As Paypal went down yet again – and this time in what appears to have been an outage lasting several hours and affecting people on several continents – people are looking for Paypal alternatives. But are there Paypal alternatives? The answer is a resounding yes – there are alternatives to Paypal, and they are looking better all the time.
In fact, there are several ways that you can send money to people online (or receive a payment of money from people online) that don’t involve Paypal at all. The primary reason that everyone defaults to Paypal is that Paypal has done a great job of making themselves ubiquitous. And while it’s true that Paypal also is very easy to use, some of the alternatives are equally easy – and at least one is arguably even easier!
Perhaps somewhat shockingly, the oldest method of sending a payment long distance, even worldwide, is often overlooked. This is probably because they, unlike Paypal, have done a terrible job of marketing themselves as an Internet payment option.
This company, more than 150 years old, and with a solid, stable, and secure track record, is none other than Western Union. Yes, it’s true – Western Union does indeed do online money transfers, and it’s incredibly easy. Just a few short clicks, and you’re done.
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Another interesting service for both sending and receiving money online is Ikobo. With Ikobo, the first time a payment is made, the recipient of the payment receives an Ikobo ATM card, which works at more than 1 million ATMs around the world. Even better, it’s also a Visa debit card, and can be used at any store that accepts Visa!
Here, according to Ikobo themselves, is how simple it is to use the Ikobo system:
1. Sign up and tell us who to send the money to and how much to send
2. iKobo Money Transfer sends your recipient a reloadable iKobo Visa® Prepaid Card
3. The iKobo card can be used to withdraw cash from over 1,000,000 ATMs worldwide or to make purchases anywhere Visa® is accepted
– The next time you send money the iKobo card is reloaded –
Finally, and our favorite, is the recently rolled out Amazon payments, which allows you to pay people – and people to pay you – using their Amazon account! Think about it – Amazon has millions of users, just like Paypal – and Amazon has the advantage of that wonderful 1-click payment button!
These are but three of the alternatives to Paypal for buying, selling, paying, and receiving payments online. There are many more, but these are the three that are our current favorites.
You can check Western Union out at WesternUnion.com.
Ikobo can be found at [Edit 2019: Unfortunately Ikobo is no longer available and their site is gone.]
You can read our full review of the Amazon Payments program here, and you can check it out at http://