13/04/08. Interview with AlterGold payment processor

With the recent problems e-gold was having and LibertyReserve having become so famous and popular in a matter of months rising straight to the top we can see that payment processors are evolving quickly. And what was extremely popular yesterday can be in decline today and quit the scene tomorrow. There were many payment processors for the last year that tried to overcome LibertyReserve in terms of popularity but neither AlertPay nor SolidTrustPay could overtake them as the main player. Complexity, difficulties with withdrawing the funds, long verification process, allowed chargebacks and impossibility to use AP and STP in some countries didn’t allow AP and STP to become a real alternative to e-gold. It’s no wonder that there are new payment processors appearing that want to have a piece of the pie and successfully compete with LibertyReserve in terms of simplicity, security and popularity among investors. One of the payment processors that can fill this niche successfully is AlterGold.

AlterGold can become if not the most popular then one of the most widespread e-currencies very soon. Of course it can be achievable provided the site will serve its clientele better, constantly improving its services and adding more new features to make AlterGold more user-friendly. I watched the evolution of AlterGold and must say that for 3 months everything they have achieved is really impressive and if they continue like this we will be witness to the birth of a new big payment processor.

I couldn’t miss the opportunity to interview one of AlterGold‘s representatives and ask him some important questions about AlterGold payment processor. I hope this interview will help you make your own knowledgeable decision if you’re thinking of opening an AlterGold account and help you find the answers to your questions.

“1. Please introduce yourself to my readers and tell us what function you perform in AlterGold.

I am Rufi from Belgium. I am acting as a project manager of AlterGold. But there is a team called “The AlterGold Team” which makes everything possible at AlterGold all the time. Team work is a secret for success of AlterGold!

2. How did you come with an idea of opening your own payment processor? When and how did AlterGold start?

AlterGold started on 10th of January 2008. Online payments processing business is always an interesting field but since we discovered problems between most famous payment processor called E-Gold and Legal authorities. We then decided to jump into arena. That is why we are called “AlterGold“.

AlterGold is regularly upgrading itself, Our services are already more then and better then all of our competitors. Details are provided below as answer of rest of your questions. This means we are having a strong competition with any other online payment processor as per our services and pricing.

3. Where is your company located? Are you a registered company? If yes, can you provide us with some proof? How can people contact you there?

AlterGold is a subsidiary of Digital Group Inc. a registered legal corporate entity in the Republic of Panama in Central America. Further details are available on our website in “About us” section. Everyone is welcome to confirm those provided Information. We have provided address in same page for which people can use to send mails to us. I also want to inform you that in few months we are making arrangements to setup office in Europe.

4. If you’re a registered company why in whois did you use privacy protection option when registering your domain? What hosting provider do you use and does it provide the necessary security for the site?

Using a who-is protection is not illegal. Such units are sold legally by all hosting and domain providers. We have provided our registration information on site, so people can contact us any time. Using a who-is guard never means that we want to hide our information in any way. We receive and send money using methods such as Western Union, as well as when we are a registered company and we offer debit ATM cards to our users. This surely means we are doing a real business and real business is never anonymous.

We are currently hosted by BLCC Gold, We are highly satisfied with there services as we were always in need of them after AlterGold faced worst DDoS attack which caused downtime of several days to us. We have our own dedicated server there with High grade DDoS protection.

Again, sharing information in public is different then sharing with authorities. We share enough information in public. We are not the only payment processor in this arena using Who-is Guard. Let me quote from your question # 12, “well-established payment processors especially LibertyReserve” also uses domain Privacy Protection.

5. What type of accounts do you have in AlterGold? What are the transaction fees?

We offer personal and business account types. Both accounts are free to open, while users are allowed to open unlimited number of accounts at AlterGold. Sending money is free while Personal accounts are charged 1% and Business accounts are charged 1.5% when they receive money. Detailed difference and fees are available on our website.

6. How can one order a debit card to fund his AlterGold account or withdraw the money in the ATM? Please describe the whole process.

First I’d like to inform you that AlterGold is now offering new “Pre-Paid ATM Debit/Credit Card”. This means users can now even purchase products online with this card and/or withdraw via ATM machines world wide. New cards are still powered by Visa Technology.

