The doom surrounding Payoneer started over the weekend when the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ordered Wirecard Mastercard Cards Solutions Limited, to stop all its regulation financial activities, in addition to some other restrictions. As for today, FCA has lifted the freeze of activity on Wirecard Card Solutions in the UK. Payoneer is currently in contact with both Wirecard and MasterCard and will update its customers as soon as their cards are ready to be used.
According to Payoneer, there are some technical restrictions that Mastercard needs to lift from their end, which will take a bit of time. We expect this to be very soon – within the next 24 hours at the latest.
Once the card restriction is removed, you will able to do the following;
- To withdraw the funds on card from an ATM or spend them online and in-store. While users may wish to quickly withdraw their funds, the FCA has assured Payoneer that no further problems are expected.
- From 01:01 EAT on Monday, July 6th, users will once again be able to withdraw their funds to their local bank accounts and use the Make a Payment and Manage Currencies services. Until then, Payoneer has waived all ATM withdrawal fees. However, some users have complained that they are still not able to withdraw funds especially those who use two-factor authentication as no verification code is sent to their mobile phones.
Payoneer to get a new card issuer
There has been a further assurance to the Payoneer clientele that all future payments will continue to be received to their currency balance, but not their card. Even though the FCA announced that the cards are safe to use, Payoneer will offer a new card issuer soon to ensure the long-term safety of its client’s earnings.
For those who want to get new cards, the company says they will contact you as soon as they have a new card solution available. They said in a statement;
“We apologize for any hardships caused by these events. We appreciate your continued partnership and remain committed to strengthening our offering with additional secure ways to access your funds.”
How the company handled the issue
When all accounts were frozen, Payoneer, worked around the clock to pressure the FCA to lift the freeze as soon as possible. In parallel, they ensured that all their customers could continue to receive new payments to a Payoneer virtual balance and withdraw those funds to their local bank account. In addition, the CEO Scott Galit said in the above YouTube video that even if the FCA audit found a shortfall, their intent was for Payoneer to fill the gap so that customers got 100% of their money back.
Payoneer a popular payment platform mainly used by freelancers in Africa earning from online freelance work has frozen its prepaid Mastercard® Cards. Platforms that pay into Payoneer cards include Freelancer, Fiverr, gettyimages, upwork, 99designs, peopleperhour, topcoder, envato, crossover, Tunga, Pond5, among others.
Update: In a statement by Payoneer. Customers have access to funds on their cards.
We’re happy to inform you that the FCA has completed its audit and lifted the freeze on your Payoneer Prepaid Mastercard® card. We know that this period has been difficult for you. We appreciate your patience and support while we worked to get the situation resolved swiftly.
 ordered Wirecard Mastercard){kind=link}