Flutterwave announces a viral notification about the closure of its virtual dollar card christened the Barter Card powered by and Visa and MasterCard that will commence on July 17. The prompt notification displays a static message on the user’s dashboard to promote awareness of their inability to process transactions with foreign currencies as well as present the competence of Flutterwave’s customer care support team.
The Flutterwave-issued Barter Card is mostly called the Barter USD card as most users usually reference its use for making international transactions outside the borders of Africa such as shopping on foreign e-commerce platforms, paying for a travel ticket, payments on international apps platforms (Apple Music, Facebook, PayPal, courser, etc.). The Barter card can also be synchronized with a domiciliary account and other platforms users employ for foreign exchange exercises.
According to Flutterwave who has consented to seize issuing its virtual dollar card, the FinTech unicorn has notified its users to disconnect the Barter card from their respective Flutterwave accounts including other platforms the Barter Card is connected. Flutterwave’s consent about the issues depicts the Barter Card as quite temporary as the FinTech system suggest its users manage alternative virtual dollar card solution while they resolve the setback.
“We are writing to inform you that effective Sunday, 17th July 2022, all our Virtual Dollar cards will be unavailable for any transactions and purchases. This is due to an update from our card partner, which will cause the card service to be unavailable for an extended period.”
Still, the static message Flutterwave displays across its users’ dollar card portal did not reveal if the Barter Card disconnection is temporary or permanent. Flutterwave revealed that the Barter Card initiative is no longer supported by the card partner and the Barter Card will no longer accept being funded due to the termination of the contract. Flutterwave did not disclose Visa or MasterCard’s opinion about the contract termination.
After July 17, 2022, the Barter Card will go offline – users need not worry because Flutterwave consent to retrieve users’ available balance that will be transferred to credit their respective Flutterwave balance, neither will users be able to create a new Barter Card account henceforth. Techbooky.africa’s consent about the Flutterwave dispute with its card partner is stirred by the rumored scandals the unicorn FinTech company has encountered lately with regulatory agencies in its host country, Nigeria, and in the diaspora.
Flutterwave recently got flagged in Kenya for laundering billions of cash which the FinTech company denied all allegations. Still, the supposed scandals committed by Flutterwave did not restrict the company to continue leveraging cross-border payment. Recall that Techbooky.africa covered the report about Flutterwave’s partnership with another FinTech startup dubbed SendSprint to leverage cross-border payment within Africa and beyond the continent.
