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Must read Terms of Service & Privacy Policy and be at least 18

Must read Terms of Service & Privacy Policy and be at least 18

 
davidkent

Further to my earlier message regarding my dismay and surprise that access securepak does not accept credit cards issued outside the US, I have looked at its conditions that says that it accepts "Visa, MasterCard and Discover credit/debit cards and prepaid cards (that have a verifiable United States address), cashier’s checks, money orders, and institutional checks". To me. the piece about a verifiable US address appears to refer to the item just mentioned, i.e., prepaid cards, not every item just listed.
Someone has replied on this forum to my previous message saying they have used a UK card and successfully made an order, but it's unclear how they managed this and I hope they will reply to my question.
I have told securepak, that I will pay for a cheque (these cost $30 to obtain) from Lloyds bank, my bank, not drawn on my account, but the bank's own account (Lloyds is one of the largest in the UK, with reserves of £803 billion in 2015) and this cannot bounce or be stopped, but they still will not accept this! In fact this is what people, writing to inmates before the advent of JPay used to obtain to send to the prisons so they are 100% 'safe'.

The other things mentioned in securepak's list, e.,g, cashier’s checks, money orders, and institutional checks, appear to be payment methods only available/applicable in the USA. The only other method of payment we have in the UK are 'postal orders', available from the Post Office, but these are in sterling and useless outside the UK.

Access securepak is the only company that delivers to my penpal's facility in MI (Walkenhorst, that DOES accept foreign payments, does not). I cannot believe that, in the 21st century, there are still companies that decline payments from people living abroad even though the payment is in their currency and is secure.

Can anyone please suggest how this particular problem can be overcome?
Thank you.

 
kennybrown.ni

I have found a solution and gets you a freight forwarding adress for free which you can use as your US Billing address. Its a temporary card that you can top up by bank transfer.

Finally after 3 years emailing my penpal been able to place a commosary order online from the UK

If you use the sign up link below we both get $5 free credit.

https://www.usunlocked.com?aff_id=5nqL6VWY25

 
Nicky5360

I understand your frustration on this. I had the same problem but with the phone company who after accepting my UK card to pre-pay the phone a couple times then decided they couldn't accept it anymore. The only way I was able to get round this was to paypal money to his mum in the U.S who then sorts it for me. Does your penpal have any trusted loved ones who could act as a third party and place the order for you if you send them the money? I can't see any other way around this unfortunately. I looked at the other options too in relation to sending money and like you say there were no viable alternatives. I hope you an find someone to help

 
davidkent

It's probably wiser not to promise to do something until you are certain you can fulfil that promise, particularly where inmates are concerned.

As the company lists numerous countries on its registration page, including the UK, and secondly, when I first registered, I mentioned on 'chat' with one of its staff that I was in the UK, and nothing was said about needing a US card, I don't think it was unreasonable to assume there would be no problem (Other companies in the US who are no bigger accept non-US cards).

 
Swissi

I have the same Problem. My US friend now gave her address and cc number. Still the order is on hold as they believe something is "not correct". Oh dear. I never imagen that getting a packages to my pen pal would be such an issue.

 
sunray's wench

You can't force a company to accept your custom, unless they are discriminating against you because of your religion or sexual orientation - and even then, those laws only apply in some juristictions, not all.

It almost certainly costs the company to process international payments, and they wont be making huge amounts of money off each transaction. I strongly suspect that this is the main reason why companies in the US don't accept international payments. Americans don't have free banking like we do in the UK.

It's probably wiser not to promise to do something until you are certain you can fulfil that promise, particularly where inmates are concerned.

 
gooddog

How it can be overcome? First, inmates getting anything is not seen as a right in that regard but a perk so I guess they are not greatly concerned about the outside the US population that wants to send. Though there are some, the amount that want to send from outside the US is probably a lot smaller than the amount that want to send from inside the US. So they don't need to trouble themselves updating the technology that could accept worldwide payments?

If it were a company that made a bulk of money internationally I'm sure they'd trouble themselves to work it out. I wonder if it were reversed if I could send to a UK prison through a similar system or would they tell me that they can't accept outside payments? Definitely has to do with security too.

 
Andi

Maybe they don't want people who live in the UK sending secure packs to US inmates. Cuts downs on inmate scams.