How to Create an ID.me Account for Veterans & Military

Today I’m doing a video on how to register for ID.me.  It has a lot of benefits beyond gaining access to discounts when you're shopping online. There's plenty of stores listed, so right now during this pandemic it's even more important to get those discounts online because you can't show your ID in person.  This is where ID.me comes into play.  

The biggest and number one reason that you can get ID.me is to upgrade your eBenefits and VA.gov accounts to the premium accounts, and that comes with a ton of benefits.

You are going to start off at http://id.me/individuals and then you're going to click on create an account. Enter your personal information using your email address and then create a password.  Then you're going to accept the terms and sign up.

You'll also have to link your ids, and this is going to help you save money on some military discounts and veteran discounts as well some other things.  But the big deal for this is we want you to have that premium access to VA.gov and to eBenefits, so this is a good way to verify your account and get you upgraded so we can get you into secure messaging.

The next step is to navigate to manage ids.  You’re going to click military and add and there's a couple different options to verify your identity.  You can use your USAA membership, your military records, your email address (which a lot of us after we get out of the service we don't have this) but if you are still in the National Guard, I do suggest using your dot mil or you can upload military documentation.

I suggest a DD-214 because most of us have access to that.  If you have a veteran identification card that would be awesome as well.  So you'll choose one of those and you'll begin selecting your military affiliation.  So for most of us, we are going to be veterans or retirees--but you can also still be a service member in the reserves or the guard.  Just pick which one applies to you.

Once you submit, you should see “processing request” and this may take a little while so just hang in there while it does its magic.  It says we are processing your request, it may take a few minutes or longer.  I think mine took a couple days to finally come through, so it may take a minute but you can ask questions at ID.me support you can click that right there but once this is verified it should send you an email for verification.  Just hang in there while that processes and then you're going to have access to all kinds of goodies and discounts!

Click the video above to see step by step guide and also tips and tricks for keeping your account as secure as possible.  Feel free to start a discussion below!