I'm EXTREMELY disapointed to convey that the Obopay cell phone payment system and preloaded MasterCard has been discontinued. Over the last few months I grew extremely fond of the Obopay service. Obopay featured a revolutionary blend of Paypal and a Preloaded Mastercard - with the enhanced flexibility of free direct deposit and the transfer of funds from cell phone to cell phone. Today, I received notice from First Premier Bank that they have revoked sponsorship of the Diamond Financial / Obopay program and will discontinue the service official THIS MONTH - March, 2008. They have released the following time table for phasing out the Obopay preloaded cards: - March 4th, 2008 - All cash loads to the cash balance will be discontinued. - March 24th - The remaining balance will be avaliable until this date. - March 25th - ALL Obopay Mastercards will be CANCELLED and users will be unable to use the card. Checks will be sent in the amount of any positive balance remaining and 2-4 weeks should be allowed for reimbursement checks to arrive. Again, I am extremely disapointed in this decision by Obopay, Diamond Financial, Citi Bank and other partners involved with issuing the Obopay preloaded / prepaid cards. Obopay was a traumendous service born out of a revolutionary dream by an aid worker in Kenya to capitalize on the cell phone revolution and close the digital divide between financial networks, cell phone advances and the Internet. I hope something may still be done to bring back the Obopay program. Best of luck to all obopay users. - J Arthur If you have been a loyal user of the Obopay service or have enjoyed participation in the program, please post your experiences, reactions, and disapointment or views regarding this discontinuation of the Obopay program.
Update on the OboPay Preloaded Debit and Direct Deposit Card: Just returned to the home address indicated on my OboPay account and there was a check waiting for $43 (arrived about two weeks ago)... However, I lost 60+ referrals and truely enjoyed their preloaded MasterCard program. Unfortunate... Everyone else paid?
I am not at all shocked by this. Their service had WAY TOO MANY REQUIREMENTS AND RESTRICTIONS just for you to signup! It's bad enough ppl don't want to use anything else beside paypal but now you actually want to make it hard for ppl to join your company for ppl who do? Good riddance. NEXT!!
I have never heard of this card, but I know many preloaded cards and payment processor have been discontinued by a number of reasons since several months ago, so not strange at all.