PayPal is the world leading online payment service. You can transfer money to and from your bank account, pay for goods, and even receive payments worldwide. It’s a useful tool for entrepreneurs, freelancers, and even for personal use.
However, it does have its drawbacks. PayPal takes a significant chunk of money when it comes to converting and billing international payments. You could end up losing about 5% of your cash with each transfer. Therefore, it’s a good idea to look into other online payment services. There are five PayPal alternatives to send and receive money online.
Payza
Payza is another online money service that allows fast and easy transactions worldwide. You can connect it to your bank account or even a Bitcoin wallet, and send and receive payments to and from other Payza accounts.
It has a nice user interface as well as a good mobile app. It’s free to open an account and send money. However, receiving funds can result in a 2.90% transaction fee and slightly more for international transfers. It’s not necessarily a better option than PayPal, but it offers much of the same.
Stripe
Stripe supports currencies in over 135 worldwide countries. Transaction fees are mostly identical to PayPal’s. However, Stripe has certain advantages over PayPal; for instance, you can charge cards from your website for free. This makes it preferable to PayPal for many businesses.
You will have to deal with a slightly inflated fee for currency conversions. Stripe shows all of their fees upfront so you don’t have to worry about being caught off-guard. While it’s not the greatest for personal use, companies can benefit from their enterprise account.
TransferWise
TransferWise is one of the best online wallets you can get. It allows you to send and receive payments, and even open up a bank account in a different currency.
By opening up a new bank account to receive EUR or GBP, for instance, you can save tons on transfer fees. Although TransferWise only charges a tiny cash fee for transfers, they aim to make it entirely free in the future, which makes it a fantastic alternative to PayPal. You’ll also get a debit card for your international bank accounts.
Payoneer
Payoneer promises low fees with no hidden costs. Much like TransferWise, you can set up receiving accounts in multiple locations and take payments with fees as low as 1%. That makes it a great alternative to PayPal for those who take money from international sources.
You also only have to pay $1.50 to transfer to and from your bank account. The only drawback is a $30 annual fee. However, this is only charged on your earnings, so don’t worry about losing money.
Google Pay
Google Pay lets you add money from your bank account straight to your Google Wallet. You can make contactless payments in store, buy from apps without re-entering your payment details, and manage your money online or on your smartphone.
You can also send and receive money instantly using just a phone number. There’s a 2.9% fee for using it with a credit card, but you won’t be charged anything when using it with a bank account or debit card. This makes it an incredibly attractive option for easy digital payments. While international transfers are only available between the UK and US right now, chances are this will become a much better option for international payments in future.
Conclusion
There are other options. Some people handle international transactions without any extra charges by using cryptocurrencies. Apple also has their own payment service – Apple Pay. However, when it comes to easy online transactions, these are the best PayPal alternatives out there.