of my new passport. It’s just annoying that I had to spend a fair bit of time (I even had to do a video interview with the Passport Office) and over half of my withdrawal on getting ID in order to persuade a bookie that I have been using for close to two decades to give me my own money.

Thanks for the feedback. I might give live chat a try this week, although I'm not particularly hopeful that I will get any joy from that either. Plus my typing is terrible! To be honest, there seem to be a growing number of occasions these days when having photo ID would make life easier, so I might just bite the bullet and get hold of some. My Coral account is still active currently, so although I can't get money out, it's still usable while I sort something out.

I've been a long-time Coral customer. When I made my latest withdrawal request, they told me that I needed to validate my account first by sending ID documents. I sent them my old-style (non-photo) driving licence, but that wasn't accepted - although their original email hadn't specified, it became apparent that they wanted photo ID (even though the photo is redundant for my online account). One problem - I'm one of the dwindling number of people in the UK without photo ID (I've had to get a voter authority certificate for the upcoming election). I have tried to explain this to Coral customer support in several emails and ask them how to proceed, but I keep getting generic replies that don't even address the issue directly and just list forms of ID that I've already told them that I don't have. Has anyone else faced this issue? If so, did you manage to find a way around it or is the only answer to go through the rigmarole/cost of getting suitable ID?