Finally, a BANK is accepting Bitcoins now!

[finway]

CALLed  OKPAY, with 300,000 users.

300,000 users, it's 5 times the current bitcoin users.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=51403.0;topicseen

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[BadBear]

That isn't a bank you dork.   

A quick google turned up this regarding okpay, so buyer beware. 

Whois Private - Hidden ownership. Registered through godaddy.

"For safety reasons and because of Moneybookers chargebacks your payments are put on hold while being checked. The process may take up two months depending on the period you are using OKPAY. Approximate time of us getting chargebacks is a month. "

[worldinacoin]

I doubt that it is a bank, can anyone point to where it is registered as a bank?

[dancupid]

They do have a link 'online banking' so it does seem they consider themselves a bank. And they have all the normal functionality of a bank.

https://www.okpay.com/en/services/online-banking/index.html

[DeathAndTaxes]

They aren't a bank.  They aren't registered as a bank in any country.  They have BANK ACCOUNTS in offshore banks but that makes them about as much a bank as MtGox (who also has bank accounts).

[Raoul Duke]

They are more like paypal than like a bank, but at least it's good to see they are willing to recognize bitcoin.

It could be a good way to cash out of bitcoin. You ask for one of those debit cards they have, you top up your account with bitcoin, you withdraw it at an ATM anywhere in the world. Sure beats the crap out of MtGox

[HostFat]

Hmm, they are giving away a debit card, does it work also on ATM?

[Raoul Duke]

Hmm, they are giving away a debit card, does it work also on ATM?

They aren't "giving" it(costs $15 to emit), but yeah, it's supposed to work on any ATM worldwide, I have one from payoneer and it works everywhere, ATM and POS. The payoneer one is a mastercard, just like the one from OKPAY, so I suppose it works the same, and their fees are on the same level as Payoneer.

[worldinacoin]

Is it legit to add bitcoin to the credit cards without fears that your credit card will be cancelled?

[HostFat]

They are "debit cards".

[DeathAndTaxes]

Is it legit to add bitcoin to the credit cards without fears that your credit card will be cancelled?

You aren't added it to "a credit card you own" you are adding it to the debit card they issue to you.

So they give (sell) you a card with $0.00.  It is issued by them.  You deposit $100 worth of BTC and your debit cards is now worth $100.

It only works with their debit card.

[worldinacoin]

Well that certainly sounds veyr convenient, $15 is cheap for all the conveniences it offers.

[Serge]

People who treat online wallet services as banks only risk with their own saving funds.

Google Epassporte for reference.

Good luck!

[Raoul Duke]

People who treat online wallet services as banks only risk with their own saving funds.

Google Epassporte for reference.

Good luck!

I use Paypal and Payoneer for years now and never had any trouble. Just keep away of the ones that deal with porn and you should be good. Maybe it should be a good idea to keep away of the ones that deal with forex and hyips' also and OKPAY deal with forex and HYIPs'

[Matthew N. Wright]

Finally, a BANK  is accepting Bitcoins now!

Not a bank.

[Serge]

People who treat online wallet services as banks only risk with their own saving funds.

Google Epassporte for reference.

Good luck!

I use Paypal and Payoneer for years now and never had any trouble. Just keep away of the ones that deal with porn and you should be good. Maybe it should be a good idea to keep away of the ones that deal with forex and hyips' also and OKPAY deal with forex and HYIPs'

Paypal is "too big to fail"  
Other online wallet services could close shop at any time for any reason or none whatsoever - doing gambling where not allowed, locked by feds investigation, owners needing to fund his new movie or mortgage, etc etc.

All I'm saying, as money couriers, online wallets are fine, less risky than using them as storage/bank.

[elggawf]

Not a bank.

Shit, I think that's an understatement. No EV cert, creepy domain registration, offshore business registration with mailing and registered business addresses that are used by fucktons of other iffy-looking companies... what kind of moron gives these people money?

To me, the fact they're accepting a mostly-untraceable, irreversible currency is not immediately a good thing.

[MemoryDealers]

Alexa Global traffic rank:

Paypal.com  34
bankofamerica.com 131
Chase.com 172
MoneyBookers.com 1,252
Westernunion.com 4,238
Visa.com 10,910
Xoom.com  15,523
OKPAY.COM  15,806
MoneyGram.com  15,968
Dwolla.com 99,429

It seems that OKPAY is worth paying attention to.

