Account Now?

Old Jun 17, 2013, 8:35 am
  #151  
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: The Empire State
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duplicate post/delete
cuebert is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2013, 9:20 am
  #152  
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 37
Originally Posted by Marathon Man
My experience with these things is that they basically hate people like us, who get things like MoneyPaks (I call them MPs and can get them at some Rite Aids etc) and then just use them to load their prepaid (PP) cards and bill pay (BP) out. They make no money on us. We are following THEIR T & Cs but they hate it anyway. It's a bit like Citi TY or PayPal or a whole lotta gigs out there that just plain stink.

My worry now is that they shut so many people down in one short period... So like, what if the darn company is going belly up? I would be totally pissed and would physically hunt down the bastids who took our money!

That said, I am going to play by their rules this once... I have done this before with oh so many things (and yes it's a bit like Netspend, who asked for ID, let you live a bit longer and then shut you later anyway).

So here's the letter my wife and I concocted today and sent to <[email protected]> because I don't have a fax and I hate fax. Ya'll may borrow from it accordingly--note that I did NOT say we BOUGHT the MPs. We just have them and used them! I think that's important:

****

FROM: MM's Wife

June 16, 2013

ATTN: Account Now
RE: Sudden and unwarranted hold on account with $2,000 in my funds held!

To: Escalated Risk Department and/or Executives at Account Now,

I have an Account Now card number: xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx and I have been using it to bill pay for some time. Primarily I have been using Green Dot MoneyPaks with $500 on them to load my card and then pay various credit cards held in my name or my husbands name. My husband MM has the same card and is writing you now about the same problem, which is why I mention him here. All my Account Now needs have been for personal/family use.

I have followed your policies and loaded no more than $1,500 per day/7 loads per week/$5,000 per rolling 30 days. I have loaded my card with valid MoneyPaks and I have used the card for bill pay, which adheres to your own policies and allowances. I receive MoneyPaks that are valid and spend them with your product.

My last successful card load on 6/11, and subsequent bill pay (also on 6/11) was three $500 MoneyPaks which were used to pay $1,500 to a Chase MasterCard ending in XXXX (Account Now transaction reference number: XXXXXXXX). These funds are dated as a payment to the credit card on 6/13.

However, on 6/12, a new day, I loaded three more $500 MoneyPaks to my Account Now card and then set up a bill pay for $1,500 to a Citibank MasterCard ending in XXXX (Account Now transaction reference number: XXXXXXXX). These funds have yet to make it to that credit card and based on past performance of your product, they should have by now...

I have attached a copy of the fronts and backs of those three 6/12 MoneyPak cards used by me.

On 6/13, unaware of any issues with my Account Now card, I loaded one final $500 MoneyPak card to my account. I went to my Account Now account but I could not make a bill pay. I saw my balance was $2,000 meaning the 6/12 money had not yet moved and now for some reason you were now holding my funds. I called on that date and after waiting on hold for a long period, a supervisor in Risk Escalation named Raymond informed me that he would escalate this issue to the IT Department and call me back. No one called. Heading into a weekend, I was instead waiting on my money with no help from your company and no reasons given as to why this was happening. That Citibank credit card needed to be paid and it did not happen because of this hold.

I have attached a copy of the front and back of those three 6/13 MoneyPak card used by me.

Note that the website through which I have made all my successful MoneyPak loads to your product is: https://www.moneypak.com/. This link prompts me to enter my Account Now card number and then proceed to the next step, where I enter my MoneyPak information and submit it. Once this is done I am merely given a page that says Success! and nothing more. Then, when I check my Account Now card balance, the new loads are reflected instantly. I then perform bill pays. I began to wonder If this is something your company does NOT want your customers to do for some loss-leader reasoning or something, then by all means go ahead and change it and then fully notify us, but dont suspend me for your own internal issues! That would be very wrong indeed!

Sadly, the problems have continued:

On 6/15 I checked my Account Now account again and received this message in red: The card entered is unable to be used. Please contact the institution shown on the card for assistance. I now have no way to even access my own history. That almost seems illegal to me!

For your confidential verification needs, I am enclosing a copy of my drivers license as well as a copy of a home utility bill (Comcast). You may cross-reference this with other information I have already provided when signing up such as date of birth, SSN and my home address.

