What is going on with First Choice?

[Lili_xo]

TLDR;
I know its been said and some disagreed but I do have to concur with the suggestion of adult-oriented websites banding together and using some form of cryptocurrency as a cashout option. The main issue with this working being the fluctuating price of crytpo but if they could just overcome this it would solve the problem of banks holding adult businesses to ransom;

lol how about pastries? cookies! the models can get these instead of money

 

[Pandora1066]

lol how about pastries? cookies! the models can get these instead of moneyView attachment 75665

Cryptocurrency value is in the belief it has some. In that sense, its little different from the fiat currency you can exchange it for. It might not be the solution but neither is the merry-go-round of pre-paid cards beholden to the banks who pull their support for them at a moments notice, not for the first time and not for the last, unfortunately.

 

[AmberCutie]

Funds on the prepaid card should still be accessible for an undefined period of time.

From what it looks like per a certain very high paid model of MFC, there is a $10,000 limit on the cards, so if there's anything owed above that amount, I'm guessing it's going to be returned to sender (i.e. MFC)... probably?

 

[AudriTwo]

Cryptocurrency value is in the belief it has some. In that sense, its little different from the fiat currency you can exchange it for. It might not be the solution but neither is the merry-go-round of pre-paid cards beholden to the banks who pull their support for them at a moments notice, not for the first time and not for the last, unfortunately.

It's just bank. Paxum and First Choice used the same bank for prepaid cards.

 

[robbiej]

not sure why anyone is talking about crypto it’s volatile and lots of countries have been regulating and banning exchanges. u cannot exchange in venezuela / colombia for example .. there are no crypto debit card compatible atms in most countries. models have been relying on cards like payoneer then fcp for along time.. years.. it may be easy if you live in the united states and can get an account in gdax - some models can barely plug in a webcam let alone have a credit history in order to get on an exchange and go through a multi level process— then regardless they would have to transfer their to the exchange then exchange to fiat/debit .. this FCP issue effects anyone who doesn’t have a US bank account they can fall back on and that is A LOT of people (at least for cb anyway)

 

[InkInSkin]

So if I'm getting this Paxum thing right, If I can't use their Mastercard anymore that was funded by Choice Bank, I can just add (after verification) a prepaid VISA/Mastercard of my own (I'm talking about a card that was issued by my own bank, in my home country) and I'm good to go?
Or, as a resident of a SEPA country I can withdraw funds to the very same account for US$5?
Doesn't sound that bad...
Here's another one: I use multiple FCP accounts (my gf's and mine), and sometimes I move funds between them.
My last transaction seems to be stuck in limbo (US$290) on this 2nd FCP account. These funds were paid to me by a camsite, loaded onto my FCP card, then sent over to her account and got stuck. What's gonna happen to this money?

 

[JuicyJade]

yeah..paxum ok.. but... does not paxum has problems as firstchoice?! also paxum has problem...no!?

From all Info I gathered Paxum is former epass if any of you recall 2012. I am given the option to select Paxum as my paying method. I don’t fully trust they will suddenly ‘vanish ‘ after next pay check . I m not fully trusting they will come out unaffected. I hope they will as I have an account with them so it will be an easy transition but I m not too sure they won’t go away with that much money they ll have flowing after fcp got sacked. I mean they do have an excuse to disappear just as well, blaming it on same issues fcp has. Pretty weary about it. I d Like to hear more opinions and have more info. Are you guys trusting Paxum with next paychecks??? All the best

 

[JuicyJade]

It's just bank. Paxum and First Choice used the same bank for prepaid cards.

How come just one is getting sacked??I am just asking for more insight!!)) And if I learned correctly it’s not a bank it’s the MasterCard which is being dropped from regular banks as well and replaced by visa. I am speculating, but I believe it has to do with the money not being traceable to the extent where they can have punitive measures applied. They want everything on same scale.

 

[JuicyJade]

But... with Chaturbate, if we are not from USA, we cant do direct deposit!!
firstchoice doesnt work anymore...

Just Check by mail remaines. But... need 6 week!!! LOOOL... every not-us models?? How can we do?? When CB will help us?

The site won’t help as they don’t want to take responsibility..something else will replace Fcp and pax. You just have to be able / afford to wait . It happened before, just patience ( I don’t have it !!)

