Hi MooCash readers,
Like us, we know you like to get paid especially if it’s related to online activities. So, today, we’d like to try something different and look into the different ways to get paid online. By far, the most popular way to pay and receive money online is with Paypal. However, if you’ve been looking into receiving funds online and are looking into alternatives to Paypal, read on.
Why Use PayPal To Receive Money
Good news for people in the US. PayPal has made it so much easier to request money from friends and family to free. Your friends and family don’t even need to have a Paypal account, you just need to send them an email or a phone text message with your personalised note, requesting for funds. Or simply bump your phone against your friend’s phone, when both of you have the Paypal app installed. The more traditional way would be by logging into your PayPal account online and requesting or sending out payments.
You can still request and receive Paypal payments worldwide*, even if you’re not in the US. However, the difference is that your counterpart still needs to have or to open a new Paypal account to complete the transaction. Nonetheless, as with the asterisk above, although PayPal is widely available worldwide, there are still some countries where it is not possible to receive payments or that the local currency of that country is not available. Currently, only 25 currencies are accepted by Paypal.
Don’t worry if your country’s currency is not listed in PayPal’s supported currencies. All you need to do is when just withdraw the foreign currency into your bank account and PayPal will select the relevant exchange rate for the day. Just select your bank listed with Paypal in your country, and just key in your bank account number. Just make sure the name of your Paypal account is the same as your bank account, or you might just get the withdrawal bounced. You will then receive your payment in your bank account in your country’s currency.
PayPal: The Pros and Cons
As with everything else in life, there are benefits and drawbacks with using PayPal.
The Pros:
- No monthly or annual fees: free to open and use.
- Available worldwide
- Your bank details are kept private, away from third parties, only you and Paypal know its details.
- You can keep your Paypal balance in the different currencies that you received your funds in, such as USD, Eur, AUD, GBP.
The Cons:
- There is no interest earned if you leave a balance in your PayPal account
- The foreign exchange spot rate used by Paypal to transfer funds into your bank account is quite high compared to what local banks and online forex dealers charge
- Paypal has been known to freeze funds they consider suspicious without so much as a warning and there’s nothing much you can do about it except to appeal to their support
- Even if you have a USD bank account in your country (not the US), the withdrawal into you bank account will still transfer into your local currency
Paypal Alternative: Skrill (formerly MoneyBookers)
Skrill is also another well established online payment platform. It is free to open an account with Skrill and receiving money is also free via email into your Skrill account. Skrill accepts worldwide 40 different currencies. To withdraw funds, there are two main options: withdraw into your bank account or via a Skrill debit MasterCard to an ATM for cash withdrawals. Unlike Paypal which only issues a debit card to US residents, Skrill issues their debit cards to users worldwide, although the debit cards are only available in either one of these four currencies: USD, EUR, GBP and PLN.
Let’s look into the benefits and drawbacks of using Skrill to receive funds:
The Pros:
- Debit card is available to international users to withdraw cash
- Accepted worldwide
- More selection of currencies, at 40 + currencies.
- You can get paid for referring their merchant partners and if you are a US resident, you can get $25 for referring friends to open a Skrill account.
The Cons:
- To withdraw funds globally into your bank account, a fee of USD5.5 is charged
- Higher than normal exchange rates
- If your account is inactive after a year, a monthly fee of USD2.99 will be deducted from your account.
Skrill is especially useful if you live in a country which does not accept PayPal and is useful for those who want to own a debit card for online purchases. Skrill is also very popular among fantasy games players who can withdraw their winnings into their Skrill accounts.
Another PayPal Alternative: Payoneer
Payoneer is also another popular online payment processor. Just like Skrill, all users can have the ability to withdraw funds into their bank accounts, or debit into a prepaid debit MasterCard.
The Pros:
- Low fees for withdrawing funds into the bank account of the same currencies. For example, if you have Euro funds in your Payoneer account and want to withdraw it into your Euro currency bank account, the withdrawal fee for would only be Eur1.5. The same also applies to USD funds to USD bank accounts, and GBP funds to GBP bank accounts, at merely USD1.5 or GBP1.5, respectively.
- You get $25 for signing up, which will be added into your Payoneer account when it reaches $100 in payments
- You can get a virtual bank account in either USD, EUR, GBP, or JPY to receive payments. This is especially useful for those working online and need a conventional way to get paid.
The Cons:
- Yearly fee for the prepaid MasterCard of US$29.95
- Only available in a few currencies: USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, and CNY
Payoneer is especially useful for people who regularly receive funds online and need a virtual US bank account. Their low bank withdrawal fees is also another attractive factor.
Conclusion
Depending on where you live, you may not have access to all of these payment processors. However, if you do have access to all, and do not live in the US, a further country comparison may be required. Nonetheless, US residents can easily benefit from using these payment processor companies, and Payoneer offers the cheapest option.
For MooCash app users, which is your preferred payment processor for getting paid online? Tell us in the comments section below.