Hello everybody! I hope your weekend’s been going well so far. For today’s update on MNO I have something a little different for you which I think you might find interesting. Over the years I’ve had, as longer term readers will know, quite a lot of interviews. Generally speaking these tend to be with HYIP admins looking to talk about whatever program they are running at the time, but occasionally I’ve been lucky enough to talk with people involved with other fields. Forum owners, script developers and programmers, and online payment processor managers amongst others. So today I’m pleased to have an interview with a representative of PexPay, which is still a relative newcomer in the world of online payment handlers. Not just a representative exactly, his name is Ralph and he’s a managing partner. It’s a pretty tough business to crack as must surely be apparent by the fact that in the months following the closure of LibertyReserve there’s been no really serious challenger to the remaining three processors that still dominate the HYIP industry. It’s only a matter of time before that changes in my opinion, and PexPay is one of the service providers poised to take advantage of that. So read on to hear Ralph talk us through the recent history of the company, what services they provide, and how owning an account can be advantageous to online investors.

“1. Please introduce yourself to the readers of Money-News-Online and tell us what your role is in PexPay.

My Name is Ralph Connor, and I am one of the Managing partners of PexPay. I help handle the day-to-day operations of PexPay including but not limited to Customer support, Verification Support, and Live Chat Support. I also sit in on programming topics to help filter what we need and how we get that from a programming standpoint to a live functioning feature on our site.

2. Can you give us some background information on PexPay? Who owns it and why did he decide to start PexPay? How long have you been in operation? How many people work there? Do you have any kind of official sanction or license from the government or financial authorities in your own jurisdiction?

There are several silent partners that own PexPay. There are many reasons why we started PexPay in June 2012. Giving a better online payment processing option to customers with lower fees is the main reason. We currently have 11 staff members. One of which has been involved with different processing companies over the past 10 years. There is a big movement coming with legal online gaming, and we will be a part of that as well. That was one of the main reasons for starting PexPay, but we realized quickly that there are many more industries that can use our services. Because we are new or newer it has taken some time to get in with some of these merchants or industries, but we are seeing more and more movement every quarter.

You can also visit our “about us” page to see our FinCEN MSB Registration, which is something LR could never obtain the way they operated.

https://www.pexpay.com/about.php

3. What are your thoughts on the recent seizure of LibertyReserve and the related accounts by the US federal authorities?
I would also like to ask, a) how will you avoid the same mistakes and facing the same fate, given that you essentially offer a very similar service?
And b) in the months following the LR closure I can’t say I’ve noticed any significant increase in activity from PexPay and you don’t seem to have taken any real share of the business left behind. Why not?

LibertyReserve’s corporation structure cannot be compared to PexPay, and I am surprised they lasted as long as they did with the way they processed transactions and their lack of KYC and many other policies that all payment processors or gateways are required to have in place.

We are registered and structured properly so from the very start we will not have the issues that LR had. We also just recently completed our title 31 audit that is required of all financial institutions, payment processors and gateways serving U.S. customers. FinCen performs this audit, and we passed the audit without issue.

The biggest reason we did not push in your industry right after was because of all the business that LR issues would effect from merchants to customers. We wanted to wait until all of that settled down. We do not operate the way LR did so many of their customers would not use us as we require verification and bank information that they would never submit as the majority of the clients wanted to be anonymous which violates many rules and regulations that we must follow.

We are starting to reach out to your industry more, and I think people will see more and more merchants adding PexPay in the coming weeks and months.

4. What are the different types of account you have available? How does one then open their chosen account? What charges apply to transactions made with these accounts?

We offer two types of accounts for all customers: Personal Accounts and Business Accounts. Our fees are the lowest of any verified processor that we know of. Here are the basic fees:

Sending Funds: Free

Receive Funds: 1.29% +0.24

A complete list of all fees can be found on our fees page at:

https://www.pexpay.com/fees.php

5. Assuming that PexPay is the only online account that I have:
a) How do I go about funding it? Will it be possible to fund it using a Visa or MasterCard credit/debit card?
b) How do I withdraw any money I earn there? Can I withdraw directly to my bank account?

You can fund your PexPay account by Wire, Check, Money Order and ACH (U.S. bank account required). You can withdraw using the same options. All funds are received and sent in USD. We are looking to add credit card funding options that will work with our business model long term. Many credit card processing providers do not work with payment processing services. This is why you have seen other providers start and stop credit card options over the years.

6. How widely accepted is PexPay as a payment processor now? What kind of businesses are using it?

We are a newer payment option so it takes time to get businesses to use us, but we are seeing growth in some different industries including affiliate marketing, multi level marking, bill pay companies, as well as your industry. Once complete we will also have merchants adding us in the online gaming industry, but only regulated sites once the final laws are passed.

7. Many activities are, for obvious reasons, named on your prohibited activities list. Others though while of an adult nature are perfectly legal, such as gambling for example. So why are there restrictions (and what exactly are they) if the clients are legally registered business entities that comply with the laws of your jurisdiction?

Many of the industries listed are usually not in compliance. If they are in compliance, we will work with those industries that do not deal with things such as firearms and adult sites that list under age material for example. For other industries, we can provide them details of what we need from them as it relates to their industry.

8. For the benefit of non-members, where can we view a list of verified merchants that accept PexPay?

We are working on making a list for people in the future. We want to make sure when we release this feature that we keep it current, and allow our customers a way to inform us of changes to the merchants that may be listed. Once we feel good about the workings of this feature we will release it and let everyone know the link as well as how to submit a listing to us. We will also have a way for merchants to advertise with us in the near future.