I am also notifying you with this signed letter that I allow my husband MM to speak on my behalf on all calls and correspondences. He helped me set up this product and knows more about it. As well, he is writing in a separate letter at this time to inform you that the same exact thing has happened with his Account now card and we would both like the cards unlocked and made available for immediate use. MMs account fortunately has a $0 balance on it but he was shocked by the red message as well.

My card has $2,000 of my money on it at this time. My urgency is clear: If you fail to release these funds for my continued use I shall be forced to write to the FDIC and/or pursue this matter through other government and legal channels. I have heard of prepaid companies shutting down massive numbers of people without warning before and I hope this is not the case here.

I repeat: I would like the funds to be available for bill pay now. What is really strange is that nothing blocks the loading of funds onto your card from the above Green Dot link but once the funds are residing on the Account Now product, they become locked. Im not sure Green Dot would be very happy with you should they learn of this glitch or abuse. My husband and I have done nothing against your terms and conditions and so your anticipated cooperation is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

MM's wife.

tel
cell

**************

(I should have said pissed off wife who hates calling into these places her hubby MM has set up and then she wonders wth happened to our money and for what, a few miles? Probably a scam!!)


Today the agent I spoke to said it would take 72 hrs of review time once they received the letter and docs so I will give them til the 20th to act.

We could just call or write again telling them to send a check, but I dont see any reports of anyone getting one yet, so my hope here is that they actually do still exist and they release the hold, thereby letting my wife BP out her $2k ASAP. Once that happens I think we are going to make them happy and just stop using the cards.

There are other such products but at this point it's becoming clear that most stink. I will report back with any news and I hope others are equally as thorough. Thank you

MM
good luck....nice long letter. you are taking the path of trying to have your account reopened so you can use your money in your account to "pay bills" or maybe the credit card back. I and others are taking the path of trying to get a check sent to us.....without the hassle of sending in a bunch of documentation to do so and closing our accounts. I'll keep you posted on how that goes, as will one of the other writers. I agree that it stinks that they "freeze" your account once they have money in it. In the end, I do believe we will all get our money back, in some manner. I am hoping that in 7 to 10 days I have good news to report.
topenga47 is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2013, 11:01 am
  #153  
 
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Originally Posted by topenga47
good luck....nice long letter. you are taking the path of trying to have your account reopened so you can use your money in your account to "pay bills" or maybe the credit card back. I and others are taking the path of trying to get a check sent to us.....without the hassle of sending in a bunch of documentation to do so and closing our accounts. I'll keep you posted on how that goes, as will one of the other writers. I agree that it stinks that they "freeze" your account once they have money in it. In the end, I do believe we will all get our money back, in some manner. I am hoping that in 7 to 10 days I have good news to report.
You guys should look around in the manufactured spending forums. What you're experiencing isn't new. You'll get raked over the coals and strung along for a while - some more than others - but you'll eventually get your $ back. Your letters threatening consumer action won't help you, and neither will being real sweet and nice. Just be business-like, do what they ask and move on. Lots of other opportunities.

it's been said before: if you can't tolerate having a few $k tied up for a while then get out of the kitchen. or something like that....
kcblakely is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2013, 11:07 am
  #154  
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: The Empire State
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Posts: 442
+1 kcblakely. We are dealing with a real bank with a FDIC membership so no one needs to worry about getting their funds back.

Has anyone asked them if the accounts are being closed and checks are being issued or do you have to call and request the account be closed and the check issued?

I am trying to re-open one account (but not faxing receipts) and we'll see how it goes.

Last edited by cuebert; Jun 17, 2013 at 11:14 am
cuebert is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2013, 11:12 am
  #155  
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: SFO/SJC
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Posts: 1,082
I opened an account last month and loaded around 3500 in MPs. Cashed out via bill pay. I just tried to login to the bill pay portal and looks like it's locked, says " The card entered is unable to be used. Please contact the institution shown on the card for assistance". Anyway, I currently have a zero balance so won't be bothering with these folks.
mintcilantro is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2013, 11:22 am
  #156  
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Texas
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I'd be interested in hearing about anyone who succeeds in reopening the account after faxing in DL and uti bill. I have no problem faxing in my receipts. Could say that it was debit. Wonder if I can reopen my account after satisfying their request.

Been very anxious over the weekend as my 2k bill payment was pending from Thursday but looks like it just got posted on Citi.