 

[Adrianna__]

Hi everyone,
First of all, sorry for what is happening, but let's stay reasonable and wait till solutions appear (they will, tons of people are working on it). Some of us have seen this already with epassport, we survived then, will survive now as well.
I am based in the EU, just got an email from MFC telling me about FCP no longer available and the possibility to switch to epayments or eservices. I am holding back for epayments, as I just read they have issues with USD$ as currency.
Has anyone used eservices and what are your impressions?
On another note, people please always keep in mind all these are virtual "banks", based in offshore zones, going around taxes and of course probably related to money laundering. No regulations apply to these "banks" and they can get shut down at any time (again, epassport surviver here). I personally love them, but get all my money out of there as soon as I receive them. Was really surprised to find out even very high end models got tons of money stuck there. If you are looking to avoid taxes or hide your income, just open a bank account straight in a bank in an offshore zone and transfer all money there.

 

[ScarlettPixl]

ATTENTION STREAMATE MODELS!

The owner of Streamate himself entered the Discord's SW chat group to discuss this issue with us personally. I personally confirmed his identity being a moderator of the chat room.

He said he'd come back tomorrow, Thursday, 12pm Pacific, to discuss this situation specifically.

If you'd like to join the conversation please click the link below.

https://discord.gg/jCWktb

 

[StevenSP]

how about they (mfc/ cb/ streamate/ streamray AW and others ) start pay us with BITCOIN ! and we will go from a BTC atm and withdraw our money. very simple

Hello you all! BTC is indeed a very good alternative option, especially for US models, as unfortunately in US there are not so much options, in general, on the list. But of course it can be used anywhere in the word, so girls you have very access to it.
We at SpyPrivate already implemented this option for about 1-2 years, and it works smoothly.

Also, @everyone in this forum, if you work with SkyPrivate and need any details for the ongoing payments you have with us, get in touch with me. I’m Steven and happy to help.Thanks, hopefully we all have a good day.

 

[whathappen]

Hi, everyone
This is really a frustrated situation for us( me and all my friends ) as we only been using Firstchoicepay and since they stop working as are Asian people . And the thing is where we are living right now can't do wire transfer to our Bank or direct deposit at all and bitcoin also not an option in our country too.
Really don't know what to do..

 

[ScarlettPixl]

@StevenSP hey there!

Transferwise is an option we're all looking into, so is Paxum.

We really don't know what to do about this, though.

This also seems like a possible option

https://www.bitwage.com/

 

[_AnonymousModel]

Hello,
I see that everybody is having problems and are really concerned. For the moment I've decided to remain anonymous because of security reasons. I have a really big issue with FirstChoicePay and I would like to be advised.
At the time the bad news got to me I had $100k on my FCP account (all my earnings for the last year and a half). I got scared and went directly to the ATM to withdraw. I managed to take $5k (the daily limit) from the card but this amount was charged almost twice (a "Load to card" red transaction appeared also). So I contacted FCP Support and they said it's just a temporary issue and it will be solved. I did my research and I found out that this happened because of Choice Bank is not releasing funds to prepaid cards anymore. I'm very worried that I will lose everything and more than that I'm currently building a house... Should I consider looking for a US based lawyer ? I'm really desperate.

@Dan Epstein Can you please take a look on my post ? I could really use your advice since you are the only one who worked at FCP...

 

[JimsX]

Hi, sorry this is my first post here (registered solely for this), and I haven't read through all of this thread, so forgive me if I am repeating information.

Firstly, I struggle to have sympathy with Dan Epstein, his company broke the law. While he may only be an employee and an all round good guy, mismanagement at payoneer/first choice has led to this situation. Being based in Belize, if they decide to declare bankruptcy, it will be very hard to trace where the money has gone, meaning a lot of models (and I saw one state that she has $30k on her first choice card) stand to lose a lot of money.

My second point is that there is a service called ePayments, that at the time of writing this, I believe works fine for mfc (possibly not CB yet). It's UK based, and is in effect an international bank account with a credit card attached (i.e. you receive funds into the account and move them to the card to spend them), I know of a couple of models who have this, and have recieved funds from mfc on it, but given the current upheaval, there may be some uncertainty until the next pay period closes.

I do wish you all the best in this, and I hope a speedy resolution is found by first choice, and I do hope you all manage to find decent alternatives (just avoid anything based in tax havens!)

How did his company break the law?

 

[asian_massive_squirt]

Hi, everyone
This is really a frustrated situation for us( me and all my friends ) as we only been using Firstchoicepay and since they stop working as are Asian people . And the thing is where we are living right now can't do wire transfer to our Bank or direct deposit at all and bitcoin also not an option in our country too.
Really don't know what to do..

Are you certain that Wire Transfer doesn't work in your country? I am in Asia too and is tempted by using Wire Transfer from cb..

