Showing posts with label debit card. Show all posts
Showing posts with label debit card. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

How to get a virtual US Mastercard debit card if you are not a resident of the USA (US Unlocked / NxPay)

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).

How to get a virtual US Visa debit card if you are not a resident of the USA (US Unlocked / NXPay)


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.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Paying by Paypal when non-US credit and debit cards are not accepted

Many US online stores do not accept non-US debit and credit cards. Assisted purchases usually add 5-15% extra cost. Some online retailers do accept Paypal, but it hasn't help much to customers outside the USA, because few stores ship outside the USA. The biggest problem was that Paypal allowed you to ship to the same country where you billing address was. This may helped Paypal to avoid scams, but was a big problem for customers who lived outside the USA.

Today I tried to pay for my order in the Homesav private shopping club selling mostly furniture and home decoration goods. My Russian Mastercard debit card was rejected no matter whether I was using real billing address with a US state and zip code or a virtual USA address (from my shipping forwarder Shipito). I tried to pay with Paypal and was very surprised that Paypal didn't ask me to choose a shipping address.

Homesav: Paying with Russian paypal account

So I paid for my Homesav order using my Russian Paypal account and entering Shipito address for shipping. Will try with more shops to find out whether Paypal won't be limiting customers by asking to choose a shipping address.

Have you tried to pay for your orders in US online stores by Paypal recently? Were you asked by Paypal to choose a shipping address?

Monday, August 20, 2012

Ideel (Ideeli) error: Invalid Transaction Type. Contact us if you think you have received this message in error.

I've been using Ideel private shopping club (flash sale site, fashion sale site, private sale site) for about 2 years. Never expected to have any problems paying with my debit and credit cards issued by Russian banks, especially after making 18 purchases with my Russian Mastercard debit card. But a couple of days ago I got the following error when using my new Mastercard: "Invalid Transaction Type. Contact us if you think you have received this message in error."

Ideel: Shipping and Billing Information: Invalid Transaction Type. Contact us if you think you have received this message in error.

It appeared that Ideel doesn't allow to enter addresses outside the USA for both billing and shipping, so entering my complete real billing address in Russia was not an option. I tried to enter my real name, real street address and to use the rest from my Shipito virtual address, but it didn't work. Then I tried to use my US virtual address for both billing and shipping to no avail. Then instead of checking out I went to the account settings and tried to add my card from there. I was getting the same error no matter what address I was using.

It appeared that many customers from Russia and other countries have faced the same problem. This happens because Ideel verifies that the billing address provided matches the one on record with your bank. You need to contact Ideel support to disable this AVS system.  Then you should be able to check out using a foreign credit or debit card.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

How you can prevent debit and credit card fraud

Craig made a comment that someone has stolen his credit card and sent $4,000 worth of items using a shipping forwarder. Here are some tips that can help you to prevent debit and credit card frauds:

  • Enable SMS (text message) notifications for all your debit and credit card transactions

  • Use a separate debit/credit card for online transactions. Use another one for major online transactions.

  • Replace your debit / credit card once or twice a year.

  • Always check the web-site before making any online transaction (google for "web-site name fraud" and "web-site name complaint" and check the results).

  • Be especially careful when making online transactions using free Internet access, from a hotel,...At least make sure that the SSL protocol (https://) is used or you use a reliable Virtual Private Network (VPN).

  • Do not make any transactions from computers of other people and organisations (in a hotel, Internet cafe,...)

  • Always have a phone number of your bank, so that you can notify your bank about fraudulent transactions and block your card. Find out whether you can use online banking or mobile banking for blocking your card if needed.

  • Pay with Paypal, Skrill,... instead of using your debit or credit card.


I also recommend to be careful with software that you install onto your computer and web-site that you visit.
If you use Windows, I recommend to have a reliable firewall and an anti-virus. Personally I make online transactions in Linux or Mac OS only (I do not purchase anything from Windows, Android or iOS). Linux live CD can be a perfect solution for that.

What other methods to you use to prevent debit and credit card fraud?