This Paypal Review will focus on very vital points that will reveal to you if to use or not use it for your international money transfer activities. What advantages does Paypal provide to end-users and should you utilize it to send money abroad when there are several other global money transfer companies as reviewed on this website? Before we begin, let’s note that PayPal happens to be the largest web payment company in the entire globe and has around 200 million active users (individual and business account holders).
PayPal International Money Transfer Review
There are more than 6 billion transactions executed every year via PayPal and this accounts for about $350 billion annually. It is a global money payment provider that is utilized by consumers & merchants for diverse e-commerce transactions comprising those of goods and services payments on the internet. It also permits end-users to initiate individual payments to family members & friends all over the world.
Considering PayPal, it allows you to send money from 161 countries to other PayPal account holders in 78 countries & in 26 payment currencies. Once the recipient receives a PayPal fund, he or she can further utilize such PayPal balance to withdraw money to their bank account, or to make payments for goods & services on the World Wide Web.
PayPal is actually a no-brainer as a huge majority of people globally has a PayPal account these days. To set it up and use is very simple.
With respect to fees, PayPal is exceptionally transparent with pricing and its term, and will hardly lock a user into any contract with premature termination fee. It provides benefits for large number of integrations, thus as a user – you can be sure that it will flawlessly sync with your shipping software, shopping cart, account apps – among others.
Just like every other business online, PayPal is actually not without its shortcomings. Clearly, the company is swift to hold on to a merchant’s funds and also freeze or shut down accounts if it suspects any form of fraud. The company is very alert when it comes to risk-related matters. Looking at some comments online from few end-users, you will find a handful of frustrated sellers whose funds have been locked up in PayPal’s risk section. While it might be really great to use this company due to several benefits, we believe a better way to prevent relying solely on it – is to consider using other global money payment companies reviewed on this site – along with it. You can use PayPal as a secondary payment option with regards to cases that might prompt you to deal with the aforementioned issues, as this will put you in a state where you won’t be entirely cut off from your funds.
So far so good, PayPal is known to be very consistent & transparent as far as payment is concerned, though it is not the cheapest choice available online. In case you are considering getting low rates with PayPal, you should go for a regular merchant account.
PayPal service is truly safe, but this comes at a high fee. In reality, the overall cost of a cross-border individual payment with a currency conversion is at least 2.8 percent of the contract amount, comprising both the payment & currency conversion fees. In general, you can pay much above this, & in most extreme conditions, you are likely to incur overall cost that’s close to 10 percent. Knowing well that there are other less costly options available, we advise that you always compare all your options on this website. If you choose to make a money transfer with PayPal, put this into consideration!
Also it is obvious that the company offers a pay-as-you-go setup that functions great for most merchants, however if you choose to use a few advanced features such as recurring billing, hosted payment page and a virtual terminal, among others, these will cost you extra monthly fees.
With this PayPal International Money Transfer Review, we can say that every merchant should accept PayPal, though merchants shouldn’t depend on it exclusively. PayPal is universal and adding the option on your website can help trigger more sales. Remember that while so, there is always a risk of a user’s account being frozen with an aggregator as aforementioned, & it’s a situation you just have to accept. To minimize such risk, you can help yourself by reading up on PayPal’s TOS (terms of service) and ensure your business falls within the set guidelines.
Customer Service & Support:
PayPal has several customer service support options comprising:
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- Community Forum
- Knowledgebase
- Phone/Email that is accessible Monday through Friday and between 5 a.m. and 8 p.m. PST, and then Saturday through Sunday 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PST.
- And social media support via Twitter and Facebook.
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PayPal seems to have some drawbacks with its phone support. While certain times it can be awesome, most other times, it is just awful. This can be expected from any big firm, though not certainly ideal.
PayPal Payment Methods
Where several payment methods are accessible to fund a transaction, PayPal will allow you to select your preferred payment method. Bear in mind that all payment methods are available in all countries. Note also that the payment method selected can hugely influence cost of every transaction, as some methods attract extra fees or/and more costly currency conversions. Looking for better affordable option, it is smarter to add funds to your PayPal account, then convert the account balance to the receiving currency, & then utilize such balance to fund your payment.
The following are sources utilized by PayPal to fund a transaction:
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- Using your PayPal account balance in the receiving currency
- Using your PayPal account balance in some other currency
- Initiating a direct bank transfer from your linked bank account
- Using PayPal credit
- Using your PayPal debit or credit card
- Using your regular debit or credit card
- And initiating a regular bank transfer from your linked bank-account…
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A typical PayPal International Money Transfer scenario:
Let’s assume that you are in the United States & desire sending USD 100 to your family member in UK. Let’s consider the following:
You have a balance of USD 150. Here, PayPal will utilize your USD balance to wholly fund the transaction.
You have a balance of GBP 50, and a balance of USD 75. In this scene, PayPal will first utilize your whole balance of USD 75, & will then utilize portion of your GBP 50 balance that will be converted into USD to make payment for the USD 25 that’s left.
Say you have a GBP 50 balance & also a credit card that’s linked to your PayPal account. With this scenario, PayPal will utilize your whole balance of GBP 50 that will be converted into USD and then bill your credit card for the transaction remainder to make up for the payment.
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PayPal fees
For individual payments to family members & friends, PayPal will charge a fee in the scene that the payment is transnational, that is if the sender’s and recipient’s PayPal accounts are in dissimilar countries. For domestic individual payments, this carries no fees, except where you have to pay with a debit card or credit card.
Also fee for intercontinental individual payments varies on the method of payment, sender’s country or location, and the recipient’s country as well. This fee is calculated as a fraction of the amount to be paid, together with a fixed fee for funds paid via debit or credit card.
The individual/personal payment fee is quite lesser for payments initiated via your PayPal balance or that which is linked with your bank account. This is lower when compared to every other payment method such as those of debit or credit card. We advise that if you have a payment to make that’s not urgent, carry out the transaction by adding funds to your PayPal account via a bank transfer and then make payments for your transaction as this is much cheaper; or simply use your linked bank account as this provides benefits of much better exchange rates.
PayPal will not charge you fees for adding or making fund withdrawals ‘to or from’ your PayPal account, thus you & your recipient shouldn’t worry about paying any other fees.
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PayPal exchange rate
PayPal’s exchange rate for individual/personal payments comprises a 2.5% to 4.5% margin deducted from the wholesale rate, and this is contingent on the sender’s location & the receiving currency.
Note that since PayPal’s exchange rates for balance conversions are quite much better than when compared with payment conversions, it becomes wiser to load cash on your PayPal account, initiate balance conversion & further utilize the balance to fund your transaction. With this process, you enjoy the best exchange rate together with lowest fees.
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Other Transaction Fees to consider:
- For every web transaction, a payment of 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction is required from you.
- For mobile/ in-store transaction, you are required to pay 2.7%.
- For virtual terminal transactions, you are required to pay 3.1% plus $0.30 for every transaction.
- For bulk transactions, you will be charged 2% to $1.
- And for any chargebacks, this calls for a $20 fee.
In conclusion PayPal’s;
Transfer Fees are considerate,
Security is excellent
Customer Service is fair
Transfer Speed is super great
And it is ultimately user-friendly.
PayPal Review
Summary
PayPal is a great online payment option and we are fully confident in recommending it to you. For other great alternatives, you can go through our general global money transfer payment reviews and comparison on this site.