Wirecard and Payoneer, it’s fucked ! (Update)
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Update June 30, 2020 : British authorities have lifted the freeze on the British subsidiary of Wirecard. Payoneer ensures that the cards will operate normally within 24 hours and that other services will return to normal on July 6, 2020.
Wirecard has gone bankrupt and Payoneer’s users are in deep shit. All Payoneer prepaid credit cards are issued by Wirecard. Explanations.
Update on June 30, 2020
On June 30, 2020, the FCA (the British regulatory authority) lifted the funds freeze for the British subsidiary of Wirecard. It is this subsidiary which issues and manages Payoneer’s funds. This subsidiary is an independent entity from Wirecard in Germany which has filed for bankruptcy. After the unfreeze, Payoneer announced that the cards and funds will be available within 24 hours. For the moment, my dollar account (which is my main one) is still unavailable, but my EURO account (where I have almost nothing) has returned to normal. I hope that my account and the others will all return to normal in the next 2 or 3 days, because all my subscriptions, especially my web hosting, expires and all my sites may simply disappear.
The other Payoneer services, namely withdrawing money from a local bank account, making a payment (via Payoneer directly) and managing your various currency services (converting an amount from one currency to another) will be available on July 6, 2020. I don’t use these services too much, i only want and hope that my card will be operational within the next few hours so that all automatic renewal payments can pass.
Before the British authorities decided to unfreeze Wirecard, the CEO of Payoneer made a video statement in which he said that Payoneer would undertake to reimburse all user funds, even if the unfreeze would take time. He did not make the announcement earlier because Payoneer had to contact several institutions to provide the necessary cash. Okay, it’s pretty good that the company took on this responsibility. Payoneer also announces that despite the unfreeze of Wirecard and that the authorities have announced that there will be no more problems, the company is looking for and will switch to a new card issuer. All that is fine, but just make sure that my card and my funds are fully unlocked in the coming days.
Wirecard filed for bankruptcy on June 25, 2020. A gigantic fraud is behind. There were 1.9 billion euros missing from their balance sheet, and then they admitted they did not exist. This means that someone broke the jackpot or made up the balance sheet. In both cases, it’s a big shit. Because Wirecard works with more than 300,000 companies worldwide such as Alipay, Google, WeChat, etc. Banks, travel agencies and especially companies used by freelancers like Payoneer.
Payoneer and Wirecard
Payoneer is little known in Europe and the United States, but it is the equivalent of Paypal in poor countries. Freelancing has a very clear demarcation. Almost all Freelance’s clients are in rich countries while almost all Freelancers are in poor countries. In most poor countries, Paypal does not exist because of latent financial racism. And so, Payoneer is the only alternative, because it allows all freelancers, regardless of their country, to use a credit card, make online transactions, withdraw money, etc.
With the bankruptcy of Wirecard, Payoneer has frozen accounts and credit cards are unusable. Payoneer tries to reassure its users, but we feel that the Wirecard meteor strike them by surprise. Which is stupid. Because Wirecard already felt shit in January 2020. All of Wirecard’s partners should have taken their precautions when planning alternatives.
For example, Upwork, the world’s leading freelance platform, has announced that it will no longer pay by Payoneer card until “the matter is resolved”. Millions of freelancers are based on Upwork and therefore, it is their pay directly which is blocked.
A difficult end of the month
Myself, all of my web hosting’s websites is paid for by a Payoneer card on Scaleway. And with the end of the month coming, there will be many transactions that will not happen. This is fine, because Payoneer “protects” them, but if you can’t use them, it’s just numbers. I risk losing all of my sites and there is nothing I can do because there is no alternative to Payoneer anyway.
The end of Fintech
All the morons have sung the glory of Fintech and Wirecard is the champion of Fintech. He collapsed like a big piece of shit and therefore, the whole sector is in danger. The next few days are going to be hot as hell for all of Wirecard’s partners. On the Payoneer forum, users are furious and panicked. Many people relied on these credit cards to pay rent and buy food. I only use them for payments and this could destroy what I have spent 10 years creating in terms of sites. Thank you Wirecard.
Payoneer said he is looking for a replacement for Wirecard for his cards, but that will take time. But time is running out because he has to find a solution in the coming days. It should be understood that the bankruptcy of Wirecard is equivalent to that of AIG in 2008. It is like insurance. When you make an online payment in an e-commerce site, then Wirecard is the intermediary, ensuring that the e-commerce site is paid well. But in this story, it was this intermediary who left with our money. So it’s much more serious than a simple bank’s bankruptcy. Again, this is really shit for the future of many freelancers and online businesses.
Hey there Houssen:
I opened a group to initiate legal action in case things get more complicated.
https://buff.ly/383NTdU
Welcome those who want to join and also those who want to spread in other forums and networks.
Regards,
Mariano
Payoneer was a good and honest company when it was just launched and I have been using it for almost a decade without any issues whatsoever until November 2020. Unfortunately, things started to go downhill after the Wirecard supposed $2b missing funds scandal and subsequent bankruptcy which was when Payoneer starts to freeze and cancel account holders’ funds and cards, giving all sort of BS reasons to not reactivate the accounts and cards, therefore ‘stealing’ the funds of its account holders under the pretext of identity verification (which will never be accepted and approved).
Although Payoneer has denied this, it is reasonably possible that the company may have been affected and could have lost funds during the Wirecard fraud fiasco and is no longer liquid to honour all of its account holder’s payments.
As such, it probably has decided to dishonestly freeze and cancel account holder’s funds and cards so that the company need not honour any payment to its account holders. Their latest ploy to delay and withhold funds is to ask for National ID under the guise of re-verification, only to reject it again and again and again and then repeat the same BS over and over again till the account holder gets tired and gives up, thus allowing Payoneer to keep the funds for its own use. I have been there and done that and have all the emails archived to prove that.
However, to appear legitimate and viable, the company would allow about 1 out of 5 or maybe 10 account holders to continue to use their accounts and these are normally accounts belonging to residents outside Asia. From the many feedbacks and postings, most of the currently affected account holders are based in Asia numbering hundreds of thousands probably.
Their supposed Customer Service (be it phone, chat or email) is practically non-existant and if they find that they cannot resolve or answer any of your questions, they just either ban you or ignore you completely, which is what I have experienced with their community blog, phone and email. When I last visited their community blog last week, it had thousands of negative comments but all has been deleted.
So if you are a Payoneer account holder that has been affected by their latest ploy and have funds frozen and taken on a “ID verification” merry-go-round, then I would strongly suggest that you stop wasting time with Payoneer and immediately file a formal complaint against Payoneer with the relevant authorities, which means in the US and Ireland, where its headquarters are based and incorporated in. It would also be good to file a former complaint with the Central Bank of Ireland where Payoneer Europe is licensed to operate as a card-issuer. Should you have extra time, it would also be good to lodge a complaint with Mastercard International as Payoneer is obviously tarnishing their good name.
A further list of agencies which the dishonest company is subjected to jurisdiction is available on this page.
As it stands, all evidence currently seems to suggest that Payoneer is taking its account holders for a ride and no one should lose their funds to an unscrupulous company this way. So file the complaint asap and take this company to task.
Payoneer’s Top Management
It most probably would be pointless to file any complaint to any of its CEO or management team since they are probably is instrumental in Payoneer’s current dishonest practices. The verification team probably has the board’s blessing to delay and deny verification and payments to its account holders.
The former PayPal was doing exactly the same thing decades ago and was taken to task by the federal authorities and slammed with multiple class-action suits, so there are no reasons why Payoneer cannot be held accountable.
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