No More Neteller Debit Card

[Topboss]

The noose tightens again. I received this email from Neteller today:

Dear NETELLER Merchant,





In an ongoing effort to keep you informed, we would like to let you know that the third-party provider for the NETELLER Card has very recently advised that under the rules relating to the Cirrus/Maestro Network, it can no longer support those branded cards. Consequently, members with NETELLER Cards will be affected. This should not affect you as a NETELLER merchant.





Important dates

Effective immediately, members will not be able to withdraw funds from their e-wallet to their NETELLER Card. They will, however, have until May 2, 2007 to use the funds that are presently on their Cards.




We will be sending out an email to all NETELLER Card holders encouraging them to use the funds on their Cards before this date. After May 2, we will credit remaining funds on their cards back to their NETELLER e-wallets.




We regret any inconvenience and are working hard to provide new card services as quickly as possible. Should you have any questions, please contact NETELLER Merchant Business Development, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.




Thank you for choosing NETELLER.




NETELLER Merchant Business Development

[villa10]

There's not official statement in their website, and I didn't received the email.
Moneybookers seems to be the next option.

[Pablo]

I did receive the message from Neteller:

Dear Pablo Edronkin,

The third-party provider for the NETELLER Card has very recently advised that under the rules relating to the Cirrus/Maestro Network, it can no longer support those branded cards. This affects your NETELLER Card.

Important dates
Effective immediately, you will not be able to withdraw funds from your e-wallet to your NETELLER Card. However, you will have until May 2, 2007 to use the funds that are already on your Card.

To avoid possible inconvenience, we highly recommend you use all of the existing funds on your Card before this date. After that time, we will credit remaining funds back to your NETELLER e-wallet. This may take several business days, but we assure you that your funds continue to be safe and secure.


Other withdrawal options
In the interim, you will continue to have access to the following withdrawal options based on your country of residence:

Cheque
Bank transfer
Member wire

Please sign in to your account to see which withdrawal options are available to you.

We regret any inconvenience and are working hard to provide new card services to you as quickly as possible. Should you have any questions regarding this change, please contact our Customer Service Team, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.


Thank you for choosing NETELLER.


NETELLER Communications

Their online chat system was impossible to use today so I sent them an email asking whether they will offer courier services such as FEDEX or UPS to send checks (conventional mail here in Argentina is terrible) and when - if - they will offer a new card, which I doubt because if the problem is with the networks unless a willing operator located outside the US takes the job, there will be no way to actually use the cards since all those big credit and debit card companies are in fact, based in the US or under its jurisdiction in some way or another. This happened two or three hours ago and I still got no answer.

The short term future for debit cards such as Neteller's doesn´t seem very bright right now. Surely enogh, in the long run alternatives will appear because where there is a need, there is a good chance for business; but right now I am thinking about getting a real offshore bank account capable of accepting the kind of transfers that merchants offer to affiliates. Anyone has experience with such accounts?

[Rossato]

today, I tried to transfer money to my Neteller Card and I got an error.

I just talked to some one on that stupid chat:

Mikael : The third-party provider for the NETELLER Card was very recently advised by the Cirrus Network that it can no longer support Cirrus cards in your region. This affects your NETELLER Card.
Mikael : Due to this change; the ability to transfer funds from a member e-wallet to the NETELLER card has been restricted as of April 26, 2007 at 12am (GMT). Members will no longer be able to load funds onto their card.
Mikael : The ability to withdraw funds already on the NETELLER card at ATM machines and point-of-sale (POS) terminals will not be affected until May 2nd 2007. As of May 2nd your NETELLER debit card will no longer work. We highly recommend you use all of the existing funds on your Card before this date. After that time, we will make every effort to transfer remaining funds back to your NETELLER e-wallet which may take several business days.
Mikael :
Mikael : In the interim, you will continue to have access to the following withdrawal options based on your country of residence:
Mikael :
Mikael : § Cheque
Mikael : § Bank transfer
Mikael : § Member wire
Mikael :
Mikael : Please sign in to your account to see which withdrawal options are available to you.
Rossato: Why I haven't received any email about that before?
Mikael: We did send out emails.

I really hate Neteller. I got many problem with them. One more now.

[Pablo]

Yes, they sent emails; just look above in this thread. Why did they tell you otherwise? Probably the whole thing is a mess, and as it happens in the case of just about any big company these days, they don´t know what they are doing.

