RM not accepting Visa anymore!? What the actual f$ck?

[BuffaloKyle]

I just tried to purchase a premium membership for RM with my visa but a box popped up stating they are only accepting mastercard at this time. I reached out to support to ask about this and got this back:

Hello, Logan here. We are working to find possible solutions, but for the time being we accept only MasterCard and Bitcoins.

I hope it's just temporary. So if anyone has a recurring payment set up and due soon with their visa you might see your membership stopped.

[Hot4latin]

One of my regular massage providers told me the same thing about his RentMasseur account. His ad is expired until he can get a MasterCard. 

[BuffaloKyle]

25 minutes ago, Hot4latin said:

One of my regular massage providers told me the same thing about his RentMasseur account. His ad is expired until he can get a MasterCard. 

What stinks is I used to only have an American Express so couldn't get a membership until I got a Visa once they stopped taking my Amex and now they don't take that either.

[+ azdr0710]

I'm using a Visa with them......I don't mind adding a MC, but now wonder if this'll cancel my grandfathered-in $9.95/mo rate.......and I wonder if some group got to Visa for "enabling" a "porn" site

Edited August 13, 2024 by azdr0710

[BuffaloKyle]

18 hours ago, azdr0710 said:

I'm using a Visa with them......I don't mind adding a MC, but now wonder if this'll cancel my grandfathered-in $9.95/mo rate.......and I wonder if some group got to Visa for "enabling" a "porn" site

I don't know if it's because I sign up for a premium membership every so often but every time I sign up for a new membership I get the 9.95 rate. When I'm not logged in it says it costs 19.95 but when I log in it changes to 9.95 to sign up.

[BuffaloKyle]

5 hours ago, Vin Marco said:

I just got a response from RM telling me that visa restrictions have been lifted and that I'm free to use my visa. The fates and pleasure gods have favored us....

Not working for me. Still getting the box that only mastercard for now.

[BuffaloKyle]

17 minutes ago, Vin Marco said:

That's a pity 😕. Sorry you're still having issues. For whatever it's worth, did you sign out and sign back in?   You may want to contact them again and ask them if the visa issue has been resolved and see what response you get. 

Yeah, not working. What's really weird too is if I pick a different country other than USA it'll take the number and pop up the visa card logo but once I change it back to USA it shuts me down. I'll give it a few days and then maybe reach out to them again. Not a big deal.

[moonlight]

Simon, what are your concerns using bitcoin for RM?

I ask because I have zero experience with crypto but am considering trying it for RM. I'm wondering if it's maybe more private than using a credit card.

There's also privacy.com but that doesn't let you select MC over Visa.

[+ DynamicUno]

The idea that RM is somehow doing a money grab by restricting payments to MC or Bitcoin doesn't make sense.  They need to be able to accept payments by any means their customers can use.  They are an adult content site, however, and that category of merchant has a higher risk of fraud and chargebacks.  This puts them at risk of getting banned by the CC processors.  If Visa put them on notice, it's probable RM is limiting their risk by restricting new payment methods to MC instead to avoid a total ban by Visa.  RM could use third party solutions to better insulate themselves from this problem, but I'm guessing they are avoiding those solutions for other reasons.

As far as Bitcoin is concerned, it's fairly easy to use if you're already set up, but might be a little daunting if you're new to using it.  Bitcoin is more private than with credit cards, but it's not absolute.  Crypto forensics is a thing and law enforcement can track bitcoin transactions, but they're mostly looking for fraud and drug related activity.

[BuffaloKyle]

21 hours ago, Simon Suraci said:

RM responded to me by comping a month of membership

Lucky! They only gave me a 3 day free membership when I complained! 😅

[+ jeezopete]

Just got a notice that my recurring payment was successful today. Checked my VISA account online & the payment was listed.

[BuffaloKyle]

On 8/25/2024 at 10:36 PM, jeezopete said:

Just got a notice that my recurring payment was successful today. Checked my VISA account online & the payment was listed.

Just tried typing in my visa number but no luck. Still says not accepted. Stinks!

[MikeBiDude]

My regular monthly auto-renew just went through on my Visa.

[BuffaloKyle]

When you go under one time payment it lets you input a visa credit card number if you put the country as say Canada. I wonder if it would accept the transaction then even if you're in the USA.

