STORMPAY HISTORY
From Wikipedia

StormPay is an electronic money auction payment processor run by Stormpay Incorporated, a Clarksville, Tennessee, United States company founded in October 2002 by John R. McConnell, Jr. and the CEO, Steve Girsky. It allows anyone with an e-mail address to buy or sell StormPay Auction items after opening an online account.

General

Funding/Depositing

The currency used in accounts is United States dollars. However, StormPay is not like a bank, where the money in ones account is actually backed by real money. A StormPay user can fund their account with an online check, money order, or by clicking on sponsored links, purchased by StormPay members themselves, in the StormClix section of the StormPay website. StormPay (and NetIBA) have also paid commissions for referring new members to the payment process or verification system.

Fees

Opening a StormPay account is free. It is also free to send money to another e-mail address. However, a fee is incurred when receiving funds: if the recipient is NetIBA certified, this is 39 cents plus 2.9% of the amount being received; if not, it is 49 cents and 4.9%. This marks a return to the usual fee structure used by most online payment processors that was also used by StormPay before becoming an auction-only site, but the non-certified fee has been reduced from the level in March 2006, which was 69c + 6.9%. Additionally, for a brief period in April and early May 2006, there was no fee for NetIBA certified accounts and it was 2% otherwise.

Certification

Being NetIBA certified costs $19.95 a year. It is claimed to be a third-party identity verification service. It is also located in Clarksville, Tennessee and registered with the Tennessee Secretary of State by McConnell, indicating that it is not a third-party service. The NetIBA certification process purportedly includes the sending of a PIN by telephone and a PIN by mail, however, users have also reported that the phone step is occasionally skipped. After being certified, webmasters may place an image on their website to display this fact to potential customers. In the NetIBA FAQ, under the question: "What form of payment do you accept?" the following answer is given: "NetIBA accepts StormPay. NetIBA recommends when shopping online that you use services such as StormPay to insure that your financial information does not end up in the hands of wrong doers."

Withdrawing

StormPay allows users to withdraw money via a debit card, or the mailing of a personal check. There is a $2 fee for withdrawing with a check and using the debit card incurs various monthly account maintenance and individual withdrawal fees. These individual withdrawal fees are in addition to any charges that may be levied by the bank that owns the ATM used to withdraw money. The debit card is usable Internationally. However, the check is in U.S. Dollars, and costs $20 to be sent by courier, $35 internationally. These fees, and the additional cost of exchanging fees from a US check in other countries, make it not profitable to withdraw by international check unless one's account balance is very high. On 15 May 2006, StormPay added the options to withdraw money directly into U.S. checking accounts with a $1 fee and into e-gold accounts with a StormPay fee of 5% in addition to e-gold fees.

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