NETELLER
I’ve been experiencing the silliest things lately with the money transfer & online payment called NETELLER. After opening an account there, it is required to arrange a telephone call to verify that you are indeed a real person and not some smart poodle surfing the internet.
So I gave them my number in Belgium that automatically gets forwarded over the internet to Germany, because I was in Germany at that time. I made the foolish mistake of letting them in on this and all of a sudden, this number was no good anymore; I needed to be in my country of registration. After some discussion, people calling their bosses and listening to some relaxing music, they finally agreed on calling me on this Belgian number as well as on a fixed line of choice in Germany. Well, alright then! Within the hour some guy from a call center called me on both numbers. The absurdity level of this stranger twice asking me for my user ID and (something similar to) what my mother’s maiden name is, is hilariously high!
However, with a basic NETELLER account, it’s not possible to withdraw money, just to deposit and then send it to a merchant. In order to be able to withdraw money, I needed to upgrade (for free) to an Extended NETELLER account, which included sending them a scanned copy of my identity card and a utility bill clearly showing my address on it, accepting an agreement and letting them verify your bank account. Yep, they send you free money! Since most people seem to think they’re a respectable company, I did as required.
A few weeks later, after traveling to Belgium and back to Germany, my account suddenly got closed. I sent them an e-mail asking for more information and they told me that this happened due to traffic (logging in on the website) outside of my country. I would need to arrange (another) call, to unblock my account. I did this but, of course, being in a country other than the one I’m registered in, I would need to wait until I was back in Belgium to unblock my account. Furthermore, if I wouldn’t want my account blocked every time I travel the border, I would need to let them know a few days in advance every single time and probably let them give me a call while we’re at it. There’s no way around that. Since I move between Belgium and Germany faster than a pizza delivery service on the border, that’s completely unacceptable for me.
It seems there’s a lot of lonely people working at NETELLER who don’t like anything more than to hear your voice from time to time. In the end I just registered at Moneybookers, got the money transferred in no time and that was it.
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I have just had my Neteller account blocked, I’ve had it for 2 years. After numerous phone calls, 3 days later it turns out that they have closed their UK office (where I live), and in the process had lost the copies of my proof of identities. So through no fault of my own, and due to a mistake they made, they are demanding I supply proof of ID before they will allow me access to my money? Also the buggers never even offered an apology. I will have a look at Moneybookers.
That’s indeed really unprofessional of them and I wish you the best of luck with trying to convince them of your identity. I wouldn’t trust it to have a single cent on my NETELLER account anymore. I didn’t use Moneybookers so incredibly much either, but I read a lot of positive comments about them and when I used them, all went smooth and quickly. The also require some minimal bank and address verification, but that’s of course understandable. The good thing is that you can immediately deposit, transfer *and* withdraw money then without the need for sucking identity information like a sponge as with NETELLER. Therefore I call my Moneybookers experience very pleasant and satisfying.