AlertPay and Facebook Crack Down on Illegal Gambling

Communication between AlertPay and Facebook has led to the termination of several illegal online gambling operations selling virtual poker chips for use on Facebook's “Texas HoldEm Poker” application. Facebook does not permit online gambling on its platform and some sellers attempted to convert the Texas HoldEm Poker application into monetized online gambling.

Site offering for sale virtual poker chips for use with Texas HoldEm Poker are in violation of AlertPay's User Agreement and in potential violation of state and United States Federal law prohibiting unlicensed and/or online gambling, as well as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 31 U.S.C §5362.

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Subscription Update

As some of you may have noticed we experienced an unforeseen issue with subscription payments. Some of your subscriptions ran later than expected. Our Tech Department has managed to resolve the issue and subscriptions will run normally from now on. We are doing all we can to prevent this from happening again.

Thank you all for your patience.

AmEx is a “Go”!

As you all know, we have had some issues with credit card processing in the last couple of months. Although Visa and MasterCard processing was the first to become available again, we were still having issues with AmEx. But not anymore!

You will be happy to know that you can once again make American Express payments through AlertPay without any problems. We have been working very hard to solidify our relationship with our banking partners and now you can finally enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Thank you for your patience and your commitment to AlertPay’s success.

Improved "Subscriptions" Interface

As you well know, we at AlertPay are always looking for new ways to improve our service so you can get the most of it. In keeping with this, we have modified our “Subscriptions” interface so that it is easier for you to use. From now on, you can view both sold and purchased subscriptions in the same place. To view sold and/or purchased subscriptions, just follow these steps:

1. Login to your AlertPay account.
2. Click on “Profile”.
3. Under “Financial”, click on “Subscriptions”.
4. Then choose whether you would like to view either “Sold” or “Purchased” subscriptions by clicking on the appropriate tab.

You can use our new search and filtering tools to find your subscription(s) with ease. Search by reference number, name or the seller’s email address – it’s never been easier!

Good news for all Buyers and Sellers!

As of today, Sellers can now issue refunds up to 14 days after the transaction's creation date! It used to be only 7 days, but due to a rising demand to increase this time frame, Sellers now have an additional 7 days to refund their customers, if necessary.

Sellers: To issue a refund, just follow these simple steps:

1. Login to your AlertPay account.
2. Locate the transaction in your "Recent Activity".
3. Click on "Completed" under the "Status" of the transaction.
4. Click on the "Refund Transaction" button.
5. Click on "Confirm". That's it!

Please note that all refunds will be reversed back to the original source of payment which is either credit/debit card or AlertPay Balance.

Card-holders pay foreign transaction fees without ever leaving the country. Yes, it's true!

The days of hidden transaction fees on your credit card bills are over. Technically, this should be good news, but it’s not entirely so. When Visa, MasterCard and Diner’s Club were hit with a class action lawsuit in 2006 for hiding transaction fees, they had to issue $800 million in refunds. Now, credit card companies and banks just charge more for specific transactions to compensate for having lost all of that money.

In his article, “U.S. Online Shoppers Hit With ‘Foreign’ Fee”, Bob Sullivan states that you can be charged a foreign transaction fee without leaving the U.S. This includes making online purchases from foreign merchants. This can cost you an additional 3% in fees if the merchant’s business is located in another country. However, some card issuers and banks have lower fees or none at all, like Capital One.

Foreign transaction fees can substantially increase the amount of money you spend on your vacation. This now applies to online shopping. So, before you go on that holiday or make that online purchase from the comfort of your home or office, you should inquire at your bank about their foreign transaction fees and check the merchant’s contact information to find out where they are located.

Please review these articles for more information:

http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/foreign-transaction-conversion-fees-1276.php#fees

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/latest-currency-conversion-fees-1.aspx

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2009/05/currency-conversion-fee-hits-us-shoppers.html