For what its worth - I just bought a whole load of xmas gifts via Amazon.co.uk with epass and didnt have any issues.

I dont know if this really works so take it with a pinch of salt - What I tend to do is just before buying anything with epass I try and login to my epass account - if I get one of those "back online in 15 mins" messages I wait until its fully working. So far I have avoided any issues like the one you describe, and thats after 100's (1000's?) of transactions.

WHen I was younger I hated this. I would have $100, try to order for $100, and something would happen, it didnt go through, then I'm broke for 30 days lol

that sucks, Contact Keyser Soze

only idiots use epassport for online purchases.

I can charge anything back in under 30 days on my amx or my visa or my mastercard.

A charge back is a different issue - he cant charge back because nothing has been taken.

sounds not good anyway...

I've bought online at amazon and other places no problem too. Just bad luck in this case, I guess.

And hey, if something does go wrong, better the virtual visa than the real one, right??

These companies are not interested in faxing epassporte about your $80 charge. Unless its a reason you cant order from them IE all the money is tied up, they wont give a fuck and will say its released soon... etc. sometimes the merchant does release it after 5 or 10 days.

If you need the money now, get on their case. Otherwise just wait the 30 days and the money will get returned. I've had it happen to me on multiple occasions.

Just got some good news and bad news! After some mails they seem to want to fax epassporte.com. But the bad news is that they for some reason seem to have faxed TWO banks ?!!! I just now asked my father to use his card so I will be getting my order. I am under the impression that they are dropping those charges aswell :Oh crap

But hey , normally I should have my funds back within 24hours I think so I will just try again with the epass :upsidedow

thud -- :)

to many complaints about epass

And why do you bump a thread that is a month old?

I've also had the double charge problem when paying at a restaurant (to the tune of several hundred dollars), although epass managed to remove it without needing a fax. I still don't understand why the restaurant charged me twice, the initial auth was fine and the second charge took a day or two to appear, with a slightly different merchant name.

Anyway, I think I've used my physical epass card twice as a "credit" card... so that's a 50% failure ratio. I'll stick with using my standard Visa from now on, epass is only for getting cash out of the ATM. :)

It happens because the restaurant place a pending charge on your account to make sure you have the funds in your account. Then when they run the charge they are supposed to drop the pending charge. Unfortunately not everyone does this and thats when this situation occurs.

Ive heard good and bad about Epass. So just like paypal I transfer almost all of my money to my bank accounts when I get transfers in either one

I still don't get it. I've finished my dinner, I have the bill in my hand and I'm paying on the way out. It's a fixed, known amount. Why would they need to do a pre-auth when the transaction is approved on the spot?

My card was only swiped once.

thank god, I have not had a problem with them.

From the FAQ at ePassporte https://www.epassporte.com/secure/ep...q=faq#extopic4

# I paid for a meal at a restaurant with my ePassporte card. The authorization on my account for my meal purchase is different than the amount I spent. Why is this?

When you purchase a meal at a restaurant with your ePassporte Visa Electron card, you transaction is authorized for the amount of the meal plus an extra amount (to allow for a potential gratuity). These authorizations are removed from your account when the merchant settles the actual amount spent at the restaurant, usually in 7 to 10 days.



# My restaurant purchase was declined and I know I had more money in my ePassporte account than the amount of the bill. Why did this happen?

Transactions that take place at restaurants are authorized for the amount of the meal purchase plus 20% to ensure that you have sufficient funds in your account to pay for the purchase amount plus a tip. This is necessary as the merchant does not know the total amount of the transaction until you add your tip (which occurs after the transaction is authorized) and ePassporte does not know the total amount of the transaction until that time.

btw , I just yesterday tried again to buy something on amazon , this time on amazon.co.uk , just paid with my epassporte virtual visa , and all went very smooth

expecting this book in the first week of the new year

Yep, I've seen that before... but it still doesn't explain it. :)

a) The duplicate charge was for the same amount (which is +100%, not +20%)
b) The duplicate charge did not appear until 24-48 hours afterwards

I had to email CS twice but it did get removed without any fuss.