Originally Posted by SiMpLe (Post 17464823)

I belong to a financial community board and this is what is being said in regards to this.
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Epassporte functionality that some may not know of:

All money that are kept in Epassporte are NOT, Visa. The two has nothing to do with each other. The gimmicks with Virtual Visa etc. has nothing to do with Visa. All money are at all times kept in the very same bank that Epassporte works together with.

All money are kept in the bank, which Epassporte uses as their intermedia for Visa as they do not directly hold any Visa license.

Epassporte holds an Deposit-taking business license on St. Kitts.

Since the bank that works together with Visa has lost their license, which in turn is due to the new regulations, Epassporte cannot issue new cards before they:

A) Find a new bank

B) Get a direct license from Visa, which they wont as Visa only works directly together with Banks

Originally Posted by Loki (Post 17463186)

IF (and that is a HUGE IF) Braz zers has absolutely nothing at all to do with this then I will be more then happy to apologize, as I have NEVER been one to shoot my mouth off, and WHENEVER I'm wrong I'm the first to admit me.

But spin this however you wish to spin this, it is a solid fact that Braz zers used EVERY SINGLE one of the services closed down / froze / investigated etc, they were the common thread to each of those places, that you can not deny however you can spin it.

The banks that were shut down DID tell their customers WHY they were being shut down.

But hey, like I said, IF I'm wrong and Visa is not locking down to further trace back money tied to Braz zers & Co. I will make a nice public apology :thumbsup

-Loki-

Originally Posted by PXN (Post 17465029)

In Epass there is a withdraw to your personal debit card, not credit card. I don't know if there is a difference between a personal debit vs cc. Anyone?

Originally Posted by Phoenix (Post 17465003)

wait is raymor trying to take credit for this?

Originally Posted by rhizome (Post 17462313)

So how can a Canadian get access to the money now?

Originally Posted by natas (Post 17462319)

1) turn yourself into a moose
2) drink 2 crates of Labatts
3) beat off furiously
4) await further instructions from the Hong Kong cartel

Originally Posted by noekk (Post 17465100)

Where exactly is our money now, in ePassporte's hands or in Visa's ?

Originally Posted by domainguy (Post 17465043)

I just got this email. Interesting? or risky?]

Originally Posted by Jdoughs (Post 17465103)

Canadians don't drink Labatt's.

We send all that horse piss down south for the US market.

Originally Posted by kazbalah (Post 17464939)

LOL poor michael - i hope you get paid real well from epassporte for taking all this shit from everyone :P

Originally Posted by AdultEUhost (Post 17464554)

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

Originally Posted by Jdoughs (Post 17465103)

Canadians don't drink Labatt's.

We send all that horse piss down south for the US market.

Originally Posted by PXN (Post 17465005)

Anyone have funds in wallet and try to transfer it to your personal debit card (not epass visa electron card) and withdrew the money?

I wonder if this work. I have funds in wallet only.

Originally Posted by ********** (Post 17465189)

I tried it - it didn't work for me.

m

Originally Posted by beta-tester (Post 17465105)

I don't understand why some people don't believe this will be resolved. If the VISA withdrew their licence from the bank in question that doesn't mean the money is lost, nor is it disappeared. If the funds are there in the bank and the bank is liquid then I don't see this unresolved.

Originally Posted by V_RocKs (Post 17465169)

If you are writing off the money you are a complete douche bag. I have been a member of many ETrade self-investment knock-offs that went bust. Every time the company either got bought out or literally closed its doors. The money they were handling was in a bank account somewhere and each and every time I was offered several ways to receive ALL of my funds... They included cutting me a check, wiring it to an alternate account or continuing on with the purchasing party.

Contrary to popular belief money doesn't just disappear. Madoff spent his inverters money and that is not the case here. Banks with bad debts lose the money to the debtors and even then your money is insured to a certain amount. And that is not the case here. Nobody took the money. Nobody spent the money. It is sitting in an account and will be dispersed one way or another when things come to a conclusion.

From what Michael O has expressed it seems Visa wants Epassporte to comply with some changes in house to conform with recent changes to debit card laws. Once those changes are made they can resume business as usual.

To the government watchdogs we all look like suspicious transactors because we are all using a card that breaks just about every rule requiring a report to be sent out. Either Epassporte will automate the reporting process or they will restructure how the card works.

Either way... you are going to have to realize that Murphy's Law states, "What can go wrong, will go wrong and all at the same time."

This didn't just happen on a Friday.... It happened on a 3-day weekend. So if shit doesn't get ironed out by tonight, it won't be until Tuesday at the earliest and I am thinking more like a week from now at the earliest. However, Epassporte may be able to work something with the bank to transfer all Virtual account monies to the Wallet account so that they can issue withdrawals to whomever requests one before then.

Originally Posted by Phoenix66 (Post 17465202)

I do 95% believe they are telling the truth, the only problem is that now people in panic will start withdrawing like crazy and epass will probably come crushing down from that.

Originally Posted by cams2chat (Post 17465159)

I agree with most of what you say....especially about Michael who is doing the best he can in a truly shitty situation.

My read on this is that it is most likely caused by program issued cards to people without Epassporte/Bank receiving ID's. I dont know if it is Epassporte or the bank who enabled cards without ID's but I think many will be receiving ID/Utility bill requests ....or have already received.

That is not going to please many who may live in the shadows but thats where I see the problem

Originally Posted by V_RocKs (Post 17465169)

If you are writing off the money you are a complete douche bag. I have been a member of many ETrade self-investment knock-offs that went bust. Every time the company either got bought out or literally closed its doors. The money they were handling was in a bank account somewhere and each and every time I was offered several ways to receive ALL of my funds... They included cutting me a check, wiring it to an alternate account or continuing on with the purchasing party.

Originally Posted by V_RocKs (Post 17465238)

Actually, they'd immediate receive a large influx of cash since it costs money to pull it out.

Originally Posted by PornMD (Post 17465111)

Errrr....did you go to their site? Nothing on it but a practically empty message board. That + spam from someone with a pretty new ICQ# = Their product must suck.

Originally Posted by woj (Post 17465246)

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by "ETrade self-investment knock-offs"? but if you mean a brokerage firm, then those are US based, SIPC insured and heavilly regulated businesses. If something goes wrong, SIPC takes over and everyone gets their $$ no matter what. That kind of business is not even remotely similar to epassporte. :2 cents: