September 3, 2010 - 9:04am
Webmasters across the globe along with other users are expressing their woes on the Internet over the recent ban imposed by Visa on ePassporte debit cards. For a significant period of time users of the popular ecurrency system have withdrawn their funds to the Visa branded ePassporte debit card and after that they could use it at locations with Visa logo and withdraw cash at corresponding ATMs. Now the fact that Visa has discontinued supporting the cards means that tons of cash on ePassporte cards are frozen or, which is worse, gone forever.
EPassport said Visa International put on hold transactions involving St. Kitts Nevis Anguilla National Bank and that it can no longer issue Visa cards and that account holders won’t be able to make point-of-sale purchases and withdraw funds from ATMs. All users received the same letter advising them of the fact.
“At this time we do not know why this drastic action was taken by Visa,” ePassporte owner Christopher Mallick said in a letter. “To us, it is unconscionable that such action would be taken without the opportunity for ePassporte to fully understand Visa’s reasons and to be able to take all steps necessary to keep our program running the way it has so successfully done for over seven years. But that is what Visa has done.”
Mallick said ePassporte was notified at noon on Thursday of the suspension.
“The ePassporte e-Wallet program continues to be up and running, except funds cannot be transferred between your Visa account and your e-Wallet,” Mallick said.
“As soon as we have more information we will be in contact with you,” he said. “In the meantime please be assured that your funds are safe.The ePassporte team is working diligently to rectify this situation."
Neither plastic nor virtual Visa card is working anymore. Customers cannot shop online and pay with their virtual debit card. Nor they can transfer their funds on the card back to their wallets. The issue is not just US-wide, it is everywhere in the world. Any user in any country who has a Visa debit card from ePassporte cannot use it and at the moment it is just a piece of plastic.
Meantime, many users who post their comments on numerous Internet forums are looking to withdraw their money from ePassporte wallets via bank wire. Still, some of them even doubt that it would work for all, because if driven by panic all users start withdrawing their funds, ePassporte will have nothing to do but to act like all other scam services and disappear with a message posted on some blog saying: “We will come back, it was massive DDoS attack! Wait, your money are in a safe place!”
One user said:
For some reason I have a bad feeling for even funds in the wallet. Also I think even if they want to send out wires, what happens if everyone wiring funds out at the same time? Wouldn`t that alone cause another disaster?
I truely hope my feeling is wrong. Even if there would no atm card, I could still collect smaller payments on epass and wire them as needed.
Many users do not believe that Visa will ever rehabilitate ePassporte and allow it to continue debit card issuance and processing:
I could be wrong but I have a strong feeling epass is doom. I don't think they can get visa back. I mean there have been lots of cc processor that visa take away their right to use it and they went bust. I don't see what make epass that unique that they can get away with it. Not to mention, epass is use in gambling which is another problem in addition to adult.
Either way everyone go switch your biggest payout to check or wire. You probably will still need some small funds in epass to do some adult biz during the meantime.
No one really knows the outcome of the situation. What will happen to the funds frozen on the Visa debit cards? What other problems will arise further when a great number of users decide to pull their funds out of the system? The time will show.
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