Offshore Credit Card ATM Limits

Offshore Credit Card ATM Limits

In my previous post, I started talking a little bit about offshore credit card load limits. In this post I'd like to talk a little bit about a "limit" that most off shore card consumers find more important; the card's ATM limits.

To be more precise, what we are talking about is the daily, weekly, or monthly cash withdrawal limit from an ATM (automatic teller machine or bank machine).

While a certain number of people use their offshore credit cards for purchasing items at merchants who accept either MasterCard of Visa or one of the other internationally recognized credit card brands or merchant processing card networks, most of the banking clients at offshore banks want a bank card that is useful for extracting cash from their local atm machine.

For this to be possible, first and foremost, the card tie into one of the ATM networks, like Star, Cirrus, MasterCard, Visa, or Accel. This lets the offshore banking client use cash machines in his hometown at either banks or atm kiosks to retrieve money.

Different offshore cards, depending on the vendor, and the off shore bank who issued the card, will have different limits imposed on ATM withdrawals. By way of demonstration, I will run down some of the bank machine limits for several cards that I'm aware of on the market today.

Prepaid Offshore Credit Card Platinum MasterCard

Daily ATM Withdrawal Limits: $3,000
Weekly ATM Withdrawal Limits: $3,0000

Offshore Debit Card - MasterCard

Daily ATM Withdrawal Limits: €1000
Weekly ATM Withdrawal Limits:

Unembossed, no-name Anonymous Offshore Debit Card - MasterCard

Daily ATM Withdrawal Limits: $2000
Weekly ATM Withdrawal Limits: $5000

Unembossed, no-ID Anonymous ATM Card - Visa

Daily ATM Withdrawal Limits: $500
Monthly ATM Withdrawal Limits: $3000

Prepaid Offshore Credit Card Platinum Visa

Daily ATM Withdrawal Limits: $3,000
Weekly ATM Withdrawal Limits: $3,0000

If the offshore credit card atm limits on these cards are a major problem for you, you will need to look into one of the vendors who offer an unlimited offshore credit card. For most of the off-shore cards however, the only "unlimited" option available promotes unlimited purchase power, not unlimited ATM withdrawals, and of course, one needs to be wary of offshore credit card ATM fees attached to the card.

Offshore Credit Card Load Limits

Ok. As I've discussed in earlier posts, the idea of an "offshore credit card" is at times a bit of a misnomer. Why? Because in many cases no real "credit" is actually being extended. The resources necessary to evaluate the credit worthiness of borrowers in far away lands, much less the expertise or resources to collect on bad debts isn't really there.

So, what we end up with are debit cards or prepaid credit cards. And, this is where we find the concept of "Card Load Limits" (believe it or not).

While we discussed in an earlier post the concept of a no-limit offshore credit card, many of the cards on offer with the various offshore banks and financial institutions are limited in one or more ways.

Often that limit has to do with atm withdrawals daily, monthly, or weekly. It could do with purchase limits placed on the card, or as we are discussing here, it could do with offshore credit card load limits.

As you might imagine load limits vary by card, however, quite frequently you will find middle-tier offshore credit cards (prepaid credit cards really) with load limits in the 60,000 USD per month range.

For the life of me, I'm really not sure why an offshore credit card (prepaid card) would have a load limit on it. Perhaps there is some fraud consideration that I've yet to fully comprehend or consider.

Of course, as you might imagine, some of the more robust upper end offshore credit cards have no load limit associated with them, and indeed most of the offshore debit cards, have no load limit associated with them as the card usually gives you access to all the funds you have on deposit with that account the debit card is linked to.

The End of the Swiss Offshore Bank ?

Well, UBS is really feeling the heat lately.

I know that not many of you follow this kind of news, and for those of you that do, you're probably thinking "good" -- but the IRS is putting major pressure on UBS, Switzerland's biggest bank to give up information on depositors at the bank who also happen to be US citizens.

For years, Banks in Switzerland have had a certain, "je ne cest quoi" (did i spell that right? :) ) Tons of Hollyweird movies have portrayed them as secretive, mysterious, guarded locations, with security rivalling NORAD....secret pin access codes and anonymous numbered accounts.

