Fiverr Revenue Card via Payoneer Review: Yep, It’s a Scam!

I provide services on Fiverr from time to time, and I just had to relay this to everyone selling services on Fiverr or thinking about doing so, in the hopes that you can avoid the major headache I have suffered today.

My recommendation, withdraw your funds to PayPal, and hopefully, have a PayPal debit card, meaning the transfer is instant, no fees required, and you can spend it instantly from your PayPal debit card.

So, I decided to give the Fiverr revenue card a try, because I read that it actually acts as a bank account, and direct deposit can be setup with it as well, so I figured hey, what the heck, I’ll sign up for it and load the card and see how it goes. Worst idea, ever!

Here is my experience. I signed up for the card, waited for it to come in the mail, activated it, submitted the documentation to qualify for receiving US payments via bank transfers / direct deposit, and then made a withdrawal from Fiverr to the card.

First, I had to wait 2 days for the load to complete, and had to pay a $1 fee (per load fee) to load the card, of course, I could have made the load instantly, for a $5 fee, instead of a $1 fee, per load. Also, a $5 one time activation fee was charged. So, already out of the gates, I’ve paid $6 in fees. The load was for $192, so I was left with $186 once the funds were loaded, before I spent dollar one.

Now that I have my bucks loaded onto the card, I decided to get the money off the card. Here’s where the real fun begins.

The stated ATM fee is $3.15 per transaction, as stated here: Fiverr Revenue Card by Payoneer Pricing & Fees

It is also stated that purchase transactions are free, well I would hope so, lucky me! /facepalm

In light of this, I decided I would go stop by WalMart and do two cash back transactions instead of a single ATM transaction. A single ATM transaction would incur a $3.15 fee, plus the actual ATM’s fee, usually $2 – $3 in my area, for a total of $5 – $6 bucks to withdraw the $180 bucks I was hoping to cash out. I’m not down with paying $5 – $6 bucks for a single ATM withdrawal, so of course, cash back is the way to go.

Also, I’ve never heard of any fees being assessed on cash back transactions for a debit card. Furthermore, Payoneer even states in their FAQ that cash back transactions are the way to go, to “get the most value from my funds.” You can see this response under the item titled “How to get the most value from my funds” in their FAQ.

The max cash back amount per transaction at WalMart is $100, so I picked up a few items for the household, and proceeded to self checkout. I rang up one item, totaling with tax, $1.71, and opted for $100 cash back. The transaction was approved, and I received my $100 in cash back. I then rang up my remaining items, totaling $4.15, and opted for $80 cash back. My transaction was declined. Now I’m getting angry, because I know it’s going to be downhill from here. I said to myself, maybe if I lower the total by a bit, it’ll approve the transaction, so I drop $1.50 cash into the machine, lowering the total due to $2.65, and opt for $80 cash back again. Again, I am declined. Now I’m really angry, so I decide to install the Payoneer app on my smartphone to check my balance, right on the spot (it was late, no one was in line behind me). I install the app, and what do ya know, it’s not showing any transactions – at all – not even the load, or load fee, or activation fee, and it says that transactions are updated every 6 hours. Yep, you read that right. Transaction history is updated every 6 hours. What world do these people live in, and what year is it there? 1991?

So, I opt for $60 cash back, for a total of $62.65, and the transaction is approved. I take my $60 cash back, and head home to see if I can check my balance there, since their worthless app isn’t giving me any information at all, it’s showing my account with a balance of $0!

I get home, login, and have to manually click a button to refresh my balance. Again, it states that transactions are updated every 6 hours, so I cannot see my transactions, but I can see my balance, which is $13.69. Mind you, I started out with $192, paid $1 loading fee, $5 activation fee, bringing the balance to $186, and then I made 2 purchases of $101.71 and $62.65, for a total of $164.36, meaning my account balance should be $21.64. Instead, it’s $13.69, $7.95 in fees had been charged to my account for 2 point of sale debit transactions.

Now, I’m really livid, but it’s the middle of the night, and their contact information on their Contact Us page states that their phone lines are only open 9 – 6 EST, M – F. I’m on the east coast, so I decide to try live chat, because it says live chat is online.

When the third response I received started with “O we” instead of “Oh we” I knew I was in for plenty of Shenanigans from their support representative.

