Advice if you are thinking of setting up Epassporte

[Ms Naughty]

Make sure your Visa card is "Verified by Visa" before you even start.

Do this by:
a. Going to your internet banking and getting it set up there
b. Ringing your bank to find out how
c. Going to verifiedbyvisa.com and put in your card number.

Then, when you sign up at Epassporte and a screen appears asking for your password, you will know what it means.

If I had known this tiny little FUCKING detail it would have saved me around 4 hours of non-productive phone tag, hold music, international phone calls, bank/Visa help desk people who had no idea what I was talking about, emails and a great deal of stress.

This is because when I hit that password screen, I happily put in my new epassporte pw, and then my bank pw, and then Visa decided it wanted to block my card because I not authorised.

I have emailed Epassport customer services and advised them that their FAQs and signup information is in need of an overhaul.

They need to tell new users to do the Verified by Visa thing first.

They could also use a toll-free international number OR instant online help.

It's been a stressful day and I haven't got any work done because of this.

If I hadn't been so determined to get an Epassporte account I would have given this up a long time ago. As it is it's cost me time and money and made me feel very frustrated with this company.

OK </Rant>