Everyone NO but as I POSTED and said "If you are real Lucky" which means even if 1% of people get audited would you like to be in the 1%.

The last time I was audited it went on for close to a year with the tax attorneys and cpa's fees amounting to over 40k. I would rather have a root canal the same day they were to :rolleyes: cut my boys off from having any well you get it.

Success has a great tendency to conceal and throw a veil over the evil of men. Some dead guy said that

Ah, sarcasm (it doesn't always show online :)).

It would be useful to better understand what a "shut down" of an Incomm account actually triggers. I don't really give a fig about having to fight that company (or another "non bank bank") to release a couple thousand dollars if they decide they don't like what I'm doing. But I sure don't want to be reported to the IRS. As you say, under the best of circumstances, having to explain something to the IRS is a huge PITA. I once had a fairly routine investment miscoded (I was short a stock instead of long) and it took 4 letters to the IRS to resolve this. I wouldn't want to be the guinea pig to explain that I'm a new breed of hobbiest that chases frequent flyer miles by buying reload cards.

I'm not sure if it matters, but I'm also trying to understand why a criminal group would be doing anything like what flyertalkers are doing. The only thing I could think of would be buying VRs with stolen credit cards and then cashing them out. But if Incomm freezes your account and you again verify your identity, is that really likely to be what you're doing?

FWIW, until the dust settles, I think I will keep my monthly card usage to $5000, which is the limit set in a lot of the other prepaid programs. Better safe than investigated.

Thank you for taking the time to look up and provide this information. I will pursue this and report back to the forum.

I'm filing an online complaint, and I suggest that everyone else in the same boat do the same. If enough people file complaints against Bancorp with the FDIC, I suspect Bancorp will have to tweak its account hold/closure/refund policy -- if you can call it that.

bridges ->burned

just send the info. Do you really want to get banned from Bancorp?? ::shudders::

I don't follow the logic. I and more than a few others now ARE apparently banned from Bancorp -- or at the very least, from the MVD product. We've all read numerous reports of the same nonsense occurring with Bancorp's other products when Bancorp determines you're not its typical underbanked customer on which it profits. What Bancorp needs to do is have specific rules and guidelines for transactions such as CAs -- and account closures and refunds -- that everyone (Bancorp included) must follow. I have no problem whatsoever abiding by the rules. I do have a problem when a company refuses to define the rules -- then attempts to penalize you for breaking its undefined rules.

Fair is fair. Unfair is unfair. BS is BS.

fine, carry on waving your big stick around. If anything it helps the rest of us who have learned to abide by unwritten rules last longer.

You knew, or should have known, that there was a risk of being shutdown. The fact that you are throwing a temper tantrum because of it is amusing.

Furthermore, you don't even know who you should be complaining to. MVD is run by Incomm, deposits banked by Bancorp. Incomm will release your money, not Bancorp. Try doing a little research and see how many products have Bancorp behind them. You are being downright foolish going after Bancorp.

If I'm incorrect, I very much appreciate your bringing this to my attention. But I'm not sure I am.

From the MVD Web site:

MyVanilla Prepaid Card is offered exclusively by InComm.

The MyVanilla™ Prepaid Visa® Card is issued by the Bancorp Bank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. and can be used wherever Visa debit cards are accepted. The Bancorp Bank; Member FDIC.

This suggests to me that Bancorp is the bank that holds the funds. The way I understand it, Incomm creates the cards and administers their transactions. If someone who fully understands their relationship could verify this, I would be obliged. I wouldn't want to jeopardize my BB, but the way I understand it, AMEX is the banking institution, not Bancorp, and Incomm services them both.

Here's a link to a story on Bancorp's and Incomm's partnership renewal: http://markets.cbsnews.com/cbsnews/n...renew_contract

And, really, I'm not throwing tantrum. I hope it doesn't read like that. I did fully know there was a risk of having my funds made unavailable to me.

That said, if this is a game we all play, games have rules. Except Bancorp chooses to make up some of its rules as it goes along -- then unjustly penalize players. This is unjust. I can accept the injustice. Or I can fight it, and if Bancorp is unjustly holding my funds as I believe, I think it's in my best interest and in the best interest of everyone who uses the product to file a complaint and try to hold it accountable.

When you say 'undefined rules' it means no rules, when you say refuses to define the rules, its because they want to break the laws. Go to OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) they regulate/Audit banks.(research on the web) You may be surprised, they may resolve in 24 hours if you have proper documents(proof) Banks may be big and powerful, but not above the law.

You will be doing a favor to all of us, none of our accounts will be put on hold for more than 24 hours.

IMHO, you need to back off and cool down. Yes, these ... , just like their Paypal brethren before them, and even Amazon, will punish you by holding your money because you basically effed them-in their opinion-so relax, take your (temporary) beating like a man, come back and abuse them another day. Best revenge is scoreboard, not penalty shots.
Flailing at windmills does nothing for you except add stress.
edit
And, when it all comes to an end, they will tell you they held the funds "to insure they followed the blah blah blah as specified by the blah blah blah (insert SARS, IRS, Patriot Act, etc.)" so you can't win.

I agree with your advice, but sometimes you have to stand up like a 'Man'

No you don't. Not in this instance. If they (attempt) to keep your money, that is stand up time.
Paypal decided to attempt to clawback Ebay funds from my checking acct. once, that is when I closed the acct. before they could get the cash and swore off Paypal forever. Choose your battles.

At the end of the day there is something that people are/were doing to get their accounts shut down. Nobody seems to know what it is but obviously Bankcorp doesn't like something. I've haven't changed the way that I have been using my MVD at all. Load it up..., buy some gum... empty it out... rinse and repeat.

Here is my take...
New product, no supervision, only interest is driving sales, one or (1000s) more accounts blatant abuse (like opening up 100s of temp cards lol) that aren't caught because no one is watching the cookie jar, discovery process, extent of widespread abuse discovered, along with (apparent) disregard of the SARS up to that point, admission of dereliction of duty to govt. agencies, "let's eff these abusers by holding their money".
Any program that allowed as many temp cards as you could buy with free CA was doomed to this conclusion at some point, aka "who programmed this crap?"

I oft hear this reported again and again by so called 'experts' that one could CA the unregistered temp card. I nor any trusted contributor has ever experienced such a marvel. Are you implying that you were able to do so? If so, I'd really appreicate a pm on how it was possible.