Well, I don’t know why I continue with this Epassporte issue since it’s not something I’m particularly interested and it’s not the focus of this site. However, it seems many people is coming from search engines looking for Epassporte news, and in the few hours today I got more than 20 visitors looking for the terms “SKNANB MESSAGE”. So here it is, as it shows at https://www.sknanb.com/message.htm

To All SKNANB Visa Prepaid Cardholders

SKNANB is committed to adhering to Visa’s stringent program requirements and maintaining the integrity of the global payment network. On instruction of SKNANB, on September 23rd, 2010, ePassporte’s network access for cards issued by SKNANB was disabled. As a result, SKNANB prepaid cardholders will not be able to view their card balances through the ePassporte.com website.

SKNANB is actively working to restore, as soon as possible, SKNANB prepaid cardholders’ ability to obtain information regarding their Visa card balances and to access Visa card funds. SKNANB prepaid cardholders can soon expect further communication from us in this regard.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your SKNANB prepaid card, please contact SKNANB at vprepaid@sknanb.com. In addition, cardholders can call +1-869-466-9733 to contact the cardholder services centre between the hours of 8am and 4pm Atlantic Standard Time. Please note, the call volume could be quite large, as such, there may be extended wait times.

We understand the inconvenience and SKNANB thanks you for your continued patience.

St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank Limited

Now, the original Epassporte message from September 24th was as follow:

To All SKNANB Visa Prepaid Cardholders

SKNANB is committed to adhering to Visa’s stringent program requirements and maintaining the integrity of the global payment network. On instruction of SKNANB, on September 23rd, 2010, ePassporte’s network access for cards issued by SKNANB was disabled. As a result, SKNANB prepaid cardholders will not be able to view their card balances through the ePassporte.com website.

SKNANB is actively working to restore, as soon as possible, SKNANB prepaid cardholders’ ability to obtain information regarding their Visa card balances and to access Visa card funds. SKNANB prepaid cardholders can expect further communication from SKNANB on or before September 30th 2010.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your SKNANB prepaid card, please contact SKNANB at vcprepaid@sknanb.com. In addition, a dedicated telephone line will be established shortly.

SKNANB thanks you for your continued patience.

St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank Limited

As you may see by comparing the paragraphs in bold, the only slight change is that now they don’t display a date for resolution like in the first message.

On a bright side, when someone calls SKNANB the answer seems to be that there will be some kind of happy resolution for some people. Probably not all of the money, probably not for everybody, probably not all the money at once, but with the current state of events, I’m sure many people will settle for whatever they can take.

Now, a note of advice: As I said publicly on boards, please don’t believe ME, another webmasters nor anyone else. Just do your due diligence and contact SKNANB by yourself, find out what do you need (some people will need documentation to get their monies out) and if unsure, get advise from a lawyer. Keep in mind that NOTHING (absolutely NOTHING) of what Epassporte said until now was true, not a single word, which I demonstrated since their first statement and VISA made a statement less than 48 hours after Epass’ one explaining EXACTLY what I said. Now, again, do not take my word by granted because I didn’t work in banking for more than 10 years now and I’m sure some things changed, BUT I’m pretty sure that if you do what you have to do, you’ll get all or at least most of your money

That’s all folks, will try to post more news if I consider them somehow relevant

UPDATE!!!!

just a few hours after I posted the above, SKNANB posted yet a new message, more or less what I said above about people getting their accrued balances:

So without further ado, on to the good news:

To All SKNANB Visa Prepaid Cardholders As previously advised, SKNANB has been working diligently on the necessary efforts to restore prepaid cardholders’ ability to access their Visa card funds. Subject to slight adjustment, it is expected that from Wednesday, October 6th, the overwhelming majority of cardholders will be able to access the funds on their Visa Card using their existing card, without providing SKNANB further information. A small percentage of cardholders will be asked to provide certain confirming information. SKNANB prepaid cardholders can expect further communication from us on October 4th in this regard. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your SKNANB prepaid card, please contact SKNANB at vprepaid@sknanb.com. In addition, cardholders can call +1-869-466-9733 to contact the cardholder services centre between the hours of 8am and 4pm Atlantic Standard Time. Please note, the call volume could be quite large, as such, there may be extended wait times. We understand the inconvenience and SKNANB thanks you for your continued patience. St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank Limited

well, hope this all comes to a happy ending for everybody

As you may be aware of, Epassporte is having trouble with VISA, although some sources says the problem is Epassporte’s bank SKNANB (Saint Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla National Bank Limited) which means every Epassporte cardholder is having trouble. On September 4th 2010, Chris Mallick (Epassporte CEO) sent this message, which was also posted in Epassporte site as a splash page, although now it seems to have been taken off:

From:	Christopher Mallick, Owner, ePas
To:	xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Received:	Sep 4, 2010 11:00 PM PDT
Subject:	Important – ePassporte Visa Electron/Virtual Card Suspended
	Dear ePassporte Account Holders, Please be advised that, at 12:00 PM PDT today, September 2, 2010, we were notified that effective immediately, Visa International has suspended our banking partner’s (St. Kitts Nevis Anguilla National Bank) ePassporte Visa program. The ePassporte e-Wallet program continues to be up and running, except funds cannot be transferred between your Visa Account and your e-Wallet. At this time ePassporte can no longer issue Visa Cards, and the ability for our Account Holders to make point of sale purchases and withdraw funds from ATMs has also been suspended. At this time we do not know why this drastic action was taken by Visa. To us, it is unconscionable that such action would be taken without the opportunity for ePassporte to fully understand Visa’s reasons and to be able to take all steps necessary to keep our program running the way it has so successfully done for over 7 years. But that is what Visa has done. As soon as we have more information we will be in contact with you. In the meantime please be assured that your funds are safe. We are very sorry for the short notice and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. The ePassporte team is working diligently to rectify this situation. We kindly ask you to bear with us while we work through this issue. Please feel free to contact us via the message center or at our call center, should you have any questions, comments or concerns. Thank You, Christopher Mallick

These are very bad news and many people is awaiting for news on the subject, which are supposed to come on Wednesday September 8th. Therefore, we’re no longer accepting Epassporte at least until the situation is clear.

In the meanwhile, if you’re looking for an extremely reliable alternative payment method, please check out this one. (yeah, I know this is spammy but believe me, you won’t regret it )

UPDATE: As of today, Epassporte seems to be gone for good, they posted the following message in their website:

IMPORTANT MESSAGE REGARDING YOUR EPASSPORTE ACCOUNT

Dear ePassporte Account Holders,

St. Kitts Nevis Anguilla National Bank, without our prior knowledge, has turned off the ability for ePassporte to access or display Account Holders’ Visa Card balances. This means that when you login to your ePassporte Account, you will only be able to see your Wallet balance. As a consequence, inquiries regarding your Visa Card balance must be directed to St. Kitts Nevis Anguilla National Bank. St Kitts Bank is responsible for all funds on Visa Cards. Their contact information is as follows:

St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank Ltd.

Central Street,
P.O. Box 343
Basseterre, St. Kitts, West Indies

Tel: (869) 465-2204    Mon – Thurs: 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. Fri: 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Fax: (869) 465-1050
Email: webmaster@sknanb.com

ePassporte will continue to provide support with regard to the funds in your Wallet. We kindly ask for your patience as we must verify Accounts and balances manually.

Thank You,

ePassporte Account Holder Services

so well, I think we can call it THE END