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proBilling
I switched to proBilling as a third party credit card payment processor last year when my last one (iBill) stopped processing for Canadian clients - due to new VISA and Mastercard regulations. However, in January 2004, proBilling announced that they longer could process credit card transactions - only cheques. I then immediately switched to 2CO (www.2checkout.com). However, proBilling still owed me money in holdbacks. The holdbacks are now slated for release. I emailed proBilling to schedule the release, only to receive the following reply:

Dear Probilling Merchant,

We regret to inform you that due to new banking issues, starting immediately
ProBilling Ltd. will suspend reserve releases to merchants and withhold
unsettled reserve balances. Reserves will be held until the complete
settlement of these issues.

As your contract agreement states, should our processor and/ or acquiring
bank choose to withhold reserves for any reason, ProBilling would
consequently be required to suspend reserve payouts to clients. We will
continue to work with our processor and acquiring banks to release the held
funds for payout.


I tried calling them, but only get a message to contact proBilling via their website (and their live support is no longer available). If anyone uses proBilling or knows anyone that uses proBilling, I urge you to seek another payment processor ASAP. I've seen these signs before. I believe proBilling is about to go under, and any monies they owe you will be unrecoverable. Their business plan is probably no longer sustainable after losing the ability to process credit card payments, and they are more than likely awash in red ink. And one thing I learned awhile back, always have a payment processor waiting in the wings - and learn to spot the signs, as payment processors are falling like a house of cards due to new regulations imposed by the credit card companies. 2CO looks like they are in for the long haul as they do not process for high risk companies and adult-related sites - and 2CO uses highly sensitive scrubbing technology to spot possible fraudulent transactions. But I also use PayPal as a secondary processor, which is also highly recommended to use two processors. So again, I recommend dumping proBilling ASAP if you use their services.

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Cheers,

Dan
Founder and CEO

LionsGate Creative
GoodPassRobot
Magelln
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Re: [dan] proBilling In reply to
Wow dan, I can feel your pain.

We too have had lots of troubles with 3rd party merchant companies, as well as actual merchant banks in the last 7 years online.

There's lots changing in the industry, and it's getting really wierd. If you doing "straight" products, where it's either a service or a sale of a tangible item, it is best to go get your own merchant system.

Unfortunately, if your content has any "adult" quality to it, man.. it's rough out there.

We had the same thing come to us through OBS (Online Billing Systems) a few years ago, they held about 10k of our $$... and told us the same thing, that their bank was holding their $$$. We did eventually get about 50% of back a year or so later... so keep your fingers crossed.

WWW stands for the "wild wild west" I think.

Good luck,

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