And as for regional limitations regarding their debit card, I guess that the whole world is the region that they are referring to since at their site they state that the Neteller Card will no longer be usable at all, and that they are "working hard" - whatever that means - to provide a new one. It seems that they are trying to continue providing a card; I guess that it is true because if they don´t Neteller will probably be soon out of business.

By the way, this is the second message that I have received from Neteller regarding this issue:

Dear Neteller Member,

If you choose to receive your funds by cheque withdrawal your cheque will be issued in US dollars from the Royal Bank of Canada. As your account is in Euro dollars we will convert the amount you request into US dollars for your cheque request.

In some instances it may take up to 45 days to clear the funds through your bank once the cheque is deposited. Your bank will be able to provide you with the information on international cheque processing as each bank has its own policy in regards to this. They will also be able to let you know what fees you may be charged for cashing the cheque.

You also have the option of having your funds sent by bank wire. Bank wires are processed directly into your personal bank account

If you choose to receive funds via bank wire , please refer to the instructions below.

We are pleased to announce that you can now withdraw funds from your NETELLER account via Bank Wire in Euro, GBP or Canadian funds. The processing fee of requesting a Bank Wire is 7 GBP, $12.75 USD, $17.00
CAD, or $10.50 EUROS.



Required Information

To request a Bank Wire, you must know the following information about your bank:

1. Name of Bank

2. Street Address of Bank

3. City of Bank

4. Country of Bank

5. Postal/Zip Code of Bank

6. SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications) Code. Please contact your bank for this code.

7. Bank Account Number



Requesting Your Bank Wire

1. You must send an email to MemberWire@NETELLER.comspecifying your First/Last Name, Telephone Number and area code (this number must correspond with the phone number listed in NETELLER file), and requested amount of Bank Wire. Do not email banking information; a member of our NETELLER Bank Wire Team will call you to record the required banking information.



2. Once we receive your email, one of our NETELLER Bank Wire Agents will give you a call between 2:00 PM - 10:00 AM Greenwich Mean Time (Monday to Friday) or 4:00 PM - 12:00 Midnight Greenwich Mean Time (Saturday and Sunday) for security purposes. If there is a convenient time to call, please indicate the time (and your time zone) in the email.





Important: If the telephone number you provide does not match the telephone number registered to your NETELLER account, please log into your NETELLER account and change your phone number on the My Info page.



Regards,

NETELLER Processing membercheques@NETELLER.com

[vinism]

Here's a link to NETeller's FAQ on this:

http://content.neteller.com/content/...tellercard.htm

[Pablo]

I got this message from Neteller today:

Dear Pablo Edronkin,

As a NETELLER cardholder and valued member, you are the first to know that NETELLER is now offering a pre-paid card. We've worked hard to negotiate better pricing for you.

Benefits of your new pre-paid card
Your new pre-paid card is similar to your original NETELLER Card, but with the following benefits:

Re-loadable directly from your NETELLER e-wallet account and in the same currency, therefore saving on foreign exchange fees

Can be used at over 24 million MasterCard® ATM, point-of-sale retail and internet sites worldwide

Better pricing than the original NETELLER Card

This new card replaces the original NETELLER Card, which was retired on May 3, 2007. To learn more about the changes to the retired NETELLER Card and the new pre-paid card, including pricing, visit our member card FAQs.

Be the first to get the new pre-paid card
We will notify you once the new card is ready. To ensure you receive your card, please confirm we have your correct mailing address by signing in to your NETELLER account and selecting the "Options" tab.

Should you have any questions or require assistance, please contact our Customer Service Team, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.


Thank you for choosing NETELLER.


NETELLER Communications

[villa10]

I just finished all my process with Payspark.

Anyway two options are better than one

[myoemssb]

dear frenz of GPWA,

if you need a payment solution to some of your netteller problem, please email me.
hopefully i can assist.

[TheGooner]

Ahem.

Attention GPWA members.
Always do due diligence on ANY financial offering.

[WinYourWayKyle]

Well, it looks like Neteller is pretty much down the tube for online gaming. I think Moneybookers is the next bets option, and maybe some of the casinos that accept Westen Union.