 

[JickyJuly]

How did his company break the law?

I'm guessing people are assuming that FCP is held to the same standards American credit cards are. I know Payoneer was not. So, it's doubtful that FirstChoicePay is either. These count as pre-paid cards and aren't subject to the same regulations. Dude's just doing cartwheels to blame someone. Dan's no more at fault for this than we are should ol' Leo at MFC spend money on something illegal.

 

[Garfieldstwin]

I apologise profusely for the anger caused by my earlier comment, I wrote it last night whilst quite upset having spent most of the previous 24 hours talking to model friends about how they're going to cope with no access to their money and uncertainty over how and when they are likely to be paid again. My comments weren't directed at Dan Epstein, but at first choice/payoneer, but I accept that my choice of words, and approach was entirely unwarranted. I do hope that like the models affected, the employees of first choice are able to resolve their issues and move on from first choice.

My main point was supposed to be about the ePayments method, but that probably got overshadowed, so I will go back to lurking in the anonimity of guest lurking.

 

[whathappen]

Are you certain that Wire Transfer doesn't work in your country? I am in Asia too and is tempted by using Wire Transfer from cb..

In my country can't .

 

[LoonaVision]

Somehow I have $-0,90 on my card after purchasing stuff online. And still have money on my account

 

[stefpretty_101]

In my country can't .

what country?

 

[stefpretty_101]

what country of asia is that?

 

[stefpretty_101]

The site won’t help as they don’t want to take responsibility..something else will replace Fcp and pax. You just have to be able / afford to wait . It happened before, just patience ( I don’t have it !!)

we have to wait but we have only 4 days until payouts....

 

[StevenSP]

@StevenSP hey there!

Transferwise is an option we're all looking into, so is Paxum.

We really don't know what to do about this, though.

This also seems like a possible option

https://www.bitwage.com/

Yes, indeed Transferwise and Paxum are also alternative options. The thing with Paxum is actually about the cards as some of them were issued by FCP, so they can’t be used anymore. This is why they are trying now to issue some new cards with another supplier. However, for the moment, existing funds in the e-wallet can be withdrew via, mainly, bank transfers. As per https://www.bitwage.com/, true, this might be an option in the future.

Although this situation with FCP troubled us all, the positive conclusion is that there are some alternatives, we just need to see what is best for each case.

 

[dark_mermaid]

From all Info I gathered Paxum is former epass if any of you recall 2012. I am given the option to select Paxum as my paying method. I don’t fully trust they will suddenly ‘vanish ‘ after next pay check . I m not fully trusting they will come out unaffected. I hope they will as I have an account with them so it will be an easy transition but I m not too sure they won’t go away with that much money they ll have flowing after fcp got sacked. I mean they do have an excuse to disappear just as well, blaming it on same issues fcp has. Pretty weary about it. I d Like to hear more opinions and have more info. Are you guys trusting Paxum with next paychecks??? All the best

I haven't really made that decision. For now I'm just opening the Paxum account. Not sure yet if I'll take the wire transfer or Paxum. If wire transfers would not be so expensive I'd take that of course and bypass any financial services where I really don't know how trustworthy they are.

 

[dark_mermaid]

I don't know in what directions the bigger camsites are thinking but if cb and mfc and some others had a bank account in Europe, they could just use sepa transfers to pay girls in Europe directly without an international wire transfer. No idea about Asia and the Americas to be honest.

 

[stefpretty_101]

this is the reason

 

[stefpretty_101]

I'm speculating here:

Money flow FCP: camsite==>Choice Bank
Money flow Paxum: camsite==> Bank XY (Paxum Bank?)

Choice Bank had a licence to issue Mastercards, so it was used by FCP and Paxum. Meaning when you use the card for FCP the money flow would then be from Choice Bank to merchant or cash machine bank (organized by Mastercard) and for Paxum Mastercards it was from Bank XY to the merchants or banks.

Choice Bank has a liquidity problem, therefore FCP is shutting down and Paxum is switching to another bank that can issue Mastercards. No idea how reliable that bank will be and no idea how involved and how trustworthy Paxum bank is. They have a banking license from the country "Dominica" and are regulated there. This small island in the caribbean sea has 70,000 inhabitants and is known for agriculture...and financial services. Judge for yourself how trustworthy you deem it is.

Apart from that like others i'd like to hear some stories of satisfied customers of the services of Paxum.

 

[zumba2]

Christian, can you guys PM me here, so I can locate the actual service?

Hey Dan, how can I contact you? I have more than $40k held on virtual account that are not loading to card. Thank you