17/07/2012. Finvance Review and Daily News from the Industry

Beware! Finvance has stopped paying! Do not invest there!

Hello everyone! There’s a couple of stories in the industry news today you might find of interest, but before we get to them there’s a brand new program added to the MNO Premium list that I want to look at in a bit more detail. If you were reading my blog last night you will have seen it get introduced already. It’s a medium term HYI program called Finvance and it offers one single investment plan, which from recent experience has proved popular with investors. Whether Finvance can make a success from it or not remains to be seen, but they seem to be starting things off with something with mass appeal.

It’s pretty simple though maybe slightly misleading if you don’t read the description very carefully. You see, the thing about Finvance‘s only investment plan is that it’s measured in calendar days but doesn’t actually pay you like that. In fact they only pay you on business days. But don’t worry about that, seeing as there’s only one plan anyway this shouldn’t really confuse you.

The minimum cost of joining is $20, and the term runs for 28 calendar days. But as this is four weeks, and Finvance only pay from Monday through Friday, a more accurate description of this term is 20 business days. Interest payments, which are daily, are made at a rate of 8% per day. This is a basic flat rate that applies to all Finvance members regardless of the size of your deposit. So whether you just spend the $20 minimum or anything up to the $500,000 maximum, 8% per day is the rate you’ll be getting.

Finvance are already counting your principal as part of these payments, so this will not be returned on expiry. That means that your total return from your investment should come to 160%, or your own money back plus 60% net profit for yourself on top. If we look at that in monetary terms a $100 investment would therefore bring in $8 per day, Monday to Friday. That allows you to break even 13 business days into the term (ie earn back your initial hundred), and finish up with $160 in total, or $60 in profit.

Despite the plan itself being popular in the past, one thing that Finvance are certainly not emulating from other programs to have used it is a decent selection of payment options. It’s quite poor to be honest, and as the days when the big investor’s simply shrugged their shoulders and accepted that are rapidly disappearing it’s something that might hinder the growth of Finvance if not addressed. For now all money flowing in and out of the program goes entirely through either LibertyReserve or PerfectMoney. Payments are made manually by the admin and so need to be requested from inside your Finvance members area. Once you’ve done so you are then asked to allow a maximum of 24 hours for the transaction to be processed and completed.

The design and security of the Finvance website isn’t bad at all. It looks quite well, is easy to navigate and is well designed. It’s fully SSL encrypted by Comodo and runs of a script licensed from ProBizScript which I think experienced industry players will know and appreciate. Finvance is also hosted on a dedicated Staminus server. For any account related issues or just further questions about the program for the admin then you can get in touch with the Finvance admin by filling out the online ticketing form and submitting it via the support page. The website includes a Live Chat feature by the way, though I wouldn’t say it’s particularly good. Despite the banner proclaiming it to be online, when I clicked on it I was greeted with the message “Online Support is currently not available. Please leave a message”. So not only can I not tell you what the working hours are, I can’t really say if it ever works at all. But I’ll clear that up if the admin agrees to an interview at some point. Some extra features not always seen in the industry by the way include some security questions you can set yourself, as well as a virtual on-screen keyboard so you can avoid having to tap in your password on your keyboard, and a “captcha” feature as well.

The website content of Finvance seems largely original, though a bit eclectic to say the least. Online HYIPs claim just about everything as an income source from the banal to the bizarre, and I guess this one is to be no exception. Various activities from of all things tourism to green energy get mentioned though as is generally the case it remains quite anonymous without much in the way of real solid evidence presented to back any of it up. Then again experienced industry players rarely express much of an interest in such matters (I just mention it for the newbies). So as always you should make yourself aware of what you are getting yourselves into before proceeding. If you’re happy with that then fine, you join the ranks of the majority of HYIP players. Just remember to keep your spending limit within strictly affordable levels, and if you’re joining Finvance then you would be best advised to keep it as a smaller part of a wider more diverse portfolio. Impossible to gauge just how long this one could run for of course as previous examples of programs using the same plan have ranged from shockingly bad to jaw-droppingly amazing, so it’s best to always start out with more modest expectations, see what happens next, and take it from there.