[Pablo]

Perhaps the safest bet would be to act redundantly: If you had ten casinos depositing money on your Neteller account, just don´t run away. Neteller may still survive, but leave five - or less - casinos working with Neteller, and take the other five to Monebookers, Click2pay, etc.

Moreover: As I have learned from really hard experience dealing with financial institutions here in Argentina, it would be better - if possible - to use completely different and redundant systems to get your money. Sometimes it is cards that don´t work, sometimes cheques, wire transfers and so on. For someone who hasn´t seen how chaos works like together with its beloved buddy, bureaucracy, it is difficult to imagine how complicated things could get!

In these times, as U.S.A. - based or compromised companies are trying to run and cover thanks to the UIGEA and its collateral damage, they may make odd interpretations that will certainly affect the whole money circuit within our industry.

In other words, I think that Click2pay and its card is as vulnerable as Neteller - as any other e-wallet company offering similar services - at this moment because the last straw in Neteller problems seems to be card brand policies as interpreted by the large networks (Cirrus, Maestro, etc.), and there is really not much difference between one card used by gaming webmasters and another (they all use the large networks I mentioned).

Perhaps in a few months other e-wallet companies will be affected as those down the drain as you said re-emerge. Who knows? Certainly, this will require a lot of thinking and some advice from accountants or even lawyers, so as not to get caught in some sort of legal or fiscal trap. I wouldn´t jump into conclusions yet.

[villa10]

Yesterday I received a letter from Neteller, asking me to confirm my address,
to get the new Debit Card.
The new system will be working by the end of may (neteller said).

[stgeorge]

Spoke to an agent this weekend who said they anticipate sending out cards during the course of June.

[Rossato]

I'm still watting for getting a new Netteler Debit Card, eventually.
It's very difficult to get payment here in Brazil, very bureaucracy. The banks ask for a contract signed with the company which sends money by wire transfer or foreigner check to allow I receive it. This is for preventing the money laudering.
As everybody knows the gambling companies only has an agreement or terms and conditions to sing up with them and nothing else.
So, the best way for me is a debit card.

[Pablo]

Well... Here in Argentina I am waiting too. Still no news on when or if we will ever get our debit cards but considering tht news published elsewhere (like https://www.gpwa.org/forum/neteller-...-a-171781.html) I guess that Neteller will have us waiting a little bit more.

I seems to me now that they said that we would get our cards by June just to borrow some time while *taking care* - so to speak - of their U.S. customer base first; perhaps they will begin to do something about the cards after paying the folks up north, but don't expect your card anytime soon. I hope I am wrong in this, but it would be prudent not to count too much on them.

Perhaps if you have enough cash flow you would do better by opening a bank account in a place like Switzerland or Andorra, and get a debit / credit card to get your money in Brazil, which is not too different from this country and so I understand how complicated things could get there. I have been considering this option for a time now, and I have reduced it to:

- Andorra requires no minimum deposit, but you have to travel there and open the account in person.

- Switzerland allows for *remote* opening, but generally you will need at least U$5.000 as a minimum deposit to open an account there, and you will probably have to submit your passport via Fedex or a copy of it. They seem not to open accounts for public officials and politicians anymore... , especially from places like our beloved but much battered Latin America.

- Uruguay is closer and they speak Spanish almost like in Buenos Aires (it is hard to even tell the difference), but costs are higher. Certainly, bank clerks will understand Portuguese, if that is an issue for you.

There are other places of course (the Isle of Man, Guernsey, and even some dubious African port cities, but beware of imitations!), and then you will have to consider normal operating costs, but if you do things right, you will probably end up much safer and better. At any rate, you should get proper financial advice before doing anything like this in order to do things legally, to protect your own interests from con-men and to get a financial product suitable for the kind of operations that you normally do, but remember that survival always implies innovation.

[villa10]

I'm still watting for getting a new Netteler Debit Card, eventually.
It's very difficult to get payment here in Brazil, very bureaucracy.

Moneybookers could be an option if you are facing unusual requeriments to clear funds. In some way you're receiving your own funds, so there's no need to have contracts etc.

The problem in many countries, is that these transferences are in the foreing trade department of the bank. People dealing with the expo/impo of physical goods. They are not trained for this global economy.

[F-L-C]

This thread is from 2007! Stop the spam!

[cass]

This thread is from 2007! Stop the spam!

I agree. Can the mods please close this thread.

[Anthony]

spam deleted...