Payoneer Debit Card & Virtual US Bank Account

For almost all those who are doing some kind of business online, especially who are not living in the United States, getting payments is often inconvenience. Seeing a strong demand for a new approach to handling business transactions over the net, Payoneer — an Israeli startup firm whose headquarters are in New York City — is driving the concept of prepaid debit cards to influence more Web payout services. The company provides a new type of payment channel for payees which solve problems in other payment methods, such as checks and wire transfers especially for international payroll.

How Did I Have Payoneer’s Debit Card?

If you are actually finding ways to monetize your websites or blogs, sooner or later you would likely end up with a vendor who provides you the payment method via Payoneer Debit MasterCard (PDMC). Over six months ago, I visited ReviewMe and was attracted by this revolutionary payout service, ordering the card and it came to my door two week later.

When I had the first payment one month after, I activated the card and felt very happy while checking the balance with money already in — no more checks which often take months to cash out. Thank God!

In fact, I can use PDMC like any other cards to pay for both online and offline services. I can fund the card from other credit/debit cards or via Western Union (which I prefer) and it is extremely handy to add the same card as payment method to other services like iStockPhotos, TextLinkAds who also support Payoneer’s way (there are over 200 of them AFAIK.)

How about Virtual US Bank Account?

Though PDMC provides excellent payment method it is not total solution for all services. You may still have to receive checks from Google (for income from adsense/checkout services), Commission Junctions or Amazon’s affiliate program etc. if you don’t have an US bank account. As a foreigner, you will hardly open a US bank account without presenting in person at the bank plus a lot of identification docs to show that is impractical for most of us. You may all know the best (and legal) way to withdraw money from your PayPal’s account is to an US bank. Now Payoneer’s virtual US bank account, which is in pilot test period, comes to heal such (big) pain. Here is more info from support forum:

…Since it is ‘Virtual’, it means that it is not a physical full service bank account. However to outside parties who wants to do a ACH (Automated Clearing House), ie Bank to Bank transfer, it would look like a real bank account. You know that Paypal does allow people from some 40 countries to withdraw funds to their US Bank account, this is where the Virtual US Bank account would be of great benefits. Also some affiliates program may pay by check and ACH and does not uses Payoneer as an option, if they can do ACH, you can provide them with your Virtual US Bank account and have them transfer your earnings to there. This would open up a whole new avenue of receiving money from US affiliate programs when you are not in the US.

Also this is a Receive Only account so you be very sure that no one would be able to steal your money if they know your Payoneer-assigned account number and such. All the money you receive through ACH would be transferred to your Payoneer account and you can withdraw or spend the money via the Payoneer Debit Mastercard.

So, the question is “Is it easy to have the account?” From my experience I can’t say it was difficult to ask for but surely Payoneer does not offer it to everyone at the moment. First, you’ll need to join the community forum (highly recommended for many helpful resources about Payoneer card and account there), find feedback e-mail address and send you request with clear reasons why you really need an US bank account. Depending on your payment record and other factors you can receive e-mail with other questions to clarify what you are actually doing on the net. If you can answer all questions honestly and persuasively you would much likely get the account activated which directly links to your PDMC.