DAILY NEWS FROM THE INDUSTRY

SILVERSTRUCTURE – PAYZA TO EGOPAY

Although not officially announced yet, it looks like SilverStructure (reviewed here) is going to become the first program online to pay Payza’ members via EgoPay which is also run by Payza itself, as the admin of the program Gabriel (interviewed here) admitted himself on the official SilverStructure Facebook page. Here is the full text of the update with the further details on that to be issued by SilverStructure soon:

“Important! Payza users please open an account at EgoPay, within one week we will have to move our funds from Payza to EgoPay, so you will be paid to your newly opened EgoPay account! Please spread this among your friends who are in this business. You may continue depositing by Payza, it’s safe!
EgoPay is created by Payza workers and it’s based offshore, so it’s even better for all of us.
-Gabriel Raske. SilverStructure administrator”.

As you can see, members of SilverStructure will be still able to make deposits via Payza but will have to be paid via EgoPay, where the admin encourages you to create an account as soon as possible. I will discuss the new payment processor and its possible affiliation to Payza below so keep reading. As for SilverStructure, the program is running really well and the admin recently renewed both banner spots on MNO till late August which is always a good sign. Just days before the first principals are going to be returned to the first investors the program remains one of the most popular HYIPs online scoring the second spot on MNO’s Premium list behind only NewGNi. Apart from Payza and now also EgoPay, SilverStructure accepts all other popular payment options including LibertyReserve, PerfectMoney and SolidTrustPay. The only investment plan in SilverStructure is 2% for 150 days with the principal return on expiry.

PAYZA IS GOING WITH THE WIND, EGOPAY IS COMING TO REPLACE

As you remember last night I didn’t say much on the weird situation with Payza forcing their merchants – HYIPs – to switch to EgoPay. I had to take some time to understand what Payza is trying to achieve here and to understand if they are really shooting themselves in the foot or it is just a ploy to get more money in the long run. I tend to believe the second option and since the Payza administration is refusing to answer my questions and deleting my comments from their official blog I have to speculate and give you the situation from the angle I see it from.

As you may know AlertPay was under scrutiny from the authorities for quite some time, and the owners were accused of being complicit (or at least enabling) all sorts of questionable activities. I imagine this was at least one factor in their decision to merge/sell to another more respected company – a UK-based provider of white label prepaid card services MHPillars who immediately took the necessary action in rebranding the company in hopes of shedding its shady image as soon as possible. So in May 2012 Payza was born but struggled to shake off the tainted AlertPay tag and therefore had difficulties with banking transactions, especially in the US where authorities were aware of their shady past and had it under the tightest scrutiny ever. Therefore the US based members of Payza (formerly AlertPay) had a hard job getting their money in and out. This couldn’t be tolerated for much longer and the idea was born to create another site that would serve HYIPs without officially involving Payza directly.

And so EgoPay was born. Of course Payza can (and most probably will!) deny any connection or affiliation with this newly launched processor, however there is no doubt in my mind that they are hand in glove together and up to their eyeballs in each other’s business. Urgent amendments are now being made to the terms and conditions of Payza that will disallow the entire HYIP industry and thus (at least, on paper) make Payza fully compliant with the ever-growing demands of the US authorities and allow them to offer a full range of banking services without disruption. This is all good, but what will happen those programs currently accepting Payza when the new policy is implemented?

That’s where EgoPay comes into play. I believe that Payza will gradually phase itself out from the HYIP industry and that is why not all the HYIP admins have received the notifications about withdrawing their funds or moving them to EgoPay – a solution which is really convenient for both Payza and EgoPay. As you know leaving the HYIP industry to LR, PM and STP was not part of the plan for Payza which is of course nothing without this industry. That’s the main reason for creating EgoPay in the first place, allowing them to continue profiting from the HYIP industry but via a subsidiary processor (though to be honest I’d be surprised if Payza were to ever actually claim ownership of EgoPay). You can withdraw funds from EgoPay to Payza and then to your bank account with no problems, and in the other direction you can fund an EgoPay account with Payza funds and invest in HYIPs of your choice as usual.

