zombaio new reserve and payment delays
 

thats typically the first sign of credit card association fines and problems with the bank, well see what happens after the new year i guess



Dear Client,

Due to pressure from MasterCard we are enforced a rolling reserve program on our merchant accounts with 5% for 180 days. This is by a PM, dated 2010-12-17. The reason for this is that the size of the account is massive due to the forecast we have shown. The development for Zombaio went a lot better than planned.

Zombaio has the last 3 years been able to offer the adult market reserve free accounts, but that time is unfortunately over now. What we however are discussing is a reserve roof limit, which makes the 5% go down over time to in our hope 0.5% ? 1%.

The reserve we are implementing is 5% for 180 days effective 2011-01-01 for all clients accepting MasterCards. For clients *only* accepting Visa, there will still be 0% reserve. For clients with a current 10% reserve, this reserve will remain.

If you rather want a fixed reserve, instead of the rolling, please submit a ticket in the ZOA.

We are looking forward to year 2011, with 24/7 support, new payroll programs, EFT payouts, ACH payouts end EU direct debits. This will help you earn more money on incoming transactions, and save a lot more on outgoing payouts or payroll.


My very best regards,

T. Anderson

The rolling reserve is implemented due to a growth problem.

We gave our acquirers and MasterCard a forecast of X Mil EUR per year 2010, and we have processed for X*10 Mil EUR YTD. We agreed on a fixed reserve but our growth made them change that. Now we are discussing a new (higher) fixed reserve as described, but we dont know the outcome of that yet.

We also feel that it is good for both our clients and us to have a reserve for any penalties that might come one day. We are not the type of businessmen that close down the shop for a reason like that.

Hi Tomas

Just guessing, but I am sure this new mastercard requirement is not completely unrelated to www.redpass.com ?

Also please clarify....

5% of mastercard sales or 5% of all sales?

you guys are saying publicly that you expect penalties from Visa/MC and its good beforehand to prepare for them?

Hey Redfield where does it mention payment delays?

this thread https://gfy.com/showthread.php?t=1003808

Well if growth is so great why raise the processing rates from 4.9% to 8.9%?

I signed up at 4.9% and having the rate changed without any notice is not cool.

If you wanna make sure to kill that growth double the fees. I might be changing to ccbill soon.

Make that triple if you include the new 5% reserve.

Now there is really no benefit to use Zombaio. Good things never last...

that email really is not very clear. I'm guessing and what I guessed seems to be supported by the posts in this thread.

Guys,
The reserve is not a fee, it is paid back to you after 180 days, also most of the other processors has this reserve.

The rates are still the lowest in the industry, 8.9% is for very small clients, most entry on 7.9% then going down to 4.9%.

If you want to go to a competitor that gives you the 5% reserve and 15% down to 10%, that makes no sence to me.

Regarding if we go public and say that we might get penalties, yes we do, almost all processors and acquirers in this industry get penalties from time to time for a non-complient client. That is just how HR processing works. That along with other 'problems' is why you want an IPSP instead of your own merchant account.

I will also go public and say that there are no plan what so ever to increase or rate or reserve further. On the other hand, there is a plan and project to remove the reserve again.

Since Tomas seems to be a bit more active in this thread....

See, this is the problem I'm having, and I'm sure many others are as well... The first thing i thought when we... finally... got an email earlier today regarding the delayed payouts is "here we go again". But sure, blame it on the holidays I guess, blame it on this, blame it on that... in the end it's not like you're going to be held responsible even if you do rob us blind.
-----------------------------------------------

Also.. where is our money? I think we're entitled to a little more info than "soon"... if you recall, epassporte also kept saying "soon" and look what happened. Making statements like "so things should run as normal again" and "but hopefully solved for many" are huge red flag indicators that something is amiss. So you really need to answer, for your own sake and ours... where is our money? Especially considering the payout reports show these delayed payments as "payout cleared!" in the zombaio admin...

If history is any indication, you need to be on top of this and giving us a hell of a lot more information than what you are imho.

