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May 15, 2007

How To Get Your Money From Neteller In Six Easy Steps

  1. Go to Canada, set up a checking account at Bank of Montreal (I had to talk to a lot of banks to find them, they're the only one that does it to my knowledge) and a mailbox at The UPS Store there as well. Tell them to forward all mail to you back in the states.
  2. Buy a Canadian virtual phone number from ITP . It costs something like $5/month (you'll only need it for one) and forwards directly to any phone number you want it to. I'll be using that number for business cards and such in the future anyway, since it's much better than giving out your cell phone.
  3. Call Neteller VIP services at 1 (877) 288 4545, tell them you moved to Canada. Give your mailbox address as your home address. Their only verification will be calling your phone number. They asked about the number because it appeared to be from a far away province. I told them it was a cell phone and they bought it.
  4. Look for a Canadian web hosting service that offers Virtual Private Servers (VPS). I used webserve.ca, they even have a 30 day free trial so you won't have to pay.
  5. Remote desktop into the VPS, log into Neteller (they may lock your account even though your IP appears Canadian, if so just call them and get it unlocked) and request a check. It will be sent to your UPS store account. Note that you can simply do this from a WiFi connection at a coffee shop in Canada after you've set up your UPS Store account.
  6. You can deposit the check in a U.S. bank but you'll pay a hefty fee and it will take weeks to clear, and I'm not even sure it will at all banks, so I'd recommend depositing it into the Canadian one. Not sure how you'd do that without going there, but you might be able to mail it in or put it in an ATM. Call them, they'll help you with that.

And there you have it. I made the mistake of putting the check in a U.S. based bank, but it worked out in the end. I wouldn't even have told you this except I talked to the bank this morning and the payment has now fully processed (this was over a 2 month process) and can't be taken back. Neteller told me they actually tried to stop the payment (I requested it when I thought there was no chance of it cashing here) and failed. So I figured what the hell, might as well help y'all out too.

Ship it.

[edit] Additional info on verification here

Posted by themaroon at May 15, 2007 7:05 AM

Comments

I'm almost 100% positive that Neteller has stopped serving Canada as of a month or two ago, so this method will no longer work.

Russ Fox

Posted by: Russ Fox at May 15, 2007 10:05 AM

Hey Matt,

Congrats on the cashout, well played. However, I'm not sure the process is still only "Six Easy Steps". You mentioned a 2-month process for the check to clear, so I assume you started "Step 1" in Feb/March. I'm a US customer with money locked up who actually moved to London, UK in February and still can't access my Neteller funds. I'm legitimately living in London, with a London bank account, London flat, and London IP address but because I can't produce a utility bill from my flat (all inclusive), they won't transfer my account out of the US.

I hope I'm wrong and the process is still 6 steps, but I'm still 3 months and counting...

Posted by: ftheyankees at May 15, 2007 10:45 AM

Since they are now screwing Canadians too, they will probably stop sending out checks soon. Get your money while you can, I guess.

Posted by: Kajagugu at May 15, 2007 11:57 AM

My check came only a couple weeks ago. I have Canadian friends who tell me they're still able to cash out, but I don't know how recently they've done it.

Posted by: Matthew Maroon at May 15, 2007 8:55 PM

Having a foreign bank account in excess of 10k at any moment requires you to file form TD F 90-22.1 for that tax year. Penalties for not doing so are severe. In this authoritarian climate, I bet Canada is going to report you to the Empire.

Posted by: Slim at May 16, 2007 9:12 AM

I read something about Canadian members on the site a few weeks back, but they seem to have taken it off now.

To Russ Fox, don't let them mess you around with the utility bill, lots of people don't pay utilities.

Send them a bank statement, send yourself a telegram, or use a bank account application (BAAC). All have been confirmed to me by Neteller to be OK.

Posted by: brasilstu at May 16, 2007 12:01 PM

I'm aware, but I fortunately didn't have that much in there.

Posted by: Matthew Maroon at May 16, 2007 1:00 PM

Hey brasilstu,

If you wouldn't mind sending me an email, I'd love to ask you a few questions outside of this thread. I've sent the bank statement, but they're "requiring" the utility bill, which is odd, because as you say, plenty of people rent without utilities. By the way, I sent them my lease as well. Still no go - just brutal. My email is ftheyankees@aol.com.

Thanks.

Posted by: ftheyankees at May 17, 2007 8:20 AM

Maybe if you change your email address to fmanchesterU@aol.com they might believe you.

Have you tried using "So what do we do now?"

Posted by: PrettyUgly at May 18, 2007 2:31 PM

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