Will the situation change and will EgoPay be any different from Payza? Of course, the situation will change drastically. First of all, EgoPay is registered offshore in Belize, and beyond the long arm of Uncle Sam (or so they hope!). There is also a price to pay for such a luxury – EgoPay will become a payment processor similar to LibertyReserve and PerfectMoney where all transactions are irreversible and there is no way to submit any disputes or have any hope of ever getting a refund. In other words, EgoPay will be just another anonymous payment processor and will not be any use if you get scammed – all transactions are final. Somebody might say it will just relieve the HYIP industry from the interference of Payza and allow admins more flexibility in their payment schedule. At the same time, it won’t stop them from scamming any time they like as they can now easily withdraw the stolen money to Payza without any traceability (that Payza will acknowledge) and then to their bank accounts. So Payza clean their act up for the authorities but at the same time keep the profits from the HYIP industry flowing under the table. Smart, isn’t it? Except of course I wouldn’t believe for a second a government agency would swallow a word of this if they really wanted to investigate them, but that’s a whole other story.

Then another important question arises – from the investor’s point of view is it worth opening an account in EgoPay and using it? We can clearly see the advantages to the admins, but if the investors don’t wanna know about it then the whole exercise has been pointless, right? And I for one simply can’t see a great level of enthusiasm for EgoPay from the investors. Let’s compare the fees with those of the main competitors of EgoPay which in this case are LibertyReserve and PerfectMoney – two famous anonymous payment processors. Receiving fees are very high and if LibertyReserve is charging 1% receiving fees and PerfectMoney will only charge you 0.5% on sending the funds, EgoPay will charge 2% (!) + $0.25 which will be even higher for HYIP admins if they use it for their programs – 3.5% + $0.5 for every transaction. So actually you will be getting the same service to that provided by LibertyReserve and PerfectMoney, but will pay a lot more for the privilege. You should also be fully aware that you agree that every transactions made within EgoPay is irreversible and cannot be disputed which is explicitly stated on the site:
“Can I cancel a transaction once it has been completed?
No, all transactions are final and cannot be reversed. If you have a problem after making a payment, you need to solve this matter directly with the recipient. Only under rare circumstances will EgoPay reverse a transaction, and only due to fraudulent or suspicious activity violating EgoPay terms.”

I should also mention that for the first three months of operation the transaction fees for all EgoPay members will be reduced to 1% for receiving funds which is quite comparable to what LibertyReserve charges, but you still have to pay the $0.25 fee for each transaction made which makes it totally unreasonable for many HYIP investors they get identical services from other payment processors for cheaper. Keep in mind also that for withdrawing money in EgoPay you will have to pay Payza fees if you wish to withdraw your money via your Payza account or via an approved exchanger. On the brighter side, you can always fund your account in EgoPay via Payza.

All in all, the scheme looks like a perfect solution, but one very much geared towards the convenience of its owners. I’m not quite sure it will benefit HYIP investors to the same extent. Double fees but no opportunity to dispute your transactions if scammed in return for those fees (which would have made them more palatable) make it quite a weak player in the HYIP market. Although I will be accepting them on MNO and have already opened my account there (you can do the same by clicking this link), I doubt very much that EgoPay will become a very popular option. The advantages of the disputed transactions which Payza were so proud has effectively been abolished by default, so I’m not sure how it will benefit members of Payza either. It looks that Payza didn’t have any other choice to implement such a complicated system, but the HYIP investors do have a choice. I’ll watch the situation closely and will keep you all updated on MNO blog, so stay tuned!

EXPERTKAPITAL – PAYZA CHANGES DIFFERENT OPINION AND STP TO BE ADDED SOON

The admin of ExpertKapital, Julie, (to be interviewed on MNO blog tomorrow) seems to have an alternative point of view on the whole Payza to EgoPay issue. She believes that such drastic measures simply cannot be enforced on each and every program, and particularly not as fast as the date Payza seem to be suggesting which is only next Friday. Julie also promised to refund all Payza deposits if such a drastic change has to be made but said she was not quite ready to switch over to EgoPay yet. Can’t say I blame her! Instead, she promised to add SolidTrustPay very soon which I always thought was a far better alternative to Payza regardless of them being phased out or not.

