epassporte virtual visa use

[dafulv]

I used the epass virtual visa to buy my girlfriend a necklace from zales.com. After I submitted the billing info, the money was immediately deducted from my epass account. Later, I got an email from zales saying they were unable to process my order because of invalid payment info. The money is still out of my epass account. Anyone else ever have this problem using the virtual visa?

[dafulv]

bump

[Our House]

It's only a virtual visa. You'll probably get a virtual necklace.

If she's a virtual girlfriend you won't have any problems. [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[dafulv]

[ QUOTE ]
It's only a virtual visa. You'll probably get a virtual necklace.

If she's a virtual girlfriend you won't have any problems. [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

rather have a virtual necklace than no necklace and negative money

[KingMedicine]

hmm. no info that can really help you out, but i thought id add my experience with using the virtual visa. i paid 3 bills online (verizon, and 2 utilities) yesterday and had no problem. the money was deducted from my account immediately and each of the 3 companies said that the charge was successful. im *hoping* that i dont get info that the bills ended up unpaid like what happened with yr purchase. ill report back here if i do.

[Our House]

[ QUOTE ]
hmm. no info that can really help you out, but i thought id add my experience with using the virtual visa.

[/ QUOTE ]
I used my VV to pay for several items. Haven't had a problem yet. I also received my first $600 bank deposit yesterday.

Fees are high and time is long, but all in all, epass looks solid.

[dafulv]

i tried again and it failed again. not sure what the deal is

[Our House]

Is the necklace more than your daily limit?

Are they trying to charge it twice...making it exceed your balance (like they do with gas purchases)?

Do they add any extra onto it as a temporary hold...also causing it to exceed your balance (like they do with restaurant gratuity)?

[[censored]]

it will take 30 days but you should your money back

[ADBjester]

[ QUOTE ]
I used the epass virtual visa to buy my girlfriend a necklace from zales.com. After I submitted the billing info, the money was immediately deducted from my epass account. Later, I got an email from zales saying they were unable to process my order because of invalid payment info. The money is still out of my epass account. Anyone else ever have this problem using the virtual visa?

[/ QUOTE ]

Two things:

1) The money didn't come out of your ePass account. Log into ePass and view your statement. The charge says "Outstanding". It isn't anything more than a pre-authorization until that changes to "Matched". A "pre-auth" is much like going to a restaurant and paying with your physical card. They "pre-auth" the bill plus 30% since they don't know how much you'll tip. Only when they run it through as a matching sale later does the money get transferred... but while the pre-auth is in place, those funds are blocked off for the exclusive use of the merchant obtaining the pre-auth. The merchant has a fixed amount of time to claim those funds with a matching sale, varying based upon the issuing bank. The length of time funds are held by ePassport before assuming "no sale will take place" is 30 days.

2) The Virtual Visa is issued on a non-US-based Carribean bank in Nevis. Many US merchants (especially online websites) don't take "international credit cards" due to the high incidence of fraud from such cards (especially when shipping to a US-based address), as I discovered while using an ePass account to buy parts for a new computer. FrozenCPU and Antares took it easily. NewEgg and iSquared would not. TigerDirect took it, but I had to send documentation proving my residence.

It is likely that Zales rejected the purchase *after* gaining the pre-authorization, because it was not a US card. Therefore, the pre-auth will sit on your account for 30 days, tying up your funds, and will then drop on its own.

When NewEgg did this to me, I had them fax ePassport a statement that they don't take foreign cards and had no intent to charge my account the pre-auth, referencing my ePass user ID, the amount, the card number and my name and address. ePass dropped the pre-auth in 48 hours rather than 30 days.

You may want to do have Zales do the same. It has to be on their letterhead.

I have since discarded the ePass fax number to which such letters should be faxed, but (if you can get through) it is easily obtainable from ePass customer service.

Jester