Yesterday all Epassporte account owners have found a message in their account telling that Epassporte activity was blocked by VISA International and they are no longer able to issue new cards. Al the funds in member accounts have become frozen. Though Epassporte owner encourages us not to worry about this, it is a certain phenomenon in Online Business.
Several years ago a famous Russian payment system named Fethard has faced problems just like these. Funds were frozen for an undefined period of time. I haven’t seen any changes during last years, and I was happy I had no money there. But most people that had funds there have not received them yet. Since I have been living online for last 7 years, I think I can give some advices to newcomers.
1. Do not store big amount of funds on Online Payment Processor accounts. These systems are not as trusty as bank accounts and bank issued credit cards. If your account is blocked, you’ll have to wait until the situation is resolved.
2. Do log in to your online accounts frequently. I have an issue with Moneybookers, that’s why I already know that it is important. You should log in at least once a week to ensure that there are no problems.
3. Ensure that all the necessary verification steps are done. Most online payment systems require to upload documents, recent utility bills, etc. It is a good practice to contact them to find out whether you can do anything to verify your account. If something goes wrong, it is important to have a verified account.
4. Write down all the contact details for these payment systems. If their site goes down, you can get in touch with them using these numbers. Some payment providers have even ICQ support (Like Epassporte’s Michael).
5. Do not send money to unauthorized and potentially fraudulent accounts. Even if you’re planning to deal with some stuff like that, create a separate account and don’t touch your official one :)
6. Do not leave payment memos blank. If you perform any transfers using your online accounts, make sure that your payments have “human readable” destinations.
7. Withdraw your funds frequently. This seems to be easy enough, the only thing is you need to have funds to withdraw. This means: receive as many funds as possible :)
Hope this information saves you from potential financial losses.
