How to register a domain name with a naira visa card

I decided to register a domain name today with a Nigerian visa card and this is a blog post to share the story.

For those people who are already used to setting up websites, you'd agree that one of the first steps has to do with securing a domain name for the website. This is basically the domain name that forms part of the url which points to a website.

Most domain name registrars I know are based in the USA and you could register your domain name with them within 10 minutes by simply initiating a search for it.

One of the advantages of registering a domain name at US registrars is the speed at which you can secure your domain name unlike with some Nigerian providers which may tell you to wait for 24 hrs before securing that name.

Basically, a domain name costs about $10 a year, in my case it cost specifically $9.95 and this as you can see is in US dollars.

I've been used to registering domain names a lot from Nigeria but in the past I've been used to making use of USD Visa and Mastercards. Lately however, I found out that it didn't make much sense paying for domain names with USD when we already have Naira Visa cards issued in Nigeria which can also be used for making internet payments even if they were in US dollars.

What I did
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1. First activated my naira visa card for internet payments by changing my VbyV PIN
2. Used my naira visa card billing details in making the online payment.

Activating your Visa card for internet payments
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Since I already had a visa debit naira visa debit card attached to my bank account, I activated it for online use by visint an ATM

- Inserted the Visa card into the ATM
- Entered my ATM pin
- Selected to change password
- Selected the VbyV option
- Entered a VbyV PIN
- Removed my card

Now my Visa card was activated for online use.

Making payments with the Naira visa card
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- Ivisited netfirms to register a domain name.
- Searched for the domain name
- Proceeded to billing
- Added my visa card details such as name on card, billing address, CVV2(at back), expiry date and card number
- Chose to make opayment
- Billing went through seamlessly and I got a receipt.

In about 5 mins, I got an sms alert on my phone indicating my bank account has been debited.

The domain name cost me $9.95 and I was charged about N1769.26 which means an exchange rate of N177 had been applied.

The only drawback with using a naira visa card for paying on USD sites is the exchange rate which is mostly at the discretion of the issuing bank. At times you may be charged as much as N170 but it can also be as low as N160