I just saw this when logging into Moneybookers today: Warning IMPORTANT NOTICE We regret to inform you that with effect from November 19, 2008, payments between US customers, and US customers and international customers using the Send Money service are not supported. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
So people from the US can use Moneybookers only for receiving ? Is the option stopped for all kinds of payments, or merely those related to gambling transactions ? If it is the former, it is a surprising decision.
Moneybookers rocks. Good luck finding another payment system that accepts all the obscure European debit cards like they do. MB is now a good solid financial company. All that is changing is U.S. customers will not be able to transfer to each other direct payments. This doesn't affect merchants and I can't say I blame them for this restriction.
Too bad,i just verified my account for biz purposes. Then this thing happed Why they do this? I think this is temporary step to deal with economic downturn. Hope they will accept US payment soon coz 90% of my client is paying me using MB
Itts bcz of the Us govt passed legislator in 2007 that most of payment processors are limiting US customers, same limits applied by Neteller also
MB had just started to look like a good alternative to paypal...and suddenly this news surfaces.... I hope it is just a temporary thing... Regards, RightMan
US govt passed some Legislator in 2007 bcz of bad economic conditions which applies to most of online payment processors.
I'd say its either anti-money laundering or anti-gambling laws. The authorities must have seen they are now quite a large payment services company and they probably don't have all the advanced fraud detection stuff like Paypal do. It wouldnt surprise me if Paypal is tipping the law off to all these smaller payment processors in order to keep it's market share. It's nothing to do with "bad economic conditions".
Moneybookers is run by a UK bank so it's not like it's a small outfit. It may not be particularly well known but it is 100% legit.
I'm sure it is legitimate, that's not to say people wont abuse it and use it to commit fraud or other bad activities. It's great to offer an alternative online payment processor but you must have the resources to make sure every transaction is legal too.
First Ikobo suspends operations this month, and now Moneybookers restricts US users. They won't last long doing that IMO, the US market is not something you can just shut off and expect to thrive. Well we still have Epassporte, Payoneer, Paypal and Alertpay. Just another example of why we should have multiple payment systems - nobody is immune.
If MB is indeed shutting U.S. Payment's you can bet your shiny butt that they are under investigation from the Justice Dept. None of you remember Neteller? MoneyBookers have been providing their services to online gaming and I am guessing they will cease to exist very soon! My advice is to request payment of all your funds asap. I got stuck with $6.500 for over a YEAR when Neteller closed their U.S. accounts!
Actually, no, I don't remember Neteller. What happened? Got a link that explains it clearly? I had a quick look on Google but didn't see anything obvious.
Any updates to this topic? Sounds interesting, always liked moneybookers as they are a very safe alternative of paypal for sellers as buyers cannot use fake CC or do chargebacks though the downside is scammers love them due to no chargebacks!