Since September 2, 2010 ePassporte account holders aren’t able to use their ePassporte Visa Electron Cards as well as the ePassporte Virtual Cards  anymore. According to the official ePassporte news release, Visa has suspended their banking partner’s Visa program.

Here’s the official publication from ePassporte:

Dear ePassporte Account Holders,

Please be advised that, at 12:00 PM PDT today, September 2, 2010, we were notified that effective immediately, Visa International has suspended our banking partner’s (St. Kitts Nevis Anguilla National Bank) ePassporte Visa program. The ePassporte e-Wallet program continues to be up and running, except funds cannot be transferred between your Visa Account and your e-Wallet. At this time ePassporte can no longer issue Visa Cards, and the ability for our Account Holders to make point of sale purchases and withdraw funds from ATMs has also been suspended.

At this time we do not know why this drastic action was taken by Visa. 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 7 years. But that is what Visa has done.

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.

We are very sorry for the short notice and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. The ePassporte team is working diligently to rectify this situation.

We kindly ask you to bear with us while we work through this issue.

Please feel free to contact us via the message center or at our call center, should you have any questions, comments or concerns.

Thank You,
Christopher Mallick

At this time there is very little information available, but according to several sources that have been in contact with both Visa as well as St. Kitts Nevis Anguilla National Bank, it’s not Visa who suspended the bank’s Visa program, but instead the bank has suspended ePassporte’s account. Hopefully more clear information will follow in the coming days.

In the meantime, most sponsors have sent out messages to inform affiliates about the problems with ePassporte and they urge affiliates to choose alternative payout options as soon as possible.