On the brighter note, Julie noted the program is growing at a tremendous rate and already achieved 1500 active members joining via Payza, LibertyReserve and PerfectMoney the only investment plan offered – 7% for 22 calendar days. The main peculiarity of ExpertKapital which pleased many investors include the lack of a registration process and payments processed directly to the members’ e-currency accounts. So everything goes smoothly as it should be and ExpertKapital is growing and developing. Here’s the full newsletter from ExpertKapital (reviewed here):

“ExpertKapital – Payza Updates!
Hello ExpertKapital members,
Hope all of you are doing well. We have the reached 1500 active members milestone in a very short period of time, so our workload has increased in multitudes in just a few days.
Apart from that the recent issue on Payza has kept our HelpDesk and emails overflowing with requests and queries too. We would like to update each one of you with a very important message, so please read it carefully.
Firstly, we have not received any direct message from Payza about this issue. As of what we have heard from various sources, we know that Payza has never really been friendly towards the online investment industry although they indirectly have accepted transactions from investors and programs thus far and heavily dependent on this industry. It was almost as if upto 90% of Payza users are said to be from this industry but they continue to have negative vibes towards it. Perhaps that is how things are done there.
But, looking at it in a positive way, we hope that Payza will not put this rule to effect immediately on a large scale. Also, the suggestion of moving over to a vague payment processor like egopay does not look like a very wise thing to do either.
Some members strongly believe that Payza will take this new rule to effect on the 20th of July but we don’t really feel this would happen so soon. So we have decided to stick on with Payza (we are accepting manual Payza deposits, which is an advantage in this situation) until there is any further communication/action from Payza.
Should Payza stick to this rule and it comes to effect on the 20th July as mentioned, ExpertKapital will refund the deposits of Payza investors who request for it. We also will consider requests from members who choose to be paid in other e-currencies. But please do not ‘dump’ all your Payza funds in ExpertKapital! (lol!)
Another good news for all ExpertKapital members is that we will begin accepting STP investments starting next week. So, ExpertKapital members will have an additional payment option to consider even if Payza opts out of the industry.
So, let’s all stay positive and be cool about this Payza issue. There is no need to panic and we will do our very best to make sure this situation is handled well.
That is all we have to say about Payza and more about it on the 21st July (should anything happen)!
Best Regards, Julie Ballin
ExpertKapital Administration”.

LUXURIOUSFINANCE AND FINOPRO SCAMS!

It’s really unfortunate that I have to announce two more fast scams which could have been quite popular if handled correctly. But the admins probably decided to finish them before the first investors saw a profit from them. I’m talking about LuxuriousFinance and FinoPro which both made their way to Problem status on MNO tonight.

I have already warned of selective payouts from LuxuriousFinance but it looks like the admin is still replying to emails. This morning I received an unexpected reply from him claiming that all pending withdrawals would be paid within 24 hours. But why wait for so long and not pay immediately? Those are the questions to which I did not receive a reply. So it’s clear that LuxuriousFinance is a short-lived scam most probably run by a newbie as implied in the review published on MNO a few days ago. I hope nobody lost too much money in it as I myself was skeptical from the beginning anyway.

The second program that only lasted for a week and failed miserably is FinoPro. As I can see on the website in payout records provided by its script the last payouts were processed only four days ago and my oldest pendings have not been processed for over 48 hours now. I suspect the admin of FinoPro decided to pull the plug, leaving those unfortunate investors joining that program within the last week with nothing. Obviously it was impossible to predict the lifecycle of a project like this, and at first the admin was responsible enough and even fixed an error I noticed in the script which didn’t credit my daily earnings properly. Anyway, for two days already he’s been silent and never responds to my emails anymore. The warning I submitted this morning when I first moved FinoPro to Waiting status on MNO to no avail didn’t make him respond either. So I’m assuming it’s a scam after just one week online and so moved it to Problem status on MNO. Please do not invest in either LuxuriousFinance and FinoPro!

GET PAID REPORT FOR 17/07/2012

Here is the list of the programs from my monitor that paid me for the last 24 hours:
From MNO Sticky list:  EWFund.
From MNO Premium list: NewGNi, SilverStructure, OneInv, InvestForia, BensonUnion, MetalROI, DividendService, ExpertKapital, PlexCapital, PrimeXCash, Ivecon, SafeRisk, Finvance (the first payments received).
From MNO Standard list: UFOWin.
From MNO Basic list: GoldTradeFunds.

That’s all for tonight, guys. Tomorrow I’m taking a day off as I’m going home from my vacation, but you can still expect the interview with the admin of ExpertKapital to be published on MNO. But stay tuned for more news and updates from the HYIP industry and more reviews of the new programs on my blog very soon!