ePassporte Official Statment

"ePassporte also highly recommends that you keep the majority of your funds on your ePassporte Wallet instead of your Visa Virtual Account. The ePassporte Wallet enables you to keep funds separate from your Visa Virtual Account and Visa Electron Card until you transfer the funds from the ePassporte Wallet to the Visa Virtual Account for use. By keeping your funds on the ePassporte Wallet, you ensure that your funds are protected in the event your Visa Virtual Account or Visa Electron Card is ever lost, stolen, or compromised through a stolen database, a merchant, or an ATM.

To initiate the transfer to your ePassporte Wallet, go to "My Account," select the "Transfer Money" option from the navigation bar, and click the "Wallet To/From Visa Virtual" button."



So I left all mine in virtual visa, cause you guys left out By keeping your funds on the ePassporte Wallet, you ensure that your funds are protected in the event your Visa Virtual Account or Visa Electron Card is ever lost, stolen, or compromised through a stolen database, a merchant, or an ATM OR VISA SHUTS US DOWN AND FREEZES ALL YOUR MONEY. If I had known that then maybe I would've used the wallet

It's mainly Europeans receiving the wire. Some banks hold them for up to 3 months until they release it.

After finding out I did some research on the issue and wanted to share my thoughts as it probably answers some questions.

First of all I think we should cut Michael some slack, he is clearly the messenger here and if it wasn't for him we would be completely in the dark. I am 100% sure he is trying to do whatever lies within his power. It is so easy for a company going down the shitter to just not communicate anymore and leave everything behind (well in most cases except the funds then).

I don't know the setup and structure of epassporte in detail but i do know a lot about offshore constructions and credit cards. Working with offshore companies and trust companies in between does not make it easier to get such a setup.

Visa debit cards are issued by Visa through financial institutions, mostly banks. These cards are linked to a corporate account which needs to be funded equally or more of the combined balances on the cards. So if you have 100 cards out there with a combined balance of let's say 50k, the bank who issued those cards has a bank account somewhere with a balance of 50k.

The problem with the wallet and visa "accounts" is that money in the wallet is accounted for on the bank account of epassporte self. Therefore epassporte should have no problem paying out those funds.

Your balance on the visa card is different, an equal amount of funds is located on a bank account at the St. Kitts National Bank linked to the big corporate visa account. At this moment this bank account is probably seized or suspended.

The problem is not caused by epassporte itsself, it is created by the fact St Kitts National Bank has either lost their Visa contract or has to deal with another sort of problem: funds being seized because of legal issues.

If the St Kitts national bank indeed lost their visa account that would mean that they are not allowed to issue new Visa cards or offer customers the functionality to withdraw money through visa cards. This has nothing to do with the funds though as the funds are most likely still in the bank, it is just that the option to withdraw through visa is suspended. Such actions are often communicated well in advance with several warnings, in case Visa has the impression St Kitts National Bank has other, probably legal, issues that might a good reason too.

The other option is that St Kitts National Bank seized all their accounts preventing a bank run for example. I find that unlikely. St. Kitts National Bank is part of the ECIC Holdings Ltd which a consortium of 10 banks in the area which recently were in the news for rescuing the TCI Bank which went into forced liquidation. Again your funds should still be with the bank then, the only problem is then that nobody including Visa or epassporte is able to access, in which case Visa has a good reason to suspend the withdrawal. In this case epassporte will probably try to regain access to the funds and find a new Visa issuing bank to continue operations.

The St. Kitts National Bank (or fully: St Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank Ltd) falls under the Eastern Carribean Central Bank. I couldn't find the warranties and insurances the central bank issues yet but i am pretty sure you can't compare it to western standards.

So in my opinion you can't really blame epassporte at this moment, maybe only for the fact they relied solely on the St Kitts National Bank.

