Hello, Happy New Year everyone. I recently became aware of the fact that banks (and financial institutions) define any business that merely mentions the word VoIP as restricted. Meaning they would not allow such a business to work with them. As if VoIP is some kind of an illegal substance. I am confident that when it comes to larger players they are not defined as a VoIP business... One company (Wise/Wisetransfer) even claimed that their regulation requires them to do that. I wonder if you have any more information and how do you deal with this. Thanks, Oren
Hi, You might want to say which country, as banking regulations will vary from country to country. There is a lot of fraud in telecoms, but I've usually seen this come out in terms of delayed settlement for card transactions and such.? (but I've not seen this for years) And remember that 15 years ago, all the scams were `signup voip credit with a stolen card, dial a premium rate number you own, collect`.? I'm surprised that When I did the last bit of underwriting with a bank, they were very concerned about `prepaid software services`. Specifically `voip` or if you said `telecom service provider` would you be ok`? I know at least one voip company who uses Wise as their primary bank account.??? (and for laughs, wise was formed on the back of a voip company (Skype)) Tim On 05/01/2022 13:00, Oren Yehezkely wrote:
Hello,
Happy New Year everyone.
I recently became aware of the fact that banks (and financial institutions) define any business that merely mentions the word VoIP as restricted. Meaning they would not allow such a business to work with them. As if VoIP is some kind of?an illegal substance. I am confident that when it comes to larger players they are not defined as a VoIP business...
One company (Wise/Wisetransfer) even claimed that their regulation requires them to do that.
I wonder if you have any more information and how do you deal with this.
Thanks, Oren
_______________________________________________ VoiceOps mailing list VoiceOps at voiceops.org https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/voiceops
-- Tim Bray Huddersfield, GB tim at kooky.org +44 7966479015
Hello, Yes, I noticed that as well during communication with financial services. Usually, the term VoIP only refers to e.g., handling of customer calls. I can imagine one reason is the high number of complaints and chargebacks that some VoIP customer service providers have for some reasons. Some financial service providers accept this VoIP services, just charge more. You find the details usually in their terms and conditions or similar documents for account creation. If you e.g., do consulting in the VoIP business, the mentioned restrictions normally do not apply to you in my experience. Cheers, Henning -- Henning Westerholt ? https://skalatan.de/blog/ Kamailio services ? https://gilawa.com<https://gilawa.com/> From: VoiceOps <voiceops-bounces at voiceops.org> On Behalf Of Oren Yehezkely Sent: Wednesday, January 5, 2022 2:00 PM To: voiceops at voiceops.org Subject: [VoiceOps] VoIP is a restricted business? Hello, Happy New Year everyone. I recently became aware of the fact that banks (and financial institutions) define any business that merely mentions the word VoIP as restricted. Meaning they would not allow such a business to work with them. As if VoIP is some kind of an illegal substance. I am confident that when it comes to larger players they are not defined as a VoIP business... One company (Wise/Wisetransfer) even claimed that their regulation requires them to do that. I wonder if you have any more information and how do you deal with this. Thanks, Oren
I'm not aware of some VoIP banking issue in the US, but you didn't specify the country. I've never heard of Wise. But I don't think "VoIP" is an industry, category, or business type. We always choose "telecom" as the type. Paypal and Amex recently made a change where if you choose telecom as your industry, you cannot use Paypal enhanced payments (new system) along with Amex and with third party billing solutions. What a weird combo, and a pain. We appealed and have no response, but someone just told me yesterday that they paid with an Amex. Individual companies may have their own policies, like this. Wells Fargo and Chase, I can tell you from experience, is happy to have our business. On Wed, Jan 5, 2022 at 6:12 AM Oren Yehezkely <orenyny at gmail.com> wrote:
Hello,
Happy New Year everyone.
I recently became aware of the fact that banks (and financial institutions) define any business that merely mentions the word VoIP as restricted. Meaning they would not allow such a business to work with them. As if VoIP is some kind of an illegal substance. I am confident that when it comes to larger players they are not defined as a VoIP business...
One company (Wise/Wisetransfer) even claimed that their regulation requires them to do that.
I wonder if you have any more information and how do you deal with this.
Thanks, Oren _______________________________________________ VoiceOps mailing list VoiceOps at voiceops.org https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/voiceops
It appears that Carlos Alvarez <caalvarez at gmail.com> said:
I'm not aware of some VoIP banking issue in the US, but you didn't specify the country. I've never heard of Wise.
It's what used to be called Transferwise. They were originally a FX provider but now they provide multi-currency accounts which look a whole lot like bank accounts.
Individual companies may have their own policies, like this. Wells Fargo and Chase, I can tell you from experience, is happy to have our business.
FWIW, USD balances at Wise are held at Wells Fargo. R's, John
Carlos, The country is the US of course. I did not know that this list has people from other countries. The problem is not what category you choose but it is what THEY CHOOSE FOR YOU. Just by looking at the website, they decide that you are a VoIP company and your account may be immediately canceled (Wise) no questions asked and no way to get any person to speak with, or be "restricted" (merchant account). On Wed, Jan 5, 2022 at 10:49 AM Carlos Alvarez <caalvarez at gmail.com> wrote:
I'm not aware of some VoIP banking issue in the US, but you didn't specify the country. I've never heard of Wise. But I don't think "VoIP" is an industry, category, or business type. We always choose "telecom" as the type. Paypal and Amex recently made a change where if you choose telecom as your industry, you cannot use Paypal enhanced payments (new system) along with Amex and with third party billing solutions. What a weird combo, and a pain. We appealed and have no response, but someone just told me yesterday that they paid with an Amex.
Individual companies may have their own policies, like this. Wells Fargo and Chase, I can tell you from experience, is happy to have our business.
On Wed, Jan 5, 2022 at 6:12 AM Oren Yehezkely <orenyny at gmail.com> wrote:
Hello,
Happy New Year everyone.
I recently became aware of the fact that banks (and financial institutions) define any business that merely mentions the word VoIP as restricted. Meaning they would not allow such a business to work with them. As if VoIP is some kind of an illegal substance. I am confident that when it comes to larger players they are not defined as a VoIP business...
One company (Wise/Wisetransfer) even claimed that their regulation requires them to do that.
I wonder if you have any more information and how do you deal with this.
Thanks, Oren _______________________________________________ VoiceOps mailing list VoiceOps at voiceops.org https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/voiceops
_______________________________________________ VoiceOps mailing list VoiceOps at voiceops.org https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/voiceops
participants (5)
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caalvarez＠gmail.com -
hw＠gilawa.com -
johnl＠taugh.com -
orenyny＠gmail.com -
tim＠kooky.org