Nochex Users - WARNING! EDIT....not only Nochex users affected!

[Corabar Entertainment]

I have had a very hairy few days, which still isn't sorted and is going to mean an AWFUL lot of work in the coming days / weeks, but this is something that anyone else using Nochex to take payments needs to be made aware of.

After many years without any problems whatsoever, Nochex Risk Team have decided that there should be no more than 1 month between payment and final delivery of goods - meaning that if you take deposits for events, you are likely to fall foul of their risk assessment.

Without any warning whatsoever, due to 'a random assessment' we had our account locked and couldn't withdraw any funds from our Nochex account last week (nevermind the fact they already hold a substantial retention!). Of course, sods law, we had a really busy week with lots of payments made and they ended up holding about 10 times MORE in retention than would be needed in the event of every client that fell outside their criteria raising a chargeback!

What's more, even though I had been contacted my the risk assessment team about the payments received, we were in correspondence back and forth to discuss how we work, etc and at no time did they even have the courtesy to tell me that they had locked down the account, so more and more payments were going in. It was only when I went in to try and withdraw funds that I discovered that they had frozen the funds!

After a hard-fought battle, I have managed to get the funds unlocked (it was only after I pointed out that it must be illegal for them to hold monies that couldn't be subject to a charge back, and have asked for details of their complaints procedure and confirmation of their regulatory body to be emailed to me). HOWEVER they have confirmed that they are looking at accounts and will get around to everybody in time.

So, this means that anyone in the weddings/events industry, or anyone that delivers any sort of contract over any period of time will be completely scuppered!

I wanted to post this to save anyone else going through what I have. So, you have been warned! Please pass this info on / post everywhere you possibly can so that word gets around.

[Shaun]

I'm glad to hear you got the funds unlocked. Sounds like an awful situation.

[CRAZY K]

I have had a very hairy few days, which still isn't sorted and is going to mean an AWFUL lot of work in the coming days / weeks, but this is something that anyone else using Nochex to take payments needs to be made aware of.

After many years without any problems whatsoever, Nochex Risk Team have decided that there should be no more than 1 month between payment and final delivery of goods - meaning that if you take deposits for events, you are likely to fall foul of their risk assessment.

Without any warning whatsoever, due to 'a random assessment' we had our account locked and couldn't withdraw any funds from our Nochex account last week (nevermind the fact they already hold a substantial retention!). Of course, sods law, we had a really busy week with lots of payments made and they ended up holding about 10 times MORE in retention than would be needed in the event of every client that fell outside their criteria raising a chargeback!

What's more, even though I had been contacted my the risk assessment team about the payments received, we were in correspondence back and forth to discuss how we work, etc and at no time did they even have the courtesy to tell me that they had locked down the account, so more and more payments were going in. It was only when I went in to try and withdraw funds that I discovered that they had frozen the funds!

After a hard-fought battle, I have managed to get the funds unlocked (it was only after I pointed out that it must be illegal for them to hold monies that couldn't be subject to a charge back, and have asked for details of their complaints procedure and confirmation of their regulatory body to be emailed to me). HOWEVER they have confirmed that they are looking at accounts and will get around to everybody in time.

So, this means that anyone in the weddings/events industry, or anyone that delivers any sort of contract over any period of time will be completely scuppered!

I wanted to post this to save anyone else going through what I have. So, you have been warned! Please pass this info on / post everywhere you possibly can so that word gets around.

Sorry to hear this--good job you know how to play Hardball Angela

How weird after all this time

Is it back to Barclays

[Corabar Entertainment]

I'm glad to hear you got the funds unlocked. Sounds like an awful situation.

Thanks, Shaun. It's a complete pain in the backside. Short-term, I'm using Paypal for everything, but I'll now re-write website / contracts / documents / email templates so that it's Paypal for the deposits, then Nochex for the balances.

Long-term, it's going to be a new card processor, but so far, I've left call-back requests for two companies that have been recommended to me (one on Thursday evening and one of Friday) and both have failed to call as yet! ....so this might be a long process

Sorry to hear this--good job you know how to play Hardball Angela

Yep - playing nice got me nowhere.

How weird after all this time

Agreed.

Is it back to Barclays

This is a card processor, Alan, not our Bank (and we've never been with Barclays )

[SC Events]

Sorry to hear this--good job you know how to play Hardball Angela

I'm sure they gave Angela a jolly good listening to lol!

[Corabar Entertainment]

[Vectis]

Short-term, I'm using Paypal for everything

Have you spoken to PayPal to ensure that the same restriction does not apply?

[SoundONE]

Both Paypal and Nochex have a habit of locking user accounts, happend to me over 2 years ago with nochex with almost £3,000 in the account and I have also had similar with Paypal with over £2,000.

Seems if you put a lot of money through them they will freeze accounts to make you call, email etc, trying to justify to themselves you are real a business and not some type of gangster or organised criminal.

Nochex claimed it was an error and took over 4 weeks to sort out before it was unlocked, I withdrew the money and closed the account.

Paypal again couldn't provide a reason the account was frozen, it's rediculous that they are able to do this, imagine going into your high street bank to get out your money and they say they have frozen your account but have no idea why. Then ask you a load of irrelivent questions then say sorry it was an error.

Both Paypal and Nochex make it very hard to contact someone with any common sence that you can talk with to resolve it, my advice to anyone is once you have a few hundred in you account get it out, I have heard of Paypal holding funds for upto 6 months on various forums.

What annoys me more than anything is both paypal and nochex used to pay me £5.00 for each new signup when they were first starting out, I must have made them thousands and thousands via spinofff signups and users. Now they have a name and hundreds of thousands of loyal users they don't care an inch for the people who helped get them started or any of there customers for that matter.

[Corabar Entertainment]

Have you spoken to PayPal to ensure that the same restriction does not apply?

No, I haven't, Martin.... why? Do you know something we don't?

I just switched over the payment gateway to point to Paypal so that money didn't keep going in to a frozen account.... and I'm bouncing it out again so quick you'd swear it was rubber!

I have no intention of staying with Paypal, and in the short-term (once I get the paperwork amended), the plan is to take the deposit by Paypal and the final payment by Nochex.

The worst thing is, apparently it's not against Nochex T&Cs, it's purely on risk assessment and something they've recently decided!

[Vectis]

No, I haven't, Martin.... why? Do you know something we don't?

No... I just wondered if you'd double-checked before switching across