Bitchting at the situation or persons is useless at this moment, the only thing you can do here it withdraw funds on your wallet and be patient till further useful information is released from epassporte (or a newspaper in case you read that the St Kitts National Bank went under supervision or filed bankruptcy which let's hope won't happen)


Please note that I am not affiliated with epassporte in any way, I am just posting my thoughts

More reads:
[1] http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1A1-D9DTKCK80.html
[2] http://www.eccb-centralbank.org/About/index.asp
[3] http://www.ecseonline.com/issuer_pro...ional_bank.php
[4] http://www.ecseonline.com/issuer_pro...Rpt31Mar10.pdf (unaudited quarterly report for Q1 2010 of St. Kitts National Bank)
[5] http://www.thedominican.net/2010/08/...-tci-bank.html

These are the fees that are disclosed on your page:

Visa Physical/Plastic Card Account Fees
Visa Physical/Plastic Card Account Creation Fee: US$35.00
Visa Physical/Plastic Card Account Annual Renewal Fee : US$35.00
(Applied once every year after the account creation date)
ATM WIthdrawal Via Physical/Plastic Card: US$3.00

So as far as recurring fees, it lists one fee, the $35 / year renewal.

Instead, this is what you actually charge:


> > 03 May 2009 Electron Card Annual Fee $-35.00 $0.00
> >
> >
> > 01 Feb 2010 Electron Card Renewal raymor $-35.00 $0.00
> >
> > 01 Feb 2010 Electron Card Renewal raymor $-35.00 $0.00
> >
> > 12 Jan 2010 Electron Card Annual Fee $-35.00 $0.00

That's four fees for two cards, twice what's listed on your
"fees" page. Most of my messages sent via the support center were
pretty much ignored, people saying "we'll get back to you". On the
phone, Sunil eventually clearly admitted that ePassporte is charging
"undisclosed fees", but he refused to refund those fees. I may still
have the recording of that conversation (and admission) archived somewhere.
I advised Sunil that I had spoken to Patricia Reid-Waugh, Commissioner,
St. Kitts-Nevis Financial Services Commission, and she said she would
look into it. It appears that she or Visa has in fact looked into it
and found that, as ePassporte has admitted, they have been stealing
their customers' money. I told you guys the choice was simple - refund
the bogues "fee", or lose your processing. Seemed like an easy decision
to me.

http://www.thestkittsnevisobserver.c...k-robbery.html

This is why!

http://www.thestkittsnevisobserver.c...k-robbery.html

This is why!

by the way, two days ago I received this notice:

Dear Account Holder,

In an effort to comply with Visa's new ATM limit requirements, Please be advised your Visa Electron Card ATM withdrawal limits have been changed to $1020 USD per day and a maximum of 10 transactions per day. The maximum amount you may withdraw within a 24 hour period is $1020 USD. We apologize for the inconvenience and short notice. Should you have additional questions or concerns, please send a message to Account Holder Services via the message center.

Did anyone else got that? I used to have a $3500 limit on my personal account and no limit at all on my epass business visa

I would have to say "Not very likely". Bank robberies hardly ever yield a large loss.

Tellers are trained not to keep any more than $2,000 in their cash drawer.

Vaults are on time locks and rarely contain more capital than the branch requires to operate for the day.

If a customer wants to make a large withdrawal, they usually need to arrange that 2 days in advance.

So, probably no large loss from an in and out bank heist.

These are the fees that are disclosed on your page:

Visa Physical/Plastic Card Account Fees
Visa Physical/Plastic Card Account Creation Fee: US$35.00
Visa Physical/Plastic Card Account Annual Renewal Fee : US$35.00
(Applied once every year after the account creation date)
ATM WIthdrawal Via Physical/Plastic Card: US$3.00

So as far as recurring fees, it lists one fee, the $35 / year renewal.

Instead, this is what you actually charge:


> > 03 May 2009 Electron Card Annual Fee $-35.00 $0.00
> >
> >
> > 01 Feb 2010 Electron Card Renewal raymor $-35.00 $0.00
> >
> > 01 Feb 2010 Electron Card Renewal raymor $-35.00 $0.00
> >
> > 12 Jan 2010 Electron Card Annual Fee $-35.00 $0.00

That's four fees for two cards, twice what's listed on your
"fees" page. Most of my messages sent via the support center were
pretty much ignored, people saying "we'll get back to you". On the
phone, Sunil eventually clearly admitted that ePassporte is charging
"undisclosed fees", but he refused to refund those fees. I may still
have the recording of that conversation (and admission) archived somewhere.
I advised Sunil that I had spoken to Patricia Reid-Waugh, Commissioner,
St. Kitts-Nevis Financial Services Commission, and she said she would
look into it. It appears that she or Visa has in fact looked into it
and found that, as ePassporte has admitted, they have been stealing
their customers' money. I told you guys the choice was simple - refund
the bogues "fee", or lose your processing. Seemed like an easy decision
to me.