Alternatives to PayPal
PayPal is the largest, most-used online payment platform in North America; unfortunately, PayPal’s customers are also the most prone to fraud, abuse and yes, PayPal’s malevolent dictatorship. If your account has ever been subject to “limitations” due to an unscrupulous buyer, a third party’s attempt to defraud you or just because some arbitrary PayPal representative was having a bad day, then it’s time for you to ditch the “world’s most-loved way to get paid” and check out some of these PayPal alternatives, instead.
Google Checkout
After dominating the search engine, e-mail and online map industries, Google finally decided to venture into the world of online payments processing. Google Checkout is Google’s newest endeavor, but it’s already booming with over 6 million buyers and sellers. Like PayPal, Google allows buyers to pay for purchases by credit card or bank transfer while keeping their information private. Sellers can accept payments, transfer funds between other Google Checkout users, transfer money into their bank accounts or use their funds to go shopping online. Google Checkout offers various privacy settings that you control -- something PayPal definitely doesn’t offer -- and it takes less than 30 seconds to get started. It’s free to sign up, and Google Checkout’s per-transaction rates are a lot less than PayPal’s. Plus, it’s Google, so you know it’s good.
PayPay
The name is only one letter off from PayPal, and with good cause: PayPay is the closest payment platform to PayPal you can get without actually using PayPal. PayPay offers traditional account-to-account, credit card and electronic check payments for no monthly fees, with transaction fees ranging to around half of what the other guys charge. PayPay also offers buy-it-now and add-to-cart buttons that you can use to create your own free instant shopping cart directly on your website. You can also promote PayPay on your website to earn some extra commission on the side. Don’t have a website? Buyers can send payments directly to your PayPay account using your e-mail address, or you can create your own links using PayPay’s merchant center to accept payments directly from your customers without revealing your e-mail address. If you hate PayPal, but you just can’t let go, then PayPay is definitely the way to go.
MoneyBookers
MoneyBookers is a streamlined third-party payment processor that allows buyers to pay you without ever seeing your personal information. Unlike PayPal, MoneyBookers does not require your buyers to sign up for an account to send payments. You can even customize your payment gateway using a drag-and-drop system, or -- if you have a little HTML knowledge -- you can create your own custom webpage, instead. MoneyBookers is the only PayPal alternative that eBay actually allows sellers to use for payment processing, so if you’re an eBay seller that can’t stand PayPal, MoneyBookers is the PayPal alternative for you.
2Checkout
2Checkout is the newest player in the payment processing game, but it’s proving itself a worthy opponent already. Like PayPal, 2CO works with close to 50 different shopping cart systems for easy set-up with your current website. Or, you can use 2CO’s easy-to-use virtual shopping cart to create your own product buttons free of charge. The downside of 2Checkout is the one-time payment of $49 the service charges to get started, and that’s in addition to the 5.5% commission 2CO takes from each sale you make. Payments are released twice a week, instead of withdrawn on demand, and you must meet a certain threshold before you can collect your money. Nevertheless, the tools and ease of access 2CO offers, along with fraud protection, lands 2Checkout a viable spot on the list of alternatives to PayPal.