Their rep explained to me that cash back was the same as an ATM withdrawal, and that I had been charged the ATM withdrawal fee most likely, but that he couldn’t be sure, since the transaction was less than 6 hours old, and it didn’t show up in his system yet (yes, you read that right). I explained to this young whipper-snapper that cash back and ATM withdrawals are two different things, and that I have never in my life paid a fee for a cash back transaction. He tells me that the merchant may have charged a cash back fee as well. Again, I have never paid a cash back fee at WalMart, never ever, however, this was his attempt to explain the fact that even if I had been charged the ATM withdrawal fee of $3.15 per transaction, totaling $6.30, that still left another $1.65 unaccounted for.

He told me I would be better off calling customer support in the morning, and knowing that even though his level of professionalism is a joke, I know he is not the person making the rules, so I tell him thanks for his answers and have a good evening, I’ll call in the morning.

The morning comes, and it’s not quite 9 yet, but I’m able to login to my account and see the transactions now, since it’s been over 6 hours since the transactions were made, so they actually show up in my account now! WOW!

I see two transactions, one for $105.88, and one for $66.43. That means a fee of $4.17 on the larger transaction, and a fee of $3.78 on the second smaller transaction. Now my level of livid is rolling strong, again. I start up a live chat session since I’m under the impression customer support doesn’t open for another 30 minutes. Guess what? I get the same representative, hi Ari! What are the chances? No, really, what are the chances? I’m guessing pretty good.

I explain the updated situation to him, and then link him to the FAQ where it clearly states that cash back transactions are free.

He then proceeds to ask me if I would prefer for him to call me. Mind you, it’s not 9 yet, so their customer support lines shouldn’t be open. If that was the case, he could have called me the night before! Just being glad that he’s trying to be proactive, I say sure, go ahead and give me a call. He closes the chat session on his end, so I wait for my phone to ring for about 5 minutes. The phone finally rings, and I answer the call, I say hello, and he says hello 3 times, to which I reply hello, and then he hangs up. His call came from 646-658-3695. I wait a few minutes, and he doesn’t try to call me back. So, I decide hey, why don’t I give you a call Ari? I dial the number, and low and behold, it’s a call center that’s supposed to be closed. I get a representative, thankfully not Ari.

She explains to me that the bank Fiverr uses is based in Belize, which is stated in the Terms and Conditions of the card under point 7, and that any transaction made outside of Belize is considered a foreign (international) transaction, and that a percentage based fee applies to any foreign transaction, and not only that, since I was making a cash back transaction, I was charged the ATM withdrawal fee, because it was a cash advance. I inform her that cash advances are when you request a cash withdrawal of cash that you do not already possess, but are asking for that cash on credit, and that cash back is asking for cash you already possess, and that I have never paid a fee for cash back, in my natural life.

I ask her if there is anything she can do, she puts me on hold for a few minutes, comes back, and tells me there is nothing they can do because the fees are charged by the bank and not by Payoneer. So, I ask her for the contact information for the bank in Belize, that I would like their phone number, name, and website.

To that, she asks if I would like to speak to a manager, which is what I requested initially at the beginning of the conversation with her, before I explained anything. I take her up on her offer thankfully, and then wait for the manager to come on. I guess I caught them in a lie, but I’ll come back to that in a moment.

She was very pleasant with me, I had no problem with her, except for her misunderstanding a cash back transaction as a cash advance, but I was not rude, because again, I know she is just doing her job and does not make the rules.

This manager is a total toolbox from the word go. He seems pretty annoyed to even have to speak with me, so now that I’m speaking with someone who actually has the authority to do some more-than-warranted refunding, I explain that I know he doesn’t make the rules, but had no problem sharing my level of aggravation, especially given his snotty attitude.

He gives me the same line, telling me that cash back is the exact same as cash advance, and thus, I was charged the ATM withdrawal fee, plus the international transaction fee, which can be up to 3%, however, in the case of the bank in Belize which Fiverr uses, the international fee is 1%. I then ask him for the contact information for this bank. To this he says that the bank isn’t charging the fee, Payoneer is, well big surprise, tell me something I don’t know, but I’m glad I cornered him into admitting that, especially after the fact that he just told his rep 2 minutes previous to tell me that the bank was charging the fee, and not Payoneer.

