Shipito, an American parcel forwarder, started cooperation with US Unlocked to give you the opportunity of having your own virtual US debit Mastercard card with US billing address. Shipito is not the only company offering such a service via US Unlocked. The latter company has been working with many partners including American parcel forwarding companies. You can also get a card directly from US Unlocked, but some partners provide your a $5 discount when you sign up via them (so your setup fee will be $10 instead of $15).
Non US residents can now get the US Unlocked card and pay in the American online shops requiring a USA debit or credit card.
Please note the the US Unlocked card is NOT accepted by Paypal as well as many subscriptions web-sites (like online music services). Some online shops can reject transactions if you use a virtual USA address provided by a parcel forwarder. But many online US shops requiring a USA billing address will accept your transaction.
Note that some American online shops accept transactions that use a virtual USA address provided by your parcel forwarder as a billing address. And some shops accept your transactions if you use your real billing address, but change the country to the USA, choose any state and a ZIP code belonging to this state.
The US Unlocked Card is a virtual prepaid Mastercard debit card with US billing address. As it is a virtual card you will not have the actual plastic in your hands, but you will use the number, expiration date and billing address provided to you for online payments. As it is a pre-paid debit card, you can only spend the amount of money that you have put onto the card. If an online shop or service asks you to enter your credit card information, you can use your US Unlocked debit card. The card can be reloaded, i.e. you can add funds to it anytime.
To apply for a US Unlocked Card you will need to set up your account, providing some personal details such as your name, home address and date of birth. In the registration process, you will be also automatically offered to use your Shipito suite number and address. The next step is to make a card load payment which will include a one-time application fee. Your card will be issued approximately 2-4 business days after they have received your payment (provided you have passed the address and ID check). Then you will be able to use your virtual debit card on most US websites.
NxPay is the platform to which the US Unlocked Card belongs. NxPay is the authorized issuer of virtual pre-pard Mastercard cards. When applying for a US Unlocked Card, an NxPay account is created for you. Through Manage Account in US Unlocked Card page you are able to manage your NxPay account.
Current fees associated with the US Unlocked virtual debit card:
| Set-up fee (one-time) | $15.00 |
| Transaction fee charged by NXpay per load. | $0.30 |
| Load Fee (upfront) | $3 and 3% or $4 and 4%* |
| POS (point of sale) fee domestic | $0.50 |
| POS (point of sale) fee international | $0.75 |
| Declined transaction fee domestic | $0.75 |
| Declined transaction fee international | $0.75 |
| Monthly maintenance fee** | $3.50 |
| Balance Transfer/Closure fee | $11.50 |
| Replacement Card | $5.00 |
* Varies per payment method. Payment methods offered vary per country. Price differs due to increased cost of payment processing and fraud control measurements. Payments are done in your local currency. US Unlocked's payment processors apply a daily wholesale rate plus a fee of 2% to 5%, depending on the currency used. These currency exchange rates are competitive with the ones applied by commercial banks and currency exchange companies.
** A monthly maintenance fee of $3.50 will be assessed to your US Unlocked Card. This fee will be assessed to your US Unlocked Card as long as there are funds remaining on your US Unlocked Card. When the card is loaded after 1-3 months of zero balance the card is incurred with the missed maintenance fee payments. If not loaded after 4 months the card closes, see term 17. A maximum of 3 months of missed monthly maintenance fees will be charged when a new card is issued to replace the closed card.
***
US Unlocked used to provide a Mastercard debit card, but in November 2013 they started replacing all Mastercard cards with VISA cards.