On a side note, it might be understandable if they start cracking down on this. Seems like a perfect way to ML: cash--RI--AN. If that's true, faxing in receipts of RI paid with cards might not be a bad idea...
myndreamland is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2013, 11:28 am
  #157  
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Murica
Posts: 344
I heard this isn't the first time AN has shut people down and asked for these docs. Someone told me they sent in ID and receipts previously and had accounts re-opened. I'm hoping that is the case this time around. I like Account Now despite their ghetto-a$$ website. They have a generous referral bonus. I've made at least $100 from it.
jewsus is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2013, 1:20 pm
  #158  
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 13
called cause i only got the dispute page when i logged in. told them i wanted to close account. told me i had to send in some documents and was put on hold for the CSR to find out what documents i needed. When she came back she said I didn't need to send anything in and a Research Dept. would be contacting me in 24-48hrs. This happen to anyone else?
cowsclaw is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2013, 1:52 pm
  #159  
 
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Originally Posted by cowsclaw
called cause i only got the dispute page when i logged in. told them i wanted to close account. told me i had to send in some documents and was put on hold for the CSR to find out what documents i needed. When she came back she said I didn't need to send anything in and a Research Dept. would be contacting me in 24-48hrs. This happen to anyone else?
Good luck with that. I called a week ago when I got the first "call c/s" note on my acct. Charged me $1 fee to make the call to talk to c/s just to be told that risk mgmt wasn't available and that I'd have to call back (for another $1) another time. I advised that they'd have to call me back & was assured they would. I then followed up with an email. ZERO response from them, and now I log in to the "dispute" page. Such a crock.
TTnC4me is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2013, 2:36 pm
  #160  
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: SFO/SJC
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I used to think that the store selling MPs with CCs takes the biggest hit in the whole chain but it seems that the prepaid company takes a hit as well when we load MPs.

Looks like they perform periodic analytics to purge unprofitable customers.. I imagine that they will be improving the systems to catch unprofitable customers faster. So these things will become very short term plays. Is MO the way to go rather than bothering with cards that offer bill pay?
mintcilantro is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2013, 3:54 pm
  #161  
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Texas
Programs: AA, AS, DL
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Originally Posted by TTnC4me
Good luck with that. I called a week ago when I got the first "call c/s" note on my acct. Charged me $1 fee to make the call to talk to c/s just to be told that risk mgmt wasn't available and that I'd have to call back (for another $1) another time. I advised that they'd have to call me back & was assured they would. I then followed up with an email. ZERO response from them, and now I log in to the "dispute" page. Such a crock.
Wow. $1/call just to close the account. I'd be pissed off too.
myndreamland is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2013, 9:21 pm
  #162  
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 117
To add a data point, I've had no issues, however I've done virtually nothing with my account. I opened it early last month, and I loaded an MP ($500) a few weeks ago, and nothing since. I was going to add more a few days ago, but after reading this thread, I put it in a different account.

I've added a credit card company as a payee on my billpay as a means of putting my toe in the water, but have not actually attempted to pay a bill.

Pending what happens with my test and following this thread, I may just bail on AN.

FWIW, I don't go after the manufactured spending nearly as aggressively as some of the other folks on this forum.

Last edited by FullMoonMadness; Jun 17, 2013 at 9:22 pm Reason: clarification
FullMoonMadness is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2013, 9:30 pm
  #163  
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
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Originally Posted by FullMoonMadness
FWIW, I don't go after the manufactured spending nearly as aggressively as some of the other folks on this forum.
Clearly
TTnC4me is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2013, 10:00 pm
  #164  
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Texas
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Posts: 111
This must mean that their search criteria = MP/RI load + even one bill pay, sorted chronologically. I know this because out of my 3 accounts, 2 were closed just with one load and one bill pay. One account was open for even less than 2 weeks. My other account was created first, had two bill pay and two loads and received the dispute form the first among the three.

Think about the scope of the operation. The accounts were closed with like even one bill pay. Or perhaps they all share one referral?
myndreamland is offline  
Old Jun 18, 2013, 6:30 am
  #165  
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: MSP
Posts: 330
For those that have been shutdown, have you used the card for a swipe? Wondering if a cursory swipe each month would keep us off the naughty list.
BBPlaya13 is offline  

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