free setup merchant - ikobo.com

[janyce]

I am thinking of joining ikobo.com. I read very good reviews about their fees, coverage and all. I just need some of your experiences with ikobo. Please share your tips and experiences regarding this online payment service please. It would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

PS: their website URL is www.ikobo.com

[lionheart]

First of all I want to emphasize the fact that I don't work for ikobo or something like that. I'm just a regular user, who, for the moment, is satisfied with their services. Since you ar asking for someone with experience I thought I'd give her a hand, since as someone else stated on this forum, I have a lion's heart :)
Ok, so basically I needed a service which covered Eastern Europe since I'm from Romania and many services don't have cover over here. Ikobo was it, not only because of coverage, also because of the no setup fee for creating your account. I need this to receive money, not give them away :)
After creating my account I waited for the person who was going to give me some money, after they were transferred into my account, I received an e-mail letting me know my i-kard (actually a visa card) had been mailed to my address and was due in 5-8 days. To my surprise I actually received the card after 5 business days (I was thinking of at least 6-7 days). With some doubt in my heart I went to my closest ATM and accesses my account, and, again to my pleasant surprise the money was there and I withdrew them without any kind of problems.
After this, each time I get money things work really quickly, as soon as I receive e-mail that money has been deposited into my account I just go out and get it. Pretty cool!
Well, maybe I've been exaggerating a little, of course there were some minor problems in the beginning, because my account was frozen after I received my money but it was for security and fraud prevention reasons, and after I faxed ikobo a copy of my driver's license and a bill in my name the account was unfrozen and haven't had any problems ever since.
Bottom line: my experience is a good one, let's hope it going to stay like this, and I wouldn't mind hearing the experiences of some other forum members who use, or have used ikobo in the past. I would like to know if there any not-so-pleasant surprises coming my way. Thanks!

P.S. Boy, this sure was one of my longest posts… hope I could help

[jestep]

I have heard the best reviews from ikobo users than any other 3rd party processing company. If I were going to use a 3rd party processor, I would probably use Ikobo.

[Corey Bryant]

The reviews that I have heard from Ikobo have been good but they all have just used P2P - no one can seems to use them for e-commerce on their website.

Their sign up process seems to take awhile, but once you seem to get thru that - it is a breeze.

[lionheart]

Hmm, I think I saw a couple of people talking about their ikobo merchant accounts, and from what I remember it was good. Actually here is one of them: http://www.netpond.com/post225923
We have been using iKobo for over a year now for processing both mainstream and adult transactions and I have only GOOD things to say about them.

Ever since paypal started jerking people around, and even before ebay took over and stopped processing adult stuff, we looked to replace paypal as our main processor/money transfer solution. We did our homework, and checked out several including StormPay/Beaverpay, FirePay, ePassporte, and a few others who's names have evaded my memory.

We were VERY impressed with iKobo's rates, as well as the countries that they service. We do alot of foreign business, and paypal and few others do not deal with countries such as Philippines and Bulgaria and India.

iKobo has VERY DECENT fraud protection as well. For example, I purchased a DVD player with my iKobo VISA debit card, aned the very next morning, somebody from iKobo called me to verify that it was me who had made the purchase. All I can say is that in my 15+ years having a credit card, NOBODY has ever taken the time to do that before!

I have had ONE chargeback in more than a year, and it was for a mainstream transaction.

iKobo is owned and operated by a group of ex-banking industry players, who looked at available money transfer/processors, and decided they had the expertise to do better.

Yes Customer support is a bit slower now that they are growing very fast, but there support is still very thorough in dealing with whatever problems you might have (which for us are far and few ...)

with a 2.99% +30˘ transaction fee, and very good fraud protection & customer support, iKobo is worth looking into as even a backup processor, or for money transferring.

I give them 2 THUMBS UP, and so do the maybe dozen people I have referred to them as well.

You are going to find people with negative things to say about ANY company, be it Paypal, ePassporte, moneybookers, StormPay, or iKobo. Until you have tried it for yourself, you will not know. DO NOT TRUST random opinions when you are looking for a company to handle your money. Try them for yourself is the only true way to know.
Anyway, that's just one opinion. But I'll tell you this, if their cc processing works as well as their p2p money transfer service, then there shouldn't be any problems. At least in theory. :)