Payoneer in Pakistan – Problems with the card

This is a quick update, and the case now seems to have been resolved. But the problem with my Payoneer card started a while back – in January 2022 is when I did what any self-respecting online worker in Pakistan would do: complain about it on Facebook of course.

You see, it started when out of the blue, Payoneer asked for some verification. Nothing new here: working online in Pakistan, you get used to foreign companies requiring documentary evidence when it comes to financial transactions. That much is understandable.

But please note that I’ve been an active and happy user of Payoneer in Pakistan for many, many years. I even wrote about how you can get a Payoneer card in Pakistan back in the day. I was once invited to speak at an event by Payoneer! I really liked their product, and I really appreciated their customer service.

I was asked about uploading some personal verification documents (CNIC and a bank statement I believe). I got this email and knowing that these matters are best resolved quickly especially where one’s money / livelihood is concerned, I provided the verification immediately.

But then things got messy. And as you will see, it was already messy for a lot of workers from Pakistan already!

Payoneer Verification Problem

So here’s the gist of the problem:

OK this is getting ridiculous.
I was asked for additional verification by Payoneer in December. I provided that immediately, on the same day it was asked. Then in mid Jan I got an email that my card has been blocked because I didnt provide verification.
I clicked on the provided link and in my Verification section, there is nothing required by Payoneer. But I can’t see my card. So I sent them a support request to please look into this (I am possibly one of their oldest customer from Pakistan).
And I check now, I see the support request has been marked RESOLVED by them without providing any answer. Simply says “this issue has been closed, please submit again iff the issue is not resolved”. And the problem is, submitting a SIMPLE support request is deliberately made VERY hard by their interface.
How do I get my card working again? What do I do? Whom do I talk to? Any help is appreciated…

Payoneer Card Problems Are Common

As you can see from the comments, quite a few people had this problem where there was no reply from Payoneer on this issue.

As you can see, just the comments under my original post on Facebook show how common the problem is. But there is a much bigger problem at play here.

Please note, I am not the guy who complains about companies on social media. But I had tried their normal support channels, and because it was and is a critical matter of payments and livlihood, I had to reach out on social media and tag relevant people who can spread the word.

And thanks to their helping nature, the people I tagged were gracious enough to tag and forward this to the relevant people.

But the primary reason I took to social media is, in a way, the fault of Payoneer’s website.

Payoneer Website and Customer Support Issues

Reaching out to Payoneer is very, very difficult. They do this deliberately, as they don’t want the customer service load.

It can take you a good part of the afternoon to find out a way to simply send them a message. And this is as a customer who has a problem!

That is bad, given their footprint and how critical their product is in the lives of so many people. They should make it a priority to put their clients on high priority. They can start by providing a chat system for their older customers, or to make it more manageable, they can offer chat support services to people who have done a certain amount of transactions etc.

But customer service, especially for such a critical product, is a must. And that was missing.

Payoneer Country Manager – the real hero

Quite a few of my friends tagged Payoneer’s representatives in Pakistan. And their Country Manager got in touch with me on Messenger almost on the same day.

And here is one thing I must bring to light: The country manager of Payoneer for Pakistan was absolutely a gem of a person. He became my go-to guy in the matter, and he was able to get in touch with the Payoneer global team and see why my card was blocked.

I could clearly see that he was trying all he could do to get my verification issue resolved.

And after going back and forth multiple times (I submitted and re-submitted verification details to Payoneer on their main site!), I was still not able to get the card back up again!!

There was and I believe there still IS a problem with Payoneer’s verification system, especially for us Pakistanis it seems.

Lessons Learnt

One big lessons that was reinforced: two is one, and one is none. This is an old army phrase related to being prepared. As a professional, it is my job to have a backup, to have an alternate. I have been doing this for some time now, and Alhumdulillah, there are ways to accept credit cards for your online business and service, sitting here in Pakistan. But I got lazy, and I paid this price for it.

So I am updating my articles, my guides (for our premium members and clients) on how to accept credit card payments, and how to get international payments for your work in a professional, scalable manner, so it grows as you grow inshAllah.

If you are interested in such a guide, please subscribe to our free community, and I will keep you posted via email inshAllah.

Thank you for your attention, I wish you nothing but the best,

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