After opening an Account with AlterGold, they can order debit card from account area. We have different options available for shipment. Users can track progress of there orders with in there account area. Once they have received debit card, they can add funds to there card from there AlterGold account area using there available balance. Card orders and funding requests are processed in 12 to 72 hours normally.

7. How can one deposit to one’s AlterGold account and withdraw from it? What are the options and fees for that? What about sending money between AlterGold accounts?

Users can deposit and withdraw funds with there Bank accounts, Western Union, Money Gram. As well as E-Gold, LibertyReserve and SolidTrustPay options are also available. AlterGold of course has fee for these transactions. Details are available on our site under Services pricing section.

8. What reputable exchangers can you recommend to use for the members that will decide to go with AlterGold?

None. We are not affiliate with any exchanger, as AlterGold itself is an exchanger. We have a variety of funding and withdrawing options. But we do WELCOME exchangers to use AlterGold at there exchange sites, and people are allowed to find trusted exchangers there self for this purpose.

9. What bonuses do you offer for your members when signing up? Do you have a referral program? How does it work?

Currently no signup bonus but on start we offered as much as $5 for business and $2.5 for personal accounts as signup bonus and referral bonus. We had paid more then $20k USD in form of signup and referral bonuses. Currently we only have referral program, People can earn $5 for Tier-1 and $2.5 for Tier-2 referrals when they deposit $100 or more.

10. Do you trace how many online investment programs started to use AlterGold as their payment processor?

No we don’t trace that but we do trace each and every transaction which takes place on AlterGold. If you meant to find how many HYIPs and Autosurfs are accepting AlterGold, then I am sure there are several of them. One should try Google and online communities to make a list of how many of such sites are using AlterGold.

11. There are many attempts on forums to destroy the credibility of AlterGold. Why do you think such attempts take place?

Yes I noticed it too. Even one of our support managers was there to answer. Long arguments took place on TalkGold. But even we answer such postings or not, such threads will always be created. They are all slander against AlterGold. No one is yet able to prove anything against AlterGold. That’s my challenge!

12. In your opinion what differentiates AlterGold from other well-established payment processors especially LibertyReserve? What advantages will the members receive if they start to use your payment processor?

AlterGold is payment processor as well as we provide complete money exchange solutions. Unlike other payment processors, at AlterGold people can deposit and withdraw funds any time using methods such as Western Union, Money Gram and Bank wire transfers. That’s for real money. Honestly, to serve people better we even accept deposits and withdrawals using E-Gold, LibertyReserve and SolidTrustPay.

AlterGold has perfect solution for online business owners that is “Limited User Passwords”. Using this, business owners can share there account login with there employees without risking available funds in account. Actually limited passwords privileges can be customized by business owners. Then, either a person is holding a personal or a business account. They can access there account to check balance, spend funds and check account history anytime using mobile phones.

We are working on several aspects to provide “All in 1” solutions for our customers, like we have recently launched Internal messaging system. So people can send and receive messages and this is totally free to use. AlterGold now offers Visa powered pre-paid ATM credit and debit card. With our new cards, users can even purchase products from different merchants online!

13. What are your plans for the near future? What other features and options do you plan to add to make AlterGold even more competitive and attractive to online investors?

I am not sure if “Money has borders or not” (physically it has) but as a payment processor, AlterGold has no borders. We are rapidly working on new features, like I described in above question that we have already added Internal Messaging system and we have changed our design, etc…

We are working on other features such as Merchants directory, Knowledge base, Live support chat, Escrow service, state-of-the-art customer support management system and more. This all is going to take a bit of time, but one by one we will make it available to users. Soon, AlterGold will be “All in One” Payment Processor.

14. What is your honest opinion about my blog? Do you think it provides the investors with the necessary information to make proper investment decisions?

As I had a quick look on your blog, I want to say that it is very good. Yep, that is very informative. Keep up the good work!”

I hope you liked this interview and I think that it will begin a new type of interviews I’m going to start conducting soon with the payment processors representatives, forum and monitor owners and other people who are an important part of this industry. I believe everybody who wants to be successful in this industry should know the surroundings perfectly well.

As for AlterGold I have already opened my account there and will try to use it in different programs. I hope there will be more of the admins who will think about the advantages of accepting AlterGold on their site as an additional payment processor.

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