Think PayPal sucks? Tired of PayPal’s idiosyncrasies? Mad at PayPal for freezing your account without any justifiable reason and therefore putting a halt to your online business? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. There are tons of people who despise PayPal for one reason or another. Are you looking for an alternative to PayPal for your business? You are? Good, because I have ten alternative for you to consider.
By the way, if you’re a disgruntled PayPal user you may be interested in visiting this site full of PayPal hating goodness:
Vent out your anger my friend. That’s right, let it all out!
Ok now, let’s get on with the show and focus on some PayPal alternatives:
1) Google Checkout – http://checkout.google.com/sell
Not contempt with dominating the search engine market, Google decided to play the merchant account provider game too. Why not? I mean, we all know that Google will one day rule the world.
When you use Google Checkout to process your sales, you’ll be charged 2% + $0.20 per transaction. If you advertise with Google AdWords, you will also be eligible for free credit card processing for some or all of your Google Checkout sales. Also there are no monthly, setup or gateway fees.
2) Digital River – http://www.digitalriver.com
Digital River, based in Eden Prairie, Minn, provides custom e-commerce solutions starting with your basic shopping cart going all the way to advanced solutions such as multi-currency merchant accounts. Best selling point: Digital River does not hold sellers’ money and will take the hit if a product needs to be returned. Also Digital River has no up-front cost and won’t charge until the first sale. Afterwards, its fee is based on performance, beginning at 2.9% plus a $1.00 transaction fee.
3) 2Checkout.com – http://www.2checkout.com
Established in 1999 and headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, 2CO provides turnkey e-commerce solutions. 2Checkout.com is a very popular processor of credit card and check payment that has separated itself from the typical merchant account provider crowd with their no-hassle sing-up process. You can have a merchant account setup with 2checkout in just a few minutes – no background or credit check will be done!
2Checkout asks for a one time only set up fee of $49.00. After that, you only pay for sales. If you sell nothing, you pay nothing. 2CO collects a 5.5% commission on each transaction plus a $0.45 charge per sale. There are no leases, no monthly fees, no application fees, no gateway fees, no additional card company or third party charges and no statement fees.
4) AlertPay – http://www.alertpay.com
Montreal-based AlertPay is the up-and-coming challenger vying to take over PayPal’s position of top dog on the payment processor scene. AlertPay came about as an attempt to meet the needs of “less mainstream” merchants which weren’t being catered to properly by PayPal. AlertPay founder Firoz Patel says his company “saw this particularly with multi-level marketing,” and that “some clients simply need more time and attention when it comes to payments.”
The introductory rate for AlertPay is 2.5% per transaction. But if your company is “off the beaten path” and requires more service, be prepared to pay 3.9%.
5) Bidpay: http://www.BidPay.com
This service is available only for those who buy and sell at online auctions. Buyers use their credit or debit card to make their purchases from you and BidPay sends you a Western Union Money Order or the payment is directly deposited into your checking account if you live in the U.S.
6) CCNow: http://www.CCNow.com
A shopping cart solution that also allows you to take all major credit cards without a merchant account. They pay you your earnings twice a month and while your money is sitting on account it earns 1.5% APR.
7) Ikobo: http://www.IKobo.com
With merchant fees at $2.99 plus .29 per transaction, and no extra fees for international transactions. You can sell to buyers in 170 countries. Payments are deposited to your bank account or to your Ikobo Visa debit card.
8) ClickBank: http://www.ClickBank.com
ClickBank is good for selling digital products and comes with a built-in affiliate program. You’ll have to pay a one time fee of $50.00, then it’s only $1.00 plus 7.5% of each transaction. Allows you to take payments from all credit card types and even PayPal payments.
9) ProPay: http://www.ProPay.com
Accept payments by credit card via the web or even by phone. Funds are deposited into your ProPay account. You can get a ProPay MasterCard to access your funds or transfer your earnings to your bank account. They have four types of accounts to choose from: Basic, Premium, Premium Plus, Platinum, with annual pricing from $34.95 all the way up to $299.95, depending on the features and type of account you need.
10) Money Bookers: http://www.moneybookers.com
Money Bookers offers a merchant feature that allows you to create order buttons for your website and be paid by credit card. Fees range from 2% all the way up to 8%, depending on how payments are made. No setup or monthly fees. You can accept payments from over 30 countries. Money can be transferred instantly to your bank account.
UPDATE: Ok, it seems the 10 paypal alternatives is now 11. Thanks to Aryeh Altshul for suggesting his company (Payoneer) to be added to the list
11) Payoneer
Payoneer markets, manages and services prepaid MasterCard cards. Payoneer works together with the First Bank of Delaware to issue and process cards. However, Payoneer also has a new offering they call a “US Virtual Account.” Essentially this allows Payoneer prepaid MasterCard holders that live outside the US to receive direct Automated Clearing House (ACH) deposits/payments without the necessity of actually having a US bank account. See this link for more details.
That about does it for this article folks. I hope you’ve found it useful and I wish you the best of luck with your business venture. By the way, if you’re merchant account provider and you’d like to get your site reviewed and included in future articles, please get in touch with me (e-mail can be found on the “about” page).
Cheers,
Alan