The personal account load fee is 5%. What's the business account load fee?

You're correct about having the $100, but the way the sign-up process works I have to have $200 or I will end up overdrawn for the three to five business days it takes the hold to fall off. I believe that new clients should be warned about this, as the resulting overdraft prevented my from making other important purchases and took a lot of time to remedy. In my opinion it would be better to allow people to load the initial amount onto their card, but not allow them to use it or transfer it until they were verified... that way both parties are protected and no overdraft occurs. It was a tremendous inconvenience for me (it incurred a $30 overdraft and kept me from picking up medication over a weekend) and I had no reason to expect the transaction to go through that way, since no other online service that I know of does business that way. I would hate to think that my potential clients would have to go through that in order to pay me.

This is a quote of my original post about my experience, and I have to say it didn't make me feel good about signing up:

There is No LOAD FEE on a Business Account. All you have to do is send $100 to open the Business Account, by Wire Transfer. You will have, after the costs, a balance of $25, an Electron Card and a Virtual Card. Every subsequent wire is $30 regardless of the amount.

I didn't assume this problem is from epassporte's side. I know it isn't, and I don't think the transactions made it to epassporte. The last time I tried to use it on local stores was months ago, so I have no idea the time and date.
I use it mostly to withdraw money and it works everytime.

Will Epassporte be making another webmaster calendar for 2005?

Loved the last one.

Thank you!

The pre-auth is dropped before the sale is closed. If there is a glitch at your Issuing Bank and they do not release the pre-auth when we do there is nothing we can do about that. Think about it: We would sell a lot less if we did things the way you experienced. So while I understand your issue and complaint it is not within our control as to how or when your bank drops the pre auth. This is and always will be a problem as so many systems are mismatched.

Any plans to change that really annoying way loading works on the personal epassporte card? IE the 50/100/150/200/250/300/350/400/450/500 choices and nothing else? I'd like to be able to load whatever I like.. just punch it in.

Maybe. Who did you have in mind for the cover? LOL!

Hi Chris and Rand. Thanks for the Q&A.
Just to make sure I understand...
The new electron cards can be used for signature-based visa purchases (i.e. paying a check at a restaurant) and not just used for ATM withdrawal?

Good point. We will look into that.

Right Hal. If you have an Electron issued pre-March 2004 call in and we will set it to signature based.

This seems reasonable. I wish you had posted this on your
site (if it is on there, I wasn't able to find it). I've avoided
signing up to epassporte because I couldn't find this
information.

Chris, can you list off any other fees that are present (if any)
when transfers occur? I'm considering getting an account
for the purpose of receiving money for advertising that
i sell on my site as well as for paying for advertising
that i purchase from other folks. My paypal acct was
recently shut down and I've been using checks since
then. Also, are there any limits to the amount I can
send/receive?


- thanks
Jpoker

last weekend I created a personal account, the deposite never showed on my online bank account so I couldnt finish the verification and because its over 7 days I canot do anything now.

Why could that be?

The reason the pre-auth was not dropped was because it's transaction number differed from the number on the charge that followed. When I spoke with ePassporte card services on the telephone the day following my incident, they informed me that that is standard practice (they said it happens to everyone who signs up) and their advice was to start out by only loading $50.00 on the card (the minimum amount) to experience the smallest possible hold, and then add the desired amount after the signup process is completed. That would imply to me that they are aware that this happens.

I don't really have a problem with the service other than this, but I really want to be sure about whether or not my potential clients would have to go through this in order to sign up and pay me. Sometimes it doesn't take a lot of inconvenience to deter a potential customer, and I can't afford to lose them.

will there ever be a physical card issued out?

So you want to sell goods / services and accept ePassporte as an alternative payment method? IF so, our feature: ePPurchase handles this. The fees are negotiated and depend upon what type of goods / services you are selling. As to limits, they depend upon the other account holder. If, however, you are asking about incoming wires to load your account, no, there are none. As to B2B there are no limits.

Is the bank in the US? If so, what bank. If you prefer, email me the details and I will look into it.

You were given bad information. Sorry. Let me look into your account. Email me your User ID.

There is a physical card now and there always has been. It is the Visa Electron Card. You can buy it online at the site from the Cardholder Services menu.

thanks I just sent jon the details, yeah a bank in NY, I have online access

just in time!

Why is is called epassporte and not epassport?

