Subscribing. Can't select my country

[darius.tulbure]

Today my subscription expires. And I wanted to renew it. But, after completing

almost all the required fields (I wanted to pay via credit card), the form asked

me to select my country - Romania - only it wasn't there, in the drop down list.

What does that mean? I can't pay from Romania?

[joshroot]

Our banking provider decides what countries we can and can't accept payment from. I assume it has something to do with a higher incident of fraud from various countries. You have three options.

 

1. Try using a country adjacent to yours. For some reason, this works for some people.

 

2. Pay via Paypal.

 

3. Have a friend in a different country pay for you.

 

I realize that this is annoying, and we have been looking into what we can do to fix it. But the fact is that many banking providers have the same rules and it is hard to find one that will accept payments from countries that are considered high risks for fraud.

[darius.tulbure]

This I must say is odd. A Visa card is a Visa card wherever you are using it from. Then, as far as I know, in Romania are fewer phishing attacks (and other fraud methods) than in some western countries. But that's the banking provider's problem, after all.

 

So you suggest I should try "using" a neighbor country? Or using PayPal... Ok, I'll try that. Thanks Josh.

[bobatkins]

Well, according to Americart ( http://www.cartserver.com/americart/faq-fr.html ), the vast majority of orders from the following countries are fraudulent:

<p><ul>

<li>Romania

<li>Indonesia

<li>Singapore (see note below)

<li>Ghana (a rising star of fraud!)

<li>Ukraine

<li>Uganda

<li>Nigeria

<li>Hungary

<li>Belarus

<li>Estonia

<li>Latvia

<li>Lithuania

<li>Slovak Republic

<li>Russia

<li>Yugoslavia

<li>Macedonia

<li>Phillipines

<li>Thailand

<li>Malaysia (see note below)</ul>

<p>

I have no idea how accurate this is, but it obviously shows that there is perhaps some reason for reluctance to accept credit cards from certain countries, and that Romania (for whatever reason) is near the top of the list (or at least this list).

[darius.tulbure]

Now that makes me soo proud to be Romanian.

[bobatkins]

Nothing personal Darius. I'm sure there are good lists where Romania comes out on top too!

[darius.tulbure]

Strange things happen <a href="http://www.romania.org/">here</a>. Part of the fault is the police's impotence. However, what is really interesting is that there are many Western banks investing here, among them ING, Citibank, Group Societe Generale, Raiffeisen Bank, Erste Bank, Banca di Roma, Millennium Bank, HVB Bank, Porsche Bank... And yes, they all issue debit and credit cards.

[darius.tulbure]

Well, I made it by selecting a neighbor country. After a minute of though, I think I could have selected any country within <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union">EU</a>... since Europe is like a single country nowadays :P