Great Alternatives To PayPal

February 26th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under • by admin

In the last few years, it’s become quite apparent that there are some real problems with using PayPal to send and receive money. Recently I wrote an article entitled “The Problem With PayPal” describing its many flaws and questionable policies. With PayPal, you waive the right to being able to use a charge-back to get your money back if you are scammed. Their seller protection policy does next to nothing to protect is merchants, and it’s been sued several times. Considering all of these things, perhaps it’s time to consider some of the many PayPal alternatives to send and receive money on the internet. Here are some of the PayPal’s best competitors that you might want to consider.

Google Checkout – This is Google’s direct competitor to PayPal, it offers pretty much all of the same features but much lower fees. In addition, you can get a $10 bonus on your first purchase, which isn’t bad at all. Google Checkout charges the merchants 2.0% + 20 cents per transaction, a bit better than what PayPal is offering. Through the end of the year, Google is charging nothing for a processing fee as well. Because of some shady business practices by eBay, you cannot use Google Checkout to pay or accept payment for eBay purchases.

BidPay – A much more seasoned competitor to PayPal is BidPay. It’s been around since 1999 and bills it self as an online auction payment service. There are a lot of benefits for merchants, because it allows them to accept credit cards and money internationally without a merchant account. There are no fees for buyers either, making it a pretty good deal. Unlike Google Checkout, you can us this service on eBay. BidPay charges 2.5% of the transaction as well as an additional 50 cents per each transaction.

CCNow – This is another very good way to accept and send money through online auctions and online purchases. There fees are much higher than Google Checkout and other services though. They insist on 5.00% of one’s purchases as well as $0.50 per sale. The one benefit of this service is that any money sitting in the account will accrue interest at 1.50% APY.

ProPay – ProPay is a very similar service to the others. They charge a $34.95 annual fee and have a tiered fee structure, less than that of PayPal, but higher than some of the others. There are no other hidden fees with this service which is a big plus.

If you’re buying through an online auction, you’re really at the mercy of what the person accepts. Fortunately for most of the services the only fees are to the merchants. If you are a merchant and are looking for a PayPal alternative, Google Checkout seems to be the way to go. It has the best fees out of all of them, and offers a nice signup bonus!