Linkswitch! PayPal Alternatives & Extra Goodies
Cara Williams’ post on the dangers of accepting credit card payments with PayPal struck a note with a lot of people. I thought it would be worth introducing some PayPal alternatives/back-up options, in addition to one tip that will do a lot to keep you safe: think of PayPal as a transit account, not a savings account.
Amounts over $150 can be transferred to your bank account free of charge, so wait until your account hits the tipping point, then empty it. Keep money in there a little longer if you know you’re going to buy something soon, but once the money is safely in the bank, PayPal no longer exercises any control over it.
And now, for your back-up plan:
Google Checkout — a popular PayPal alternative but only available to U.S. based freelancers at the moment.
Neteller — an oft-mentioned PayPal alternative.
Moneybookers — a money-transfer service targeting Europe.
iKobo — interesting and popular alternative where payment is delivered through a Visa pre-paid card.
If you’ve found a great PayPal alternative, let us know about it!
Bonus links:
Shane Pearlman is offering FSw readers exclusive invites to the beta version of Sproutwire, a content aggregating service for small business. Here’s your top secret invite. For those who want a little more information, Shane says: “We put together Sproutwire because we want good small business content vetted by people we trust (not the 10,000 angry teens on digg). We collect and post digestible reviews of small business content from the best blogs, newspapers, ebooks, presentation slides, journals, audio & video, newsletters, and anything else that we think will help you be better at what you do and live a happier life. Our goal is to keep it fresh, smart and personal.”
Bootstrapper shares fifty professional networks for freelancers (or, in other words, cool acronyms to put on your CV).
If you’ve been sidelined by all the talk of David Allen’s Getting Things Done, you might want a quick beginner’s guide to the book behind the phenomenon. Here’s a 43 Folders guide to help: getting started with GTD.
Freelance writers might like this calm-inducing advice on uncluttering your writing with self-imposed limitations.
And, finally, David Airey has assembled a mammoth list of 70 top-notch logo design resources.
3,200 freelancers surveyed globally. In-depth interviews with 10 notable freelancers.
Insights and information you can't afford to ignore!
Find Out More
With over 100 weekly comic strips and counting, Freelance Freedom is an institution around here. Check out of all NC's brilliant work in the archives.
Freelance Freedom Archives
Interested in contributing to FreelanceSwitch? Write for the foremost freelance community and help share knowledge for the benefit of all!
Become a Guest Writer
Awesome Alternatives!
Keep Rocking!
Aloke Pillai
I use Digg, but I’m *disgruntled*, not angry.
haha Damien – you have my sincerest apology. Disgruntled it is.
Skellie – you rock – you have my honest thanks for pimping my project.
=)
By the way, was it me, or was FSW down for the last few hours? Kept getting “server not found” errors.
@ Damien: We were having some problems with the server, but it seems to be fixed now.
I was kinda worried it was just me, too!
Thanks for this list of alternatives, I will keep them handy just in case, I try to get my clients to use Google Checkout as the fees are lower, plus just to correct your point Google Checkout is available to US and UK merchants and therefore freelancers.
http://checkout.google.com/support/sell/bin/answer.py?answer=42871
Not Australian merchants it’s not.
Some nice alternatives, but worth pointing out that Neteller isn’t available for anyone in the US (as well as a few other countries – it has a very tight history with online gambling basically)… so if you or your clients are based in the US, then it won’t be much use to you – for everyone else though (no probs for Australians btw) it’s quite good, especially if you apply for the free mastercard debit card that they offer.
Hi Skellie,
Welcome to your new role at FreelanceSwitch, and thanks very much for mentioning my logo design resources!
Bye for now.
Hi,
Google checkout is also available for UK customers. All in all its pretty good but they have poor support for older browsers and operating systems.
Cheers,
Alastair
Thanks for the heads up, I figured out the whole bank trick a while ago!
Great post!
I got to use payoneer.com and so far it’s great, despite the hair-raising fees.
So, does Google Checkout not have the same policy as PayPal when it comes to a situation like Cara’s? Are freelances more protected with Google Checkout?
I only use Western Union with International Clients.
Just recently I was very interested in finding an alternative to PayPal, since they take so damn much in fees. So I went to try and sign up for Google Checkout, and they require a credit card just for signing up… I don’t have a credit card because I’m underage, but I do have online access to my bank account and all, why do they have to single out people without credit cards?
Just a little stupid on their part, in my opinion. Nothing wrong with a bank account is there?
Thanks for the follow up with these other alternatives Skellie – and welcome.
