Cards, Cards, Everywhere There's (Debit) Cards

Strange things are afoot in the Visa/MasterCard universe. There's some force changing their policies left and right, on the hush-hush and very Q.T.

I previously blogged about Virgin Mobile not offering their Stash Debit Card to new users. Now, Paypal is giving me serious headaches.

I have a Paypal Debit Card and was visiting my sister in Boston when I tried to make a couple of incidental purchases. I had funding in my account to cover the purchases. But the card was denied everywhere I tried.

First call to Paypal... 1 hour. They don't know what the problem is, "Please try again, sir."

I try again and get denied.

Second call to Paypal... 45 minutes. "All I can say is I'm sorry, sir. I've reset your card, please call back if you have any more problems."

Another denial. All of these attempted transactions are between $3.99 and $15.85. Not exactly earth shattering amounts.

Third call to Paypal... 1 hour. After the usual go around, the service rep blurts out, "Some people are flagged as high security risks by the system." I explain that I have the funding in my account and I want to use my funding to buy $8 in groceries from Wal-Mart, like I have the previous 12 times without incident.

She apologizes up and down and gives me $25 for my inconvenience. I tell her I'm grateful, but what's the point of having the card if you can't use it?

I now realize that the denials are coming from Paypal. I also realize that the denials started around the time I began using my epassporte Visa for a few purchases on eBay. To do that I had to register my epassporte Visa with Paypal. That apparently made me a "high security risk". So no Doritos for me.

I understand Poker Stars is releasing a new prepaid Visa card, partnering with a company called PayTru. It's becoming available in waves, going by total lifetime FPP's earned.

I have found what I consider to be the BEST prepaid option available (especially in conjunction with my epassporte virtual Visa). It is the Obopay MasterCard, and it has VERY low fees - NO ATM FEES (USA) and 1.5% load fee for Visa/MasterCard, NO FEES for bank account. If you needed cash in a hurry, you could drop from Stars to epassporte to Obobay to ATM in about 10 minutes, paying minimal juice (probably $1 plus 1.5% of the amount cashed out). I suggest you give it a try - free $5 to sign up.

Damn, this is becoming a banking card blog.

I've been traveling this past week, so very littler poker was played. I need to commit to playing regularly, as I've lost a VIP level on Stars.