[cbeast]

Alexa Global traffic rank:

Paypal.com  34
bankofamerica.com 131
Chase.com 172
MoneyBookers.com 1,252
Westernunion.com 4,238
Visa.com 10,910
Xoom.com  15,523
OKPAY.COM  15,806
MoneyGram.com  15,968
Dwolla.com 99,429

It seems that OKPAY is worth paying attention to.

Nice work. I've used most of those. Now all I need is a bank that will take direct deposit of my payroll check and will send me Bitcoin.

[BadBear]

domain: okpay.com
owner: - -
organization: OKPAY Inc.
email: kosmorus@gmail.com
address: Mill Mall Tower, 2nd Floor, Wickhams Cay
city: Road
postal-code: VG1110
country: VG
phone: +49.11111111


Searching the address comes up with nothing but scams and scam warnings, with no way to contact/find the owner.  I'll pass, thanks.  

[cbeast]

created:      2003-07-19 18:39:41 UTC
modified:     2011-11-01 04:31:27 UTC
expires:      2020-07-19 18:39:41 UTC

It looks like they bought the domain from someone but did not update the records.

Searching the address comes up with nothing but scams and scam warnings, with no way to contact/find the owner.  I'll pass, thanks.  

Can you provide a link to scam warnings? I didn't find them.

[BadBear]

http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=257596

http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=119396&page=2

http://forum.aa419.org/viewtopic.php?t=41935&sid=11d036607e9b3bd8f3a4e6a990d62084

From the first page, it's registered in an offshore tax haven, which tend to be full of scams.  Doesn't mean all of them are but it isn't encouraging, along with the attempts anonymity, it's enough to turn me off.  I'll keep my money where I can get to it.  

And their fees are worse than the bank.  

[repentance]

Their fees are horrendous.  I wish I'd taken a screenshot of the page I linked to in this post because the information about their debit card fees has been removed from the page since I posted it.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=51403.msg614584#msg614584

They appear to be predators who offer their debit cards to customers who for some reason can't get conventional a debit Mastercard from their bank and who gouge those customers with fees. 

[HostFat]

I hope that they are just updating them with lower fees ...

[cablepair]

I signed up with an account with them yesterday to check them out. The "accepting" Bitcoins thing is pretty useless. Although yes you can send Bitcoins to your OKPAY account, but thats about all you can do with it. You cannot exchange Bitcoins for any other currency on their site, you can't fund a Debit Card with them or buy USD or EUR with them, basically the full extent is I suppose you could use them for some type of online wallet but thats it. In that respect I "accept" Bitcoins too but I don't see anyone getting excited about that.

[BTCurious]

They did say on their facebook that they will implement a system where merchants can get payment in bitcoin. They expect to unroll it next week.

But even if you can't do jack shit with them, then still bitcoin is suddenly seen by a lot of people: great advertisement.

[Serge]

Their fees are horrendous.  I wish I'd taken a screenshot of the page I linked to in this post because the information about their debit card fees has been removed from the page since I posted it.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=51403.msg614584#msg614584

They appear to be predators who offer their debit cards to customers who for some reason can't get conventional a debit Mastercard from their bank and who gouge those customers with fees. 

Arguably, without these 'predators' there would be no other means in many cases for these people to send or receive payments. It's a service at premium rate where conventional methods nonexistent.

[dancupid]

I signed up with an account with them yesterday to check them out. The "accepting" Bitcoins thing is pretty useless. Although yes you can send Bitcoins to your OKPAY account, but thats about all you can do with it. You cannot exchange Bitcoins for any other currency on their site, you can't fund a Debit Card with them or buy USD or EUR with them, basically the full extent is I suppose you could use them for some type of online wallet but thats it. In that respect I "accept" Bitcoins too but I don't see anyone getting excited about that.

Someone in another thread managed to exchange for dollars
They received an exchange rate of $1.65 for 1 bitcoin.


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=51403.0

I opened an account and sent 1 bitcoin.  They advertise 0% commission, but based on the MtGox pricing of 2.95, they are taking about 30 cents.



also, it looks like once you have a balance > $15 you can order the debit Mastercard through the mail.  You can reload the balance anytime and shop with it anywhere Mastercard is accepted.

So yes, I suppose now you can spend your bitcoins anywhere Mastercard is accepted.  But it's much more expensive for you, and the normal debit fees apply for the merchants.  But, if you have alot of bitcoins and you want to cash them out quickly, sure put them onto a debit Mastercard and go shopping!

Interestingly anyone with $1000 can set themselves up on their site as a currency exchange.
https://www.okpay.com/en/support/faq.html
It may be a way for anyone to easily buy and sell bitcoins.