I know people were asking for them, though I couldn’t really comment on the alternatives – my only experience had come from using Paypal.
i love you Carsy!!
let us all know this germs personal details, and we can go down there and sort him out!!!
This person has ripped off the most sweetest girl ever,
a wonderful alternative to paypal, is obopay. i believe its free to receive money, and only 10c to send money, no matter how large the amount is. you can also request that the money is deposited directly into your banking account. the person receiving does not require an account, and the money is sent to your mobile phone number.
http://www.obopay.com
I just checked out obopay.com beacuse I sell on eBay and had the same thing happen to me as it did Cara Willams, someone in the UK said they did not get an item as described but I did describe it and added 20 photos of the item and basically extorted money from me, opened a complaint with paypal and paypal auto put a hold on the money and through my account in negative so I would have to act, the person said he would take $60.00 out of the $260.00 payment to resolve the issure and lied that I would not respond to his emails, so anyway I told him once to send back the item if he couuld find one thing that I did not describe or that could not be seen in photos, he couldn’t so he chose this route, I could have challenged, well anyone who has been through this once understands there is just no reason too, just a lot of time and cost wasted, so anywya I had to accept his extorsion amount of $60.60 to close the dispute so I could get my $200.00 back to become out of my negative. PAYPAL is a rip off, they should have no right to do what they do with people money without hearing two sides and even then I think it is questionable.
I do not want to use PAYPAL any longer and if anyone know eBay just changed their rules so Buyers can not make payments with Money Order or Checks really only Paypal that eBay owns so they can double dip on the already high selling fees and now be totally in control of any money that exchanges even after the fact, after the deal is closed and done. where is my item? Why is all the money held, why not just take my word for it and if I do not make good on it do not allow me to use it after that point instead of extorting money through this way. I am so angry over this, and it’s really not the money, it’s the fact they can do this and get away with it, and I have hear 100′s of horror stories about paypal doing this.
Well I need to sell my items, I need the buyer to be able to pay, so I too am looking for a different way, did you see the credit card fees on the obopay.com, not to sure about that, but this does shift the payment to the buyer instead of the seller, but it does not say how people can pick up their money that is so easily sent through a phone or you can buy a dress through your phone, I certainly do not get how that works, if anyone does know how to get around this, let me know.
Even if it is switching money through a couple of these places so that the money did not originate from paypal so they have no right to hold it, I seemed trapped, and the fees are a killer.
I am not even going to read or edit this posting, I am just typing what is on my mind and I am sure it shows, I hope I can be understood.
Jeff USA
good list of alternatives. by now i remember the time of my paypal account limited. now i use ikobo which is a sure shot once you get the visa card.
PayPal is a sleazy “SOB” to make a long story short, I was a victim of fraud!! All customers’ money got refunded and I filed a complaint to the FBI and the district attorney of Chicago Illinois Lisa Madigan about my fraudster wholesaler. Stupid F-ing PayPal said “we will have to close your account since you are considered high risk” and I’m like “WTF” I have provided evidence that I have contacted the FBI and the district attorney of Chicago, Illinois about this fraud issue and I’m a risk to PayPal???? Man was I frustrated and angry, but its ok I simply said to the supervisor that PayPal is a joke!!! After all this years we have done business now you will double cross me??? I could of said go F yourself but I kept my cool and just simply said “will I must accept my loss and just move on, oh yeah by the way did I mention PayPal is a FRAUD too? The supervisor started to cough and I know he knew that PayPal is a true FRAUDSTER!!!!
Any idea how http://www.dwolla.com compare?
It’s interesting to read about obopay – i went to their merchant sign-up page, filled in the details, submitted, got a message that i would be contacted soon – they never contacted me. contacted them thru this form another four times – still never any response. don’t know why – i don’t sell anything risky or undesirable –
but surely they could have replied with a polite “sorry, we can’t help you” … hope they don’t turn out to be another paypal, too …
Alert pay is another option gaining popularity with paypal introducing new restrictions.I have found their service good and better than google checkout.Compare the charges of different portals at http://paypalalternatives.in
(i didnt read all the comments do apologize if i am repeating alertpay)
Very cool alternatives.
This is a great list that’s offered here of PayPal alternatives. I found this link a while ago and it has a multitude of PayPal alternatives — the great feature of this list is that is has extensive reviews on each alternative, both pros and cons and actually which country and business it is best suited for. All of the payment systems was actually tested by the webmaster of the site. If anybody is interested, you can find the list here:
http://www.screw-paypal.com/alternatives/alternatives.html
Hey you might want to check out Bitcoin, it’s free and open source!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin
http://bitcoin.org