I explain again that cash back is not a cash advance, to which he starts arguing with me. After shouting at each other for about 5 minutes, I’m able to silence him long enough to tell him that the FAQ on their website (linked to earlier on in this article) states plain and clearly that cash back transactions are free. Now all of a sudden, his snotty attitude has changed to “oh crap.” He asks me for the URL where this is stated, which I quickly read off to him. He pulls it up, and agrees with me that it is stated plain as day that cash back transactions are not cash advances or cash withdrawals and that there is no fee associated with them (except for foreign transaction fees).

He asks me to hold while he transfers the call over to his desk, I gladly hold. When he picks up, he informs me that his desk isn’t equipped with a phone system that can put someone on hold, so I’ll just have to sit on the line with him without the elevator music while he looks into the issue, which is fine with me, but come now, really, your managerial workstation doesn’t have the ability to put someone on hold? Like I said earlier, what world do these people live in, and what year is it there?

Next, his phone drops the call. He calls back, his phone drops the call. He calls back, his phone drops the call. He calls back, his phone drops the call, again. Then he calls back, and hangs up before I’m even able to answer. I wait a few minutes, and he doesn’t call back, so I decide to call the call center again. After I’ve waited about 10 minutes in the call queue to reach the first spot in line, he calls back.

He tells me that he is going to refund me $6.30, this time, but next time I will need to be aware of the fees. That’s right folks, I’ll need to be aware of the fees, even though it states on their website FAQ that cash back transactions are free. He explains to me that WalMart processed the transactions as 2 cash withdrawals, in the amounts of $101.71 and $62.65.

So after it’s all said and done, my account balance is $19.99. I think it’s pretty sufficient to say FML at this point.

Under point 22 of their Terms and Conditions (linked to above) they state complaint resolution information, the highlights of which are:

“If you have a complaint about Payoneer services you should raise it in the first instance with our Customer Service Manager at 1-800-251-2521 or at CustomerServiceManager@Payoneer.com.

If you are not satisfied with the response given, you may complain to the Payoneer VP of Operations at VPOperations@Payoneer.com.

Residents of the State of Texas may direct their complaints to Texas Department of Banking, 2601 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, Texas 78705, 1-877-276-5554 (toll free), www.banking.state.tx.us.”

Since I had already spoken with their customer service manager, I decided to email a link to this article to their VP of operations, and I received the following automated response:

“Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting us! We take your inquiry seriously.

This is an automated reply. Our Customer Support staff will contact you within 2 business days.

Kindly note that more information regarding your account and possibly your inquire can be found in our FAQ page and in our How To Videos.

To help track your inquiry we have generated a unique ticket number. Please use this ticket number in any further communication.

Sincerely,

Payoneer Customer Support”

I must say I’m impressed, I get to wait 2 more business days before the VP of operations can be bothered with the issue, and as you’ll notice, their automated response contains a grammatical error (…and possibly your inquire can be found….). While I’m impressed, I’m certainly not surprised.

If you have had similar experiences with Payoneer, I strongly urge you to pass on your complaints as well.

On another note, the whole point I got this card in the first place was because of the bank account features, allowing for bank transfers and direct deposits to be routed to the card. Well let me say my piece on that notion.

Even though the bank which is used to facilitate these transfers is Bank of America, (e.g. your routing and account number for the transfers is a Bank of America account), the money will ultimately be transferred to your Payoneer card, which is not drawn from that account! It’s simply used for transfer purposes. Which ultimately means, once you receive your direct deposit or bank transfer, you’ll then be blessed with foreign transaction fees on EVERY transaction you make outside of Belize!

Regardless of the fact that my address is in the US, the address on the envelope I received my card in is a US address, the bank used to transfer money into the account is in the US, the bank that actually holds the funds is in Belize, and us lucky cardholders get to pay foreign transaction fees on transactions anywhere outside of Belize.

Thanks Payoneer and Fiverr, but I think I’ll pass.

In closing, I’m happy to say that I still have never paid a fee for cash back, ever in life, as the fees that Payoneer attempted to charge me for cash back transactions were refunded (the 1% foreign transaction fee was indisputable, even though it’s totally ridiculous), and I will never again use this Fiverr revenue card for cash back or an ATM withdrawal. I’ll simply spend the remaining $19.99 (minus the 1% foreign transaction fee) and then happily cut that card into 200 hundred pieces, burn it in the fireplace, and call up Payoneer and close my account.