When someone talks about the best medium to transfer, send or receive money online, PayPal comes to our mind. However, PayPal needs a credit card to activate the whole account. Although some international chip debit cards work smoothly with PayPal, not everyone has it. If you are into a freelancing job, and you need to handle clients from all across the globe, you cannot stick to a single payment gateway. This is where these PayPal alternatives can help you.
Best PayPal alternatives
You should know that some of them may not work in all countries. So do verify first before you sign up.
1] Payoneer
Payoneer is probably the best PayPal alternative out there as is is available in more than 200 countries. The best part is that it supports more than 150 different currencies. In other words, it doesn’t matter whether you want to get payment from the US or India or Australia, you can certainly do so with the help of Payoneer. Like PayPal, it has a verification process that you must follow to get a fully approved the account. The advantage of using Payoneer is that you can get a prepaid MasterCard which can be used to make purchases – it works just like other regular debit cards.
2] Skrill
Skrill (formerly MooneyBookers) is being used on various eCommerce websites from across the globe. Like other PayPal alternatives, you can obviously send and receive money through Skrill. The best part of Skrill is that you can send or receive money instantly. According to them, it is also possible to withdraw money to your bank account from your Skrill account instantly. The first international transaction on Skrill is free. Following that, you will be charged based on the country, currency, and amount. Skrill is being supported in more than 200 countries and almost 40 different currencies.
3] 2CheckOut
You may have already seen the “2CheckOut” logo on various eCommerce websites since this service is quite popular in the United States. This is because they charge low in the United States. For your information, you need to pay 1% fee for each successful payment. You can create a 2CheckOut account using a debit card as well as a credit card. Like other substitutes, you have to pay a currency conversion charge. For 2CheckOut, it is between 2-5%. Considering all the charges, 2CheckOut seems quite pricey, but they promise better security.
4] Google Pay
The internet giant, Google, has made this online payment gateway to simplify the whole process of sending and receiving money. The advantage of Google Pay is that it is very secure, and you can lock down your account with a 2-factor authentication. It is easy to send money, very easy to request money, easy to cash out, and so on. The disadvantage is that you cannot use Google Wallet from outside of the United States and the United Kingdom. As of now, this PayPal alternative is bound to those two countries.
There are many other ways to send and receive money online – like Payza, Paymate, Dwolla, Stripe, WePay, Selz, Neteller, Payeer, etc, each having their own set of unique features. However, these are probably the most accessible, trustworthy, and easy to use substitutes to PayPal, in my opinion. If you have any other suggestions, please post in the comments below.
PayPal user? Take a look at these PayPal login & security tips.
