I am an affiliate marketer and have many different programs that pay me through a program called ePassporte. ePassporte issues a Visa Electron card and when you get paid on your affiliate programs, you simply take your electron card to an ATM and get your money.

This did not happen on Thursday, September 03, 2010. Seems ePassporte has some issues. When I went to the ATM, the money could not be accessed via the ATM machine. The message read, "your account is not accessible, please see your banking institution."

After making some calls, here is what I have found out from phone conversations and a post on the ePassporte members website:

"Banking partner’s Visa program has been suspended."

EPassport said Visa International put on hold transactions involving St. Kitts Nevis Anguilla National Bank and that it can no longer issue Visa cards and that account holders won’t be able to make point-of-sale purchases and withdraw funds from ATM's.

EPassporte owner Christopher Mallick further stated, “At this time we do not know why this drastic action was taken by Visa.” Additionally he stated, “To us, it is unconscionable that such action would be taken without the opportunity for ePassporte to fully understand Visa’s reasons and to be able to take all steps necessary to keep our program running the way it has so successfully done for over seven years. But that is what Visa has done.”

Mallick said ePassporte was notified at noon on Thursday of the suspension. Mallick went on to state that “The ePassporte e-Wallet program continues to be up and running, except funds cannot be transferred between your Visa account and your e-Wallet,” “As soon as we have more information we will be in contact with you,” “In the meantime please be assured that your funds are safe.The ePassporte team is working diligently to rectify this situation."

Mallick said customers can contact the company through its call center for queries. Their phone number is: +1-310-301-2001.

We'll be trying to reach Mallick or Visa International for additional information and post it here as the information becomes available.