Video response from Ed, Halocard’s founder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZLx1bfm8WM
Hi ivykp,
Thank you for taking the time to share this, and I’m genuinely sorry that your experience fell short. I recorded the video above to respond to your concerns personally.
To clarify the $92: this consists of our $12 subscription fee and an $80 minimum initial deposit. The $80 remains entirely yours to spend using your HaloCard, we do not keep it as a fee. The minimum funding requirement helps us deter fraud and abuse, while the subscription supports the level of service we provide.
That said, if this breakdown wasn’t completely clear before you paid, then we need to communicate it more prominently.
WHAT WE’VE CHANGED: We've included reference to the minimum deposit amounts in both the features and FAQ section on the homepage to make sure it's more visible. Great suggestion.
Regarding the declined transaction, we would need the merchant name and the decline reason displayed in your HaloCard dashboard to identify exactly what happened. Possible causes include a Visa-restricted merchant category, an actionable card or account issue, or a merchant-side restriction on US-issued virtual cards.
You also mentioned that the same decline occurred with another virtual-card provider. That pattern suggests the merchant or its payment processor may be restricting certain cards more generally, so it sounds like neither Halocard nor any other virtual card provider would be a silver bullet solution for this unfortunately. If you’re willing, please send the merchant name and dashboard decline reason to secure@halocard.co so we can investigate this properly.
WHAT WE’VE CHANGED: Your feedback has prompted us to build a merchant-acceptance database on the website, giving future customers clearer guidance on specific merchants before they sign up, to avoid the issues you had.
Thank you again for your feedback and it's helped make Halocard 1% better. We won’t get everything right every time, but when customers raise genuine concerns, we’ll listen, respond openly and improve.
💚 Ed, Founder of Halocard