ikobo closed its merchant accounts

[bluemouse2]

Hi!
Is this true? I got an email saying that this morning... It seems that ikobo will not offer any more merchant accounts...

[fromkhun]

what do you mean? Thay will not accept a new member or thay'll close all merchant accounts on all members?

[bluemouse2]

they closed all acounts...

[Corey Bryant]

Yes there are a few posts on the SitePoint and WHT forums about this. This is unfortunate for a lot of people but the reson in which I told people to stay away from them (it was bound to happen)

[yfs1]

Yes there are a few posts on the SitePoint and WHT forums about this. This is unfortunate for a lot of people but the reson in which I told people to stay away from them (it was bound to happen)

I don't know if its true but I got blasted for talking about this in the past. Hopefully we get a few more posts to see if this is true.

[Corey Bryant]

Well there are a lot Ikobo "supporters" so much that a lot of forums banned that word because they were actually spamming. The same IP from the same user, etc.

[yfs1]

they closed all acounts...

Can you post the email mouse?

I was with myPaystems last year on one of my sites and they packed up in the middle of the night. Took 6 months to get my money. Ever since then I only use Worldpay. It costs a little bit more but I don't have time to deal with all this crap.

[honey]

yup, paysystems closed merchant accounts abruptly a few months back. iKobo's concept was good.

[bluemouse2]

Here is the email message:

NOTICE OF TERMINATION OF MERCHANT SERVICES

Please be advised that effective immediately iKobo, Inc.is ceasing to provide processing for merchant services in order to comply with a direct request from VISA International under their processing regulations. This request from VISA has no impact on our person-to-person money transfer product.

Your merchant account has been changed to not allow for new sales and your current funds will be available to you under the existing terms using your iKard. Please update your web site to remove iKobo as a payment provider.

We apologize for the timing of this action.

iKobo, Inc.

[PinoyIto]

huh! sad news :( I use their merchant service because I can't use paypal and they are closing merchant account, but how come I don't received any email from ikobo. I will check this out too.

[yfs1]

I thought this was coming a few weeks ago because there was a group of posters claiming to just be "regular ikobo users" posting like mad in every single payment thread over the last few months.

Then suddenly they stopped (and not just here at DP).

I imagined they were no longer being paid by Ikobo so stopped posting en masse.

I won't name names but I thought it was pretty obvious though here.

[Doughty]

It was also a great surprise for me.
I checked their website - they removed all info as to the merchant services.

[Corey Bryant]

I was always against their services - for the customer service issues, to the spamming of message boards. It was apparent that they would probably fail at the merchant account part. That is a very difficult business. I am sure they will try other ways as well to possibly get around it

[yfs1]

to the spamming of message boards.

This was precisely why I didn't use them...I had huge long fights with their reps here because they insisted they were just average people passionate about credit processing :confused: :confused:

Reputation and credibility are crucial assetts for a payment processor and they had neither.

[Corey Bryant]

Well at least I was not the only one. :) A few of the forum admins caught on, a few even went so far to even block the word "ikobo" from their forums.

[Doughty]

I was always against their services - for the customer service issues, to the spamming of message boards. It was apparent that they would probably fail at the merchant account part. That is a very difficult business. I am sure they will try other ways as well to possibly get around it
I think they will keep supporting person to person transactions.

[Corey Bryant]

Yes it seems like it. This is why it seems they are stil working out a way around it to still potentially offer it as a processor. They probably have to do some coding on their system to change a few things around

[Doughty]

Perhaps in time (if everything goes right) they will start providing merchant accounts again.

[yfs1]

Perhaps in time (if everything goes right) they will start providing merchant accounts again.

Ever the optimist :D Usually once a payment processor packs it up, they never return. At least I can't think of one case of this happening and I have seen a lot come and go.

They have never had firm deals in place with the major cards and I suspect this has a lot to do with it.

The only thing harder than a Payment Processor launch is a re-launch

PS. Doughty - "If everything goes right" - Do you have inside information you would like to share ;)

[Doughty]

No, I don't have any information – it was just a thought. I am rather new in this business, so I wanted to hear your opinion.

[Corey Bryant]

Well they first have to actually work on their website - it has been down for a few hours.

[Doughty]

Whatever you say, the company had a really wide coverage – so now I think ikobo merchants from outside USA and Canada will have a problem with choosing a payment processor.

[articlesandcontent]

I am really sad they went down. And nooooo I am not a "paid to post" employee from ikobo ( lol)
they were just the only ones who would let me withdraw my money ( I am from Portugal, not many companies remember to cover us,most people think we are only a big city in Spain :P)

[yfs1]

I am really sad they went down. And nooooo I am not a "paid to post" employee from ikobo ( lol)
they were just the only ones who would let me withdraw my money ( I am from Portugal, not many companies remember to cover us,most people think we are only a big city in Spain :P)

Don't worry Articles..I will vouch you are not. Those of us posting all the time on a bunch of forums can recognize them right away ;)

[SoniaJr]

Now that ikobo's merchant services are gone ... I am in a very awkward situation. I don’t have any idea about what service should I use for the future. Can you share some of your wisdom with me ? What should I use for merchant services: moneybookers or 2co (Both of them are the only services covering my country)? I still use ikobo’s personal services because I still think they have a good coverage (covering my country is a good example ... I know the feeling articles) and I can still withdraw money with my ikard anytime I want.