9. Do you have a referral program? How does it work?

We always get very excited when we talk about our Customer Loyalty Program as we feel we have the best program of all payment processors. We allow our customers to earn over and over again on the people they bring to us, and the best part is our program pays you every time a person that you refer to us sends funds to any PexPay account. As long as they are using PexPay to send funds, you are getting paid instantly every time.

Our program pays you 10% of the processing fee we charge to receive funds every time that someone you introduce to us and is signed up under you uses their PexPay account to transfer funds to another PexPay account.

There is a section within your account that allows you to see how many people you have introduced to PexPay and how much you have earned from each person. That same section also allows you to access your banners and Customer Loyalty Program link that can be used any place online.

Here is a link for more info on our Customer Loyalty Program:

https://www.pexpay.com/loyalty-program.php

10. How safe is PexPay? How do you protect members from identity theft? What measures have you taken to prevent hackers and DDoS attacks from bringing the site down?

PexPay is very safe as our site is custom built. We have a small team of IT folks that handle everything related to the security of the site as well as the everyday function of the site. We use 256 bit-encryption verified by Rapid SSL. We also have DDOS protection in place and have had from day one as we take the security of our site very serious. All of our customer’s verification information is stored electronically on a separate server. All information on this server has multiple encryption features including MD5 Encryption to protection all information. We do not sell or share any customer information with anyone.

11. Under what circumstances would you freeze a member’s account? If the subsequent investigation proves that the member was indeed guilty of some offense, what then happens the money?

We try to never get involved with customer disputes, as all transactions are final as covered in our terms of service. There have been a few cases that we have been forced to take action upon. Most of the time, it’s because of false documents or bad banking information. We handle these situations on a case-by-case basis. If we freeze an account with a balance, we wait for the investigation to be completed on the account and issue partial refunds to any people that had transaction with said account. This would be after we recover any loses incurred.

It is important to realize that all transactions are final, and we do not get involved in disputes. We will always note complaints on an account, but it is the customer’s responsibility to resolve any conflicts with the other person/account.

12. If I am the victim of fraud, what course of action should I take? Is it possible to get refunded? What is your policy on that?

This falls under the same answer as the last question. We do not get involved in disputes between customers.

13. Most of the readers here will be primarily concerned with HYIP related websites. What’s your policy on HYIP and autosurf sites that want to use PexPay as a payment processor?

We review all websites for approval and go into a detailed process on the verification of merchant accounts. We do allow HYIP and autosurfs, but it is important for the customer to do research on any merchant before they decide on doing business with them.

14. If I have several accounts with different processors do you have a list of approved exchange providers for transferring funds between them?

If people are looking for ways to exchange their funds in or out of PexPay, they can open a support ticket asking for a list. We only work with a select few exchangers. We have turned down many and require even more paper work for exchangers. Please open a support ticket with us for more info.

15. Tell us in detail about your PexPay‘s customer support network. How can clients get in touch with you if they have questions or problems? Is there phone support, or Live Chat? Is it a 24 hour service? Can non-English speakers contact multi-lingual operators? Do you have an actual physical office address which you are prepared to share with us like STP do?

We do have live chat. There are no set hours as of today. As needs increase, we will increase the amount of staff available for live chat. We also have a support ticket system for people with accounts and a contact us link for non-PexPay customers. These are answered within 2 days and usually much quicker. At this time, we do not offer multi-lingual support. We do not have phone support as we have seen how it has failed with other processors. We do not have a physical address to come in and see us as we handle everything online, but our FinCEN registration does supply our physical address. This is used for meetings with regulators and business appointments, not for customer service.

16. What are your plans for the near future? What other features and options do you plan to introduce to make PexPay even more competitive and attractive to customers? As I said in an earlier question you don’t appear to have made any obvious in-roads towards capturing a bigger share of the market before now, but what exactly are you going to do about it? Considering that it took the likes of STP and PerfectMoney many years to build up their client bases, how are you going to challenge them?

Growing all starts with great customer service. Once people see how we take care of our customers, it will be an easy choice for them to tell everyone about PexPay. We are also going to roll out some new features in the coming months including the merchant listing section and improvements to our private message system that is already live and ready to use. We also have plans to add our own debit card in the future. The time frame for this is not yet known. As more information is available, we will make an announcement.

We are also looking to add more funding and withdraw options in 2014 allowing even more choices. These additions will be great for international customers.

Lastly, we are working to increase the amount of merchants that are using PexPay services. We are contacting merchants directly in different industries, as well as expanding on the industries where we already have customers. It is important for our customers to remember our Customer Loyalty Program. If they get a merchant to signup under them they will get paid every time that merchant sends funds. Getting a merchant account under their Customer Loyalty Program is a great way to make extra money with PexPay.

17. Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer my questions. Is there anything else you want to mention? Anything at all you feel readers should be aware of not covered here?

I think your questions covered a wide range of topics. Thank you for taking time to conduct this interview with us. If you or your readers have any questions after this, please feel free to open a support ticket or use the “contact us” link if they do not have an account with us. Lastly, in case your readers do not know, they can catch us on the MNO shout box as well.”

Thanks a lot to Ralph for taking the time and effort to answer my questions, and best of luck to him in promoting the company. I hope you all found it both interesting and useful, and maybe something you might make a note of and use as a reference point you might like to check again in the future. That’s all for today guys, but remember to tune again over the weekend for further news and updates. Thanks for reading and see you all then!em