[TAMPAMUSCLEDAD]

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to put your comments in. This has really hurt my business. I refuse to do any type of crypto as I don't trust it. I'm old school that way. I tried entering a Visa with the country as Canada and it's still declined. I also try to use a MasterCard gift card and it declined. It's ridiculous that I had to open a Mastercard account just to be able to pay for my monthly subscription fee. Really hoping this company does not pull out of the US. I can't stand masseurfinder. Completely overpriced and very restrictive. Please let me know if any of you have found a work around. Best, Drew

[BuffaloKyle]

13 hours ago, TAMPAMUSCLEDAD said:

 I also try to use a MasterCard gift card and it declined.

I tried that once as well and it declined for me too. I read the fine print with the gift card and I believe it was because it has to be a USA based company for the charge to go through.

[BiGuyNola]

Visa has recently faced legal action, being sued for engaging in monopolistic practices and behaviors, and allegedly somewhat mistreating certain vendors. The lawsuit accuses the global Visa services of abusing its dominant market position to stifle competition and unfairly dictate terms and fees to smaller vendors and businesses. These vendors claim that Visa's big control over the payment processing industry has allowed visa to impose excessive fees, create restrictive contracts for vendors, and force unfavorable conditions on their biz. 

[+ jeezopete]

On 8/25/2024 at 10:36 PM, jeezopete said:

Just got a notice that my recurring payment was successful today. Checked my VISA account online & the payment was listed.

Update:  Just got a notice that my recurring payment for Sept. was not processed due to an "invalid" credit card. The response to my inquiry matched what others have said, that I can either use MasterCard or crypto. I thanked them for the information & let them know I'll just let my premium membership expire.

[BuffaloKyle]

2 minutes ago, jeezopete said:

Update:  Just got a notice that my recurring payment for Sept. was not processed due to an "invalid" credit card. The response to my inquiry matched what others have said, that I can either use MasterCard or crypto. I thanked them for the information & let them know I'll just let my premium membership expire.

Their revenue is gonna take such a huge hit. I truly wonder if they might have to pull the whole plug.

[+ tassojunior]

Staples sells MasterCard giftcards of $200 with no fee every two weeks or so. 

[mike carey]

14 minutes ago, tassojunior said:

Staples sells MasterCard giftcards of $200 with no fee every two weeks or so. 

Others have commented that RM declined some payments from gift cards. There are rechargeable mastercard debit cards that may work, some can be loaded with multiple currencies (not relevant for paying an RM account). You would expect a multi-currency card to work outside the US but it would pay to check whether USD ones do. (PayPal apparently has one.)

[BuffaloKyle]

 

[mike carey]

32 minutes ago, Simon Suraci said:

Visa is obviously huge and widely accepted in the US, but not a monopoly. Amex, MC, Discover, and others compete freely with Visa. Some businesses like Costco do not accept Amex. I’ve wondered if it has to do with contract negotiations or simply Amex charging more fees to the vendor than Visa. Almost anywhere that accepts Visa also accepts MC, among others.

I haven't watched the video that @BuffaloKyle posted but the DOJ suit is about the fees Visa charges merchants (that the public do not see) and their basis for charging the fees which apparently vary depending on the issuer of the card. As I understand merchants can't pick and choose which visa cards to accept and they don't know in advance what the fees are.

I doubt the same rules apply in the EU (they don't here) as I doubt EU competition rules would allow predatory transfer fees.

I also doubt that it's an issue of visa being puritanical in its attitude to RM, or there being issues of perceived criminality (they would probably also affect MC), I suspect it's some sort of issue that RM has with visa or the financial institution that processes those transactions (although why it seems to have been applied inconsistently is a mystery to me).

[+ IronMaus]

CRAP!
First off, I googled "rentmen not accepting visa" and the first thing that came up was this conversation.
Second, Rentmen better not take away my long held $40 Gold Membership for this.
Third, do any of you have a Mastercard and want to pay my membership?

[+ jeezopete]

11 hours ago, Simon Suraci said:

My hunch is there’s an issue with Visa appearing as though they are encouraging, promoting, or facilitating illicit commercial activity. Why this wouldn’t also apply to MC beats me.

This is the explanation I received:

Be advised that we accept only MasterCard and crypto payments currently due to recently introduced limitations by VISA regarding adult content websites. Please consider using one of these payment methods if possible.