As a part of these changes, iBill began issuing customers who subscribed to recurring membership sites a Virtual Visa debit card under the "gkard" label, which comes pre-loaded with the full amount the customer initially charged via his/her Visa.
"We're really IBill, but without Visa," a gkard representative told XBiz. "As for the mechanics of the process, if you want to use Visa to pay for a membership, you have to first load the funds onto the gkard using your Visa, then use your gkard number to join the site. This helps security by limiting the number of people who have your Visa number."
This is a similar process to the one used by other Virtual Visa users, and one familiar to devotee's of Epoch's ePassporte system.
IBill informed customers about these new changes Friday in an email that stated:
"Previously, your credit card has been charged with the descriptor ibillcs.com for your subscription to an Internet website. Going forward, gkbill will now be the new billing agent. During your next billing cycle, your credit card statement will contain a new descriptor, gkard load*gkbill.com. This change will be effective on your next billing cycle. As an added feature of this change, you now have a gkard, Visa Electronic Card, which has been loaded with the appropriate billing amount for your subscription."
IBill added that no additional changes to existing subscriptions have been made and no service interruptions are expected.
"By switching billing agents, your last rebill may have been slightly delayed," iBill continued. "As result of bringing your account up to date, you might see two charges on your next credit card statement to coincide with the delayed and current charge."
Calls to the Deerfield Beach, Florida-based iBill were met by a canned message directing callers to their website and to details found within the "iBill Direct Merchant Agreement." Due to "heavy call volume" no live operators were available to provide further details.