[Corey Bryant]

if you have the choice - choose 2CO. Check out all their prices first

[Doughty]

I agree with you – 2co is a good choice and they also cover many countries (but take into account you’ll be charged a set up fee and rather high transaction fees).
However if you don’t consider them to be expensive, then 2co can be the alternative.

[yfs1]

2co can be the alternative.

Alternative to what?

[Doughty]

Alternative to what?
Alternative to the former ikobo merchant account.

[SoniaJr]

if you have the choice - choose 2CO. Check out all their prices first

2co has a good merchant service BUT it is too expensive:
2Checkout.com is now offering wires in mutli-currencies. If you chose to receive a wire payment in anything other then USD the cost of the wire will be $5.00 per wire. If you continue to receive a wire payment in USD the cost will be $20.00 per wire.

I would have wanted something similar to ikobo or paypal where the client doesn't have to pay a setup fee or any other fees (no more than 2$ actually) in order to withdraw his money. Darn ... now I don't have any other options...

[yfs1]

You would be hard pressed to see such an option. It all comes down to cost and because of widespread fraud, there are a lot of costs in some countries. Any payment provider has to either make that money back by increasing fees and rates or close shop.

Ikobo chose to close shop.

[Doughty]

Yes, 2co are really expensive. And I totally agree with yfs1:

You would be hard pressed to see such an option. It all comes down to cost and because of widespread fraud, there are a lot of costs in some countries.
So I don’t think there are payment processors with a wide coverage and low fees at the same time.

[daemeh]

Yeah, well, it's a shame this happened.. as I understand it was something about VISA/MC's policy or something. Perhaps ikobo will find a way because as someone said, this is pretty bad for many people.
Anyway, I just hope they at least keep their money transfer service up and running because I pretty much depend on it to get paid for a job I have at a company in another country and it would really suck if I had to look for some other way of getting that money... :(

[yfs1]

Yeah, well, it's a shame this happened.. as I understand it was something about VISA/MC's policy or something. Perhaps ikobo will find a way because as someone said, this is pretty bad for many people.
Anyway, I just hope they at least keep their money transfer service up and running because I pretty much depend on it to get paid for a job I have at a company in another country and it would really suck if I had to look for some other way of getting that money... :(

I don't believe the same risks are involved in that service so I doubt it is going anywhere. If its anything like Paypals, you can't do chargebacks so that takes care of the biggest obstacle

[SoniaJr]

You would be hard pressed to see such an option. It all comes down to cost and because of widespread fraud, there are a lot of costs in some countries. Any payment provider has to either make that money back by increasing fees and rates or close shop.

Ikobo chose to close shop.

I would have done the same thing. I believe their current target is regular folks (especially immigrants) who just want a cheaper way to transfer small amounts of money from one country to another without having to wait too much for checks or anything similar. If they would have raised their fees they would have lost many of their customers.

[Doughty]

You would be hard pressed to see such an option. It all comes down to cost and because of widespread fraud, there are a lot of costs in some countries. Any payment provider has to either make that money back by increasing fees and rates or close shop.

Ikobo chose to close shop.
So you think the reason ikobo stopped supporting merchants was the risk involved to this service? As ikobo says it was something about VISA policy.

[yfs1]

So you think the reason ikobo stopped supporting merchants was the risk involved to this service? As ikobo says it was something about VISA policy.

Yeah the policy that if they got any more chargebacks, their account would be closed just like Mastercard's was.

That is risk based my friend

[SoniaJr]

So you think the reason ikobo stopped supporting merchants was the risk involved to this service? As ikobo says it was something about VISA policy.

Yes Doughty. As yfs1 said before, ikobo CHOSE to stop their merchant services in order to protect its present customers. I am glad they didn't crush ... this way I can still receive payments from around the globe even if they are on a p2p form.

[musiclover]

Now that ikobo's merchant services are gone ... I am in a very awkward situation. I don’t have any idea about what service should I use for the future. Can you share some of your wisdom with me ? What should I use for merchant services: moneybookers or 2co (Both of them are the only services covering my country)? I still use ikobo’s personal services because I still think they have a good coverage (covering my country is a good example ... I know the feeling articles) and I can still withdraw money with my ikard anytime I want.

I would definately recommend regsoft.com... Try them. I like their service.. :p

[Doughty]

I would definately recommend regsoft.com... Try them. I like their service.. :p
I wouldn't call their fees (8.9% with a $3 minimum) “Low Cost Payment Processing” (as their website says) :rolleyes: