Choice Bank of Belize, the card issuer for several adult payment solutions, is currently in “liquidity-constrained position” by the country’s regulatory authorities, according to sources.
The Belize bank has established card payment systems with other companies, such as Paxum and Payoneer FirstChoice Pay.
Due to the freezing of funds by Choice Bank, these payment systems are now unable to allow some of their customers to manage funds.
Emails sent to operators of adult services, such as affiliate networks or camgirls, describe the situation as follows:
“We have been informed by FirstChoicePay / Payoneer that they have completely shut down their payment services, and are effectively out of business. All of their customers’ funds, including over $100,000 of our payroll funds, have been frozen by their bank, Choice Bank Limited of Belize indefinitely”
Brandon Abbey of Payoneer Escrow, stepped in a thread over at NamePros, to clarify that Payoneer the escrow company is not shutting down. He will share the updates on the FirstChoice Pay product as soon as possible.
There are speculations that MasterCard has closed the Choice Bank’s account, due to the ongoing anti sex industry law, FOSTA/SESTA, along with angry comments about FirstChoice Pay on Twitter.
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Update: Payoneer sent the following message to FirstChoice Pay customers:
With regret, we are writing to inform you that Firstchoice Pay is not receiving or processing any further payments, effective immediately.
Please be aware that you are not able to receive any new payments through Firstchoice Pay. We trust that the companies that pay you will be offering a new way for you to receive your payments. Please contact them directly for more information.
The balance on your card remains available for you to withdraw at ATMs or spend. Your transactions can be viewed and tracked through your account and we will continue to provide you with full customer support.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your business. We have greatly enjoyed serving many loyal customers and offer sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.
I was one of the Payoneer/Firstchoice Pay customers who received one of these emails today. I can confirm I was able to withdraw my remaining balance. This is a major inconvenience to a lot of people.
Gladly, Payoneer itself and other departments of Payoneer didn’t suffered from that.
Also, despite some initial rumors, ePayments have not been affected by this as they don’t work with Choice Bank.
I am a Firstchoice Pay prepaid card holder, and I withdrew all of my funds from the balance on my prepaid card on the 9th & 10th April. I asked Firstchoice Pay on the 11th April to load more of my funds onto the card so that I could withdraw them, and they told me they had a system-wide technical issue that would take 1-2 working days to resolve, and then my money would be transferred over to my card. However, as of today (19th April) they have still not done so, and my money is effectively blocked, I cannot spend on my card or withdraw funds. They are now illegally holding onto my money despite assurances to me that my money is safe and available to withdraw. What recourse do I have? Is there a regulatory body I can contact, does anyone know?
Az i am in the same sittuation!!!Please contact me on.my email cruell_a@yahoo.com.
Same here , did you manage to get your money ?
Hi. I contacted firstchoice pay for the blocked balance and they say they are working on finding other solutions to transfer the balance on the card. This is very blurry. Do you have other information? Thanks
Any news ? blocked money for me too. i contacted 1stchoice and they have no solution at the moment !
Yes i have a big balance on account and i can’t get my money. They say they have access to my money but they don’t have solutions how to transfer them to me. I said i can get it into your office in New York ? They say “no its very complicated” . We need to stick together and maybe get a good lawyer for our problem.
I contacted several times their live support and they’re told me money are in safe but they cannot transfer to my prepaid and their aim is to send me money trought bank wire but they doesn’t know when , it can be in a week or in months ! I need my money.
I create a group on telegram if all we can join here maybe we can find a solution : @firstchoiceproblem
Good idea, please allow chatting there
Hi guys, any news ? My money is blocked to, what we can do?
Join Telegram group @firstchoiceproblem
Today I had a news from AD KEES from Choice Bank:
Dear ********,
We are currently preparing the wire transfers. In view of the large numbers we do need time for a thorough preparation. Also we have to restart transacting for all clients at the same time.
I apologize for this situation, please rest assured we are doing everything to get this solved.
Best regards,
Ad Kees
Vice-President Banking and Investment Services
I see , I guess they will do that but the problem of sending funds by wire transfer could be huge, how to explain in the bank in Europe that I expect to receive over 30K from bank in Belize?
It’s a big problem too, I hope they will use new cards but as they told me maybe they will do a bank wire. You can ask them to divide it but I think it’s hard as possibility.
Just mentioned wire transfer(could be whatever) but they mentioned that choice bank would collect data of my account through ‘card program manager’…and sent money to that account..what that could mean? not sending me privately but direct me to the company that paid me and sent money to choice bank…
same with my account on firstchoicepay but what will happen with our funds on their account if they will close down and how can we prove we have some money on firstchociepay to chociebank???
Hello here! I also have $15000 blocked and I got an email from choice bank that contains a form that has to be completed with informations necessary for a wire transfer! They ask for detailed of a bank(institution) and I don,t think that PayPal or Paxum will be a solution.
I also live in Europe and a wire transfer from Belize night get flagged.
hi, I wanted to know if there are any news on the funds to be released for fistchoicepay. Do you know who to turn to for information? Is there any group to register? Thank you
I get like 20000 $ stuck and not responce… for more than a month
when can get it back ?
Hi I cannot access any funds from choice bank what is happening I wasn’t informed by anyone