It's true, there ARE some Swiss banks that function like this to this day, however, not too many numbered accounts to be had....and the price of entry is 1/2 million and up.

While mystique is a nice selling point, the big draw is the history of neutrality, long record in wealth management, and of course the confidentiality, protected by their bank secrecy act of 1934 -- hey, just in time for the Nazi's -- big coincidence I'm sure :)

Swiss Banking Secrecy

Switzerland has a reputation for banking secrecy that attractrs depositors seeking less regulation. This became a source of good and bad publicity.

While Switzerland became a well regarded offshore financial centre it also garnered a certain amout of infrmacy as a place where grey money was being laundered. As the reputation for the Swiss has grown so has international pressure for greater transparency. (aka, "less secrecy").

While the Swiss opted out of the EU to avoid having to water down its secrecy laws, it is not at all certain that Switzerland will remain forever outside of the Union.

In addition, Switzerland has acceded to the EU Tax Savings Initiative, which has allowed EU tax collectors a 'nose in the tent'.

In the middle of 2004, new anti-money laundering and anti terrorism regs sounded the death knell on the famous swiss numbered account.

The UBS Fiasco

The scandal involving UBS and wealthy private US clients risks hitting a tipping point. After it was "discovered" (duh) by the IRS that UBS was helping US clients to 'evade' taxes, Switzerland has come under huge pressure to start releasing client information on request.

The issue at hand is that these US clients thought they were covered by the Swiss penal code which distinguishes between tax fraud and tax evasion (which is not a criminal offence).

Witht the IRS out for blood the Swiss may have to sacrific confidentiality to continue as a financial centre.

Opening a Swiss Bank Account

Opening a swiss bank account can be somewhat difficult.

For upwards of 500,000USD you can get a private banking account in a swiss offshore bank.

Numbered accounts exist, but will involve showing all your personal documenation, including passport and proof of residence and often a bank reference letter.

Offshore Credit Card Processing Do's and Don'ts

Wouldbe offshore entrepreneurs are almost universally shocked by some of the hidden/unseen costs of operating offshore.

One of those big costs are the costs of processing credit cards. This is especially true for internet entrepreneurs who find themselves operating in industries with high charge back or fraud scores, and subsequently are forced to work through "high risk" merchant processors.

So Let's Talk About How to Setup an Offshore Credit Card Processor

While there is no shortage of merchant processors in the onshore world, you'll find that the offshore and high risk merchants are a little harder to find, much more expensive, and usually not nearly as stable or professional.

Harder to Find

For online entrepreneuers operating in the states it's a simple matter. In fact, for a time, google checkout was offering this service for free to build their client base. For the credit cards accepted offshore it's a different matter. Many many processors won't take your business if you do not run the deposits through a bank account located in the country they are located in. For offshore businesses with legitimate privacy concerns of its clientele this is simply not an option and leads to much higher costs.

More Expensive Processing Costs

While there is potentially a higher incidence of fraud in the offshore merchant processing game, you will find that some of the credit card fees are extremely aggressive/bordering on criminal.

While an onshore processor might charge between 1.5 and 3%, an offshore processor that classifies his client as high risk might charge as much as 8%-11%. In addition, the high risk merchant will be subjected to "hold backs" on payouts of as much as 6 months for a portion of his revenue. This can severely cramp an entrepreneur's cash flow as advertising and operations expenses have to be paid out of available cash and bank loans are typically not available.

Unstable or Unprofessional Merchant Processors

Since there is lower competition in this space and there are some risks for the processor as well, it invites a certain "wild west" speculative individual to the space, rather than your traditional, conservative banker-types.

Processors working multiple clients off of shared merchant ID's or MIDs chase algorithms bent on shutting down their clients' business in the online casino, poker, and sportsbook and gaming space. Online drugs have high chargebacks as well.

In the best case you'll find that these are smaller shops and their technical documentation, support, and before and after sales support is not what you are used to when operating onshore. In the worst of cases, you can have processors that shut down while still holding large amounts of clients' funds (by way of holdbacks lasting up to 6 months) and simply disappear into the night with their clients funds. This can be extremely dangerous to a small startup company.

Obviously, it is best to work with someone who is reputable and has been vetted by people you know and trust in this case...and even then due your due diligence.