Soon is within days, for EUR most should be cleared on monday. For USD it may take a couple of more days since many US banks are using intermediate banks which sometimes adds 1-3 banking days. Your money is where it should be, in the system on its way to you! Accounting is updating the reports today so you should see which payments that are re-sent. Again, I'm very sorry for the delay, which was our fault in the first place due to corrupt payment instructions, but came in the worst holyday season of the year.

i bet you got fined by the banks, they took a big chunk of your money away before you could touch it, and you had to implement the 5% to have enough money to keep paying your clients out.

That would make allot of sense. Further as to why anyone would use a bank that charges only slightly more after years of proof of paying on time vs a new bank that raised rates without notice I think that speaks for itself Tomas

with all due respect, could you guys at least give zombaio some credit for the creative new payment delay phenomenon called "corrupted accounting bank file"

Of the 2500 or more payment delay excuses or reasons I have been given in this business, this is a new one and should be afforded some credit for creativity and originality.

We should start a thread called top 10 payment delay excuses....

1. Accounting department had a death in family

2. Bank glitch

3.Server error

4. Power outage

5. Visa dispute

6. BAd swift code

7. Database corruption

8. Payroll fell on holiday

9. accounting rep has the flu

10. Dog pissed on computer

congrats on the new features! i predict big things for zombaio in 2011!

Are you serious? We have been paying on time DAILY for 3 years, that is over 672 000 payouts, and you don't believe us when we say that it is our fault, we made a misstake with the payment file that went corrupt, and were rejected back to us during the holyday? Then I don't know what to tell you.

And we did not get fined, but we did get a reserve for 5%, due to the large program we are running and as colleteral for the new product redpass.com which is in process of beeing released.

Woah there! Please elaborate on this part.

Tomas, you don't think it is problematic that Zombaio silently doubled the agreed rates without any notice?

Webmasters have built up their member bases with Zombaio for up to 3 years in the belief that the agreement is a 4.9% fee, as stated in the signed contract.

How do you intend to win back our trust after this move?

Wow. Fucking amazing how little most know about processing.

If you think Zombaio is ripping you off, go get yourself a merchant account (if you can). While I am not necessarily happy about all of the changes, it is to be expected. Especially in adult/high risk.

:2 cents:

Zombaio is not a ripping anyone off, but 4.9%, no Visa Signup fee, and no holdback sure made them attractive and got them lots of business. Are they still attractive? Yes. I don't use them, but use CCbill and Epoch, but I was sure considering adding them in. Not sure now, but if I already had them this wouldn't make me dump them.

Sure, we are on own ICA/BIN from October which means that we can acquire and issue MasterCards. That will result in own BINS where we have full control over the money flow, but this also means that we take all the risk, therefore the 5% reserve.

We know that many clients have enjoyed the flat 4.9% over the last 3 years. But we have always told the market that this is our way to penetrate the market, now it is penetrated and we have to gear up with better support, better system and features, as demanded.

Most of the close clients I talk to knew that an increased rate would come.
We will still have the lowest rates in the industry, by half, 10-15% compared to 5-10! And we have a very developed system for your needs, and there will be much more to it this year.

However we should get the price for ?bad timing? when we announce the new rates and reserve the same time we had delays with payouts.

can you give us more details about redpass ? it will be the next epasssporte/paxum ?

I can guarantee you that it will not be the next epassporte.

It will be a payroll program with MasterCards adopted for this industry, there is not much more I can say at this point. We will of course let you know when the product is released.

explain your comment earlier where the bank wants the 5% as collateral for your redpass feature

I did :

This seems strange
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zombaio_Tomas
Sure, we are on own ICA/BIN from October which means that we can acquire and issue MasterCards. That will result in own BINS where we have full control over the money flow, but this also means that we take all the risk, therefore the 5% reserve.

OK....so you are funding a new product by imposing a 5% holdback on existing clients that may or may not choose to use the new product. I understand the concept but I am amazed thats your thinking

No, we are absolutley not!

The 5% holdback is from the card schemes and is due to the size of our entire portfolio (issuing and acquiring)

Ok, the reserve question wasn't answered here for some reason but I know the answer as I have already had a 5% of ALL transaction reserve deducted from my payout created on 30th December.....

So I will rephrase my original question....

Why are you deducting 5% from all transactions when only mastercard have requested this? AND why when it is supposed to start from 1st January are you already doing it?

If you process MasterCard on your account then the 5% is on ALL transactions including Visa.