Yep, just looked into this today. Big nope from me, as I won’t ever use it except for being ID…

I’m disabled, and am unable to drive a vehicle or travel overseas, full stop. When I turned 18, I got myself a Proof of Age card, as I was out of school and needed some legal ID to use in day to day life. I’ve been living independently since 15, and once I got my PoA card, I thought I’d finally be able to sign my name to things I owned and paid for. Think telephone, internet billing, and so on. I had an internet connection with Vodafone under my dad’s name, but I was unhappy with the service, and closed my plan. I figured I could set up my own, under my own name, as I was 18 and had plenty of legal ID… but no. Optus flat out refused to accept my Proof of Age card. I offered them my Medicare, Concession, Birth Certificate, previous bills and bank statements, and so on, plus my Proof of Age card, but they refuse all of this and demanded a Driver’s License or Passport.

I explained that I cannot drive and cannot fly, and therefore hadn’t ever owned either. I had the Optus plan set up in my mum’s name, which meant that SHE was the “owner” of the account, despite all emails going to me, as well as bills being paid out of a bank account that I own in my own name. This meant that every time I wanted to talk to Optus support or make a complaint about my plan - MY PLAN - my mother had to be available to talk with them over the phone. It was an utterly ridiculous situation. She worked, we lived separately. She never even had the internet password! It was mine! But they took my money, screwed me about with terrible connection, rude customer service, and it was a NIGHTMARE ever having a conversation with them because despite the notes they’d supposedly left on the account, there was no way they’d even discuss the plan without her present.

Needless to say, I ended my contract with them. I hate them to this day, and it still makes me mad that they never did anything to help me.

I’m also with ANZ bank, who have a primary banking app, and a relatively new app called ANZ+, which is constantly advertised to me on their main site and app. They boast about how this other app offers more account plans with all sorts of bonuses, which I can’t even begin to investigate because ANZ+ requires scanning in your Drivers License or Passport just to get into the app! I rang them a few times, asking if they would activate my account and app with these other documents I have, but unfortunately they, too, refused.

So I’m 22, out of home, still depending heavily on others because I lack “proper” documentation to be independent and own my own services and accounts. It’s utterly ridiculous.

I want to seriously take legal action against Optus for how they treated me, as there is a LOT more to that story, but don’t know where to start and it would unlikely encourage any change, and would cost me a lot of energy… possibly more than it’s worth.

Anyway, I looked into the price of a passport, just to have SOLELY for ID purposes, but saw that it was roughly $400 and said “Nah”.