Help and FAQs

Validating your account

Why and how

Why and how

Why do I need to validate my account?

Within two weeks of funding your account we need you to validate your account by providing evidence of your identity and bank details.  There are two reasons for this: one is legal, the other is practical.

Legal: WhiskyInvestDirect is obliged by law to establish the identity of its customers.

Practical: both WhiskyInvestDirect and you are much safer when we agree at the outset the repayment destination of your funds - for when you eventually sell your whisky and withdraw your money.

How do I do it?

You validate online, through our website. If you're comfortable using your scanner/digital camera, and if you have the right documents to hand, it should take less than 10 minutes of your time. Your details will then be reviewed within a few days, and we'll update you by email.

To validate, log into your WhiskyInvestDirect account, select ACCOUNT and VALIDATION and follow the prompts.

We will ask you to upload scans or digital photographs of the following documents:

  1. Proof of your appearance.

    Your passport, or a national identity card/driver's license with a clearly visible photograph.
    For joint/business/trust accounts we may require proof for more than one of the signatories of the funding bank account.

  2. Proof of your bank account.

    A recent bank statement from the linked bank account you used/will use to fund your WhiskyInvestDirect account. The statement must show the bank name, your name & address, and your bank account number & branch code/sort code/IBAN.

  3. Proof of the legal entity.(Business/trust accounts only)

    Your certificate of incorporation, state trading license or a similar document proving the validity of the legal entity. For a business, we also need a document listing all beneficial owners, and the breakdown of the shares. We require photo ID for all beneficial shareholders with a greater than 25% share.

We can accept most major file formats, but in general we recommend you send either JPG or PDF files.

If you are planning to transfer funds via a currency conversion specialist you should review the following pages relevant to your selected company:

We do not recommend one particular currency conversion specialist over another and advise our clients that they may have to validate each deposit.

How will I know when I'm validated?

We'll email you as soon as you're validated. In addition you can always track the progress of your validation by logging in and viewing the ACCOUNT > VALIDATION page.

Your rights

Under English law you are entitled to proper protection of your property, privacy and confidentiality provided you are a real person with a real identity and are not concealing the proceeds of serious crime.

In the event that your own country adopts illiberal policies toward whisky ownership and seeks to apply new rules, amounting to confiscation or a breach of your right to confidentiality, then subject to force majeure obligations WhiskyInvestDirect will not co-operate and will instead seek to defend your property rights in accordance with English law.

Provided your identity has been properly validated the British authorities generally consider themselves obliged not to disclose your financial details unless you are under justifiable investigation for crimes which are universally considered repugnant (e.g. organised and violent crime). 

If you are thinking of concealing the proceeds of crime on WhiskyInvestDirect

  • WhiskyInvestDirect insists all your deposits come from the permanently linked bank account and allows no transfers between WhiskyInvestDirect accounts.
  • WhiskyInvestDirect will only allow you to withdraw money directly to the linked account, which in ordinary circumstances is the account from which all your deposits have been made.
  • WhiskyInvestDirect computers provide detailed transactional histories maintained indefinitely. We periodically develop new analytical tools to monitor the detection of layering.
  • If WhiskyInvestDirect detects suspicious behaviour in a money laundering context it is obliged to report you to the authorities without notifying you.
  • WhiskyInvestDirect co-operates with the criminal investigations of respected national governments.

Common questions

I don't have a scanner - what can I do?

If you have a family member or a friend who does, you may ask them to scan your documents for you. Nowadays most internet cafes offer this service too.

Alternatively a digital camera or even a high-resolution camera-phone is just as good.

I bank online and do not receive printed statements - what can I do?

We can normally accept screen captures of your online banking system. Please provide us with all page(s) that show your name, address, account number and branch code details.

My documents are too large to upload - what can I do?

Please see our general help about submitting a document electronically.

Can I email my documents?

No. Email has two problems: it is insecure, and it cannot guarantee that the sender is who they say they are. By uploading your documents via our website, we solve both these problems. The transmission of your documents is protected using high-security encryption techniques, and allows us to reliably tie the document to the owner of the account.

You have my documents - why am I not yet validated?

All account validations are checked and reviewed manually before being confirmed on our system. Once you've sent us your documents, please allow 5 working days for us to process them.

If after that time you haven't heard anything, please double-check your email account. If we cannot validate your account straight away for any reason, we will always email you with details of the problem and how to proceed.

If you still have concerns, please contact us.

Can I fund and trade before I validate?

Yes. The only restriction is that you cannot withdraw until the validation process is complete.

Can I validate before I fund and trade?

Yes. Many clients like to ensure that all the paperwork is in order before they fund their account.

Any other questions

For most people the validation process is smooth and easy. However, it is impossible for us to plan for every circumstance in advance, so if you're having any difficulties please just contact us. We will always need to establish your identity, but we will be both helpful and pragmatic about how that is accomplished.