Click2Pay - Adverse technical change

[vinylweatherman]

I have been using Click2Pay for a while and have an account denominated in GBP to play casinos where I have accounts in GBP (I am from the UK). I have just received my latest statement from my funding method for Click2Pay and they are now requesting DOLLARS, converting these to GBP themselves and forwarding the funds to the casino. As my Click2pay account is in GBP, and my funding mechanism is a GBP denominated card, there should be absolutely no reason for dollars to get involved, which has been the case till recently. Worse still, Click2Pay have NOT INFORMED USERS of this, who will get a very nasty shock if they are from the UK, or any other country not using the dollar, when they get their funding card bill. I urge all players who might be affected to check their statements to see if this has been quietly affecting them this month. The problem lies in the fact that this leads to MASSIVE FEES building up in the deposit process, which can be as much as 20% of a smaller deposit, and 10%+ on a larger one. Their terms offer no fees on credit card funding, so they have breached their own promise by implementing the change without notice. If I had been told beforehand, I could have chosen not to fund my click2pay account this way, and could still have used it purely as a holding fund to transfer funds in GBP between casinos.

I would like anyone who finds this nasty surprise waiting for them to post a brief summary of how it has affected them (obviously without giving too much detail of their own transactions). Maybe what funding method has given this problem, and whether any other funding method has been OK.
I have discovered they are based in Cyprus, and are not regulated in the EU, so there appears no formal independent complaints procedure.

To start off with:-
I have been funding my account with a standard UK issued credit card. Normally, transactions have been taken for value in GBP, and have appeared on my card as such. A 500 deposit through click2pay cost exactly that. Now I find that the changes lead to the same 500 deposit costing me more than 530, just over 5 per 100 of this is taken by Click2pay, the rest is billed by my card company as a handling charge for the click2pay transaction.

Click2pay admitted in a reply that they did make changes at the beginning of August that caused this, but they did not inform their users, and left us to find out the hard way at the end of the month.
I find this every bit as bad as the rogue casino, who fiddles with terms to the players detriment, and only tells them when it is too late!

 

[GrandMaster]

I stopped using Click2pay when they started charging for 3% for credit card deposits about a year ago. How did you manage not to get charged until now?

Where do you get the idea that it is based in Cyprus, outside the EU? Cyprus, except for Turkish occupied North Cyprus is in the EU, and in any case, Click2pay's address is CLICK2PAY GmbH, Bretonischer Ring 4, D-85630 Grasbrunn.

 

[vinylweatherman]

Address

I did a search on Google and found a Cyprus address for them, billed as their Headquarters.
I have not been charged, and the E-cash screen states that funding is by "CC" (Credit Card) and a fee is stated of Zero. This is still the case. The problem is not so much the 3% fee, but the totally unnecessary use of US Dollars when taking funds from a UK card, into a UK Click2pay account, to forward to a Microgaming UK E-cash account. My Click2pay statement shows the transaction as UK. I have not been informed of this change UNTIL I made a complaint, and Click2pay admitted they had made this adverse change earlier in the month. By not telling me, I was denied the opportunity to decide whether or not to accept the new charges or not use Click2pay in the way originally intended (connect a credit card in order to make payments online without disclosing card details to the end merchant). The charges I have incurred are way above 3%, more like 15% to 20%, and they didn't tell me - I could have ended up with hundreds of pounds in charges had I not checked my card statement online between statement dates and noticed I had less available credit than I should have had.
While they are free to make such changes, they should tell users that the change is to be made, and allow them to reassess their use of the service.
I note a thread about Moneybookers has also been started, again about poor service. If they are really based in Germany, they should appear as a firm authorised in the EU but not necessarily in the UK (they don't on the FSA site, but Neteller does, having full authorisation as a E-money issuer).
Neteller can be funded by bank transfer, but Click2pay cannot be pre-funded, a card (Credit or Debit) must be connected and funds are taken from it as requested.
The only use Click2pay seems to have now is as a "holding area" for winnings so they can be deposited into another casino (useful as Neteller have "return from merchant limits" now in the UK).

This thread should serve as a warning, if you think Click2pay is free, as it has been for some, check carefully now the new system is running, as Click2pay have not made efforts to inform users. It's not even on the homepage.