visa/mastercard need to answer questions
since e-clear's sole role is to accept credit card payments, then VISA and MASTERCARD international must exercise, or be made to exercise a huge amount of oversight of these companies if the whole system isn't to be thrown into chaos. It's very very hard to get a normal merchant account, so to be a third party handing and retaining large sums should be subject to even higher scrutiny.
It's fair enough for the third-party processor to hang onto sums for possible refunds for faulty/non-delivered goods, but there should be fairly clear timetables for releasing the money once the goods are delivered, and also I would have thought all sums should be held in trust accounts, and not just mingled in general company funds. Solicitors and so forth have to have separate client accounts, so why not third party credit card companies?
G