Thanks

Hummm isn't the point ?

Tell John to give you a Gift Card!

Are the funds in the account FDIC Insured or inusred somehow?

Larger programs would have to keep large balances and epassporte is still a risky place to keep money.

We have both domains now, but when we launched we did not have both, so....

And why is it the phone always rings when you get into the bathtub?

Email sent... thanks.

Because ePassporte is not a bank and it is not in the USA. But the assumption that larger program do not keep large balances is incorrect. The biggest programs in the business keep quite large balances. The deposits are not held by ePassporte anyway; rather by a large international money center bank. ePassporte never touches the money, btw.

A few Questions:

1) When will affilliates (not merchants) be able to get paid by epassporte instead of cheques from Epoch?

- If coming soon, will it have to be a business account or can it be personal?

2) How easily do you give out personal info to government bodies? Paypal I know gives it out at any request. Do you require court orders, or other legal means?

3) Any chance of teaming up with CCBill anytime soon to get them to do affiliate payments through Epassporte? This will bring you solidly to the forfront for adult webmaster payments.

ZoiNk

Sorry I just think epassporte.com is a horrible name to brand in the US as no one would spell it that way. I guess point epassport.com to epassporte.com asap

Sorry Chris.. I meant we would have a large balance and I want to know if the money is insured. That was my question, is the money insured and up to what value?

It's not my Q&A but I did want to interject here --

If you are using a card that does not have a name that you can support with an ID then you may occasionally have issues with a signature transaction since your id will not match your card name.

LOL, wasn't my present to you the answer how to do just that ;)

1. Affiliates are paid by EPOCH on behalf of Sponsor Programs. EPOCH follows their instructions.

2. ePassporte does not give out any information to anyone or body unless and until it is ordered to (and no, we have not been) by a Court of competent jurisdiction.

3. CCBill is working on this, but it is their Tech time that they have to schedule. They are great folks and I am sure they will be responsive to the Webmaster Community and their requests.

Hi Chris....How long does it take to recieve your actual card? Just curious...

xoxo

No, it is not insured. But neither is any amount over $100K in the US Banks.

Yours is ready now. :)

Most of the time it is about a week to 10 days and it comes via US Mail or there is an option for FedEx or UPS, anywhere.

Thanks, Chris....I'll definitely be on the lookout for my card!

xoxo

BTW: EPOCH and ePassporte supports Aimee Sweet for Miss GFY! Vote early and often!

Now I have a different question... until I am able to order the physical card (I will be ordering mine later this week) would I be able to use my virtual card at physical locations (such as the pharmacy or grocery store) if the cashier is willing to enter the card number by hand at the terminal?

No, the Virtual card is coded for Internet Use Only, while the Electron Card is coded for POS (swipe) use only. This is a security measure for the protection of our cardholders.

That's awesome. I wish more financial services operations would adopt that policy.

Speaking of which, do you have a policy about how you handle things if-and-when you do get that court order? Specifically, do you have a policy of notifying the subject of any subpoena or disclosure order in advance of your compliance therewith (to the maximum extent allowed by law -- some subpoenas demand your silence under penalty of law) to give him or her the opportunity to try and quash the subpoena?

That would be even MORE awesome. In my opinion, a financial services company that is as loudly and zealously protective of its clients' privacy as the law allows gains a HUGE competitive advantage.

Do you have an option like Paypal where uses the funds off of your cc or checking account?

Therefore we would'n thave to have $100k in an unsecured account?

Oh, I just realized I have a question... when will you be using your ePassporte card at Jimmy Choo on my behalf?

:)

All of these issues are handled by the ePassporte Corporate Offices in Curacao and there is a policy in place. Remember this is NOT a bank account. It is a prepaid card or wallet. We do however comply with the Partiot Act I and II and the FSA Rules in Europe.

You are free to load anytime and to spend as soon as you load, so I guess we do, although the bank account portion is a few days away.

just wanted to say thanks for your time for this thread and thanks to jon for helpong me out with my account setup!!!

Thanks to you too. We learn a lot form these Q & A 's sessions. To show our appreciation, I am going to offer the first 100 people who write to [email protected] a FREE ePassporte Virtual account. Simply send an email to this address with a subject line of "FREE Epassporte Virtual Visa" and we'll get you set up. (Only one per person please).

You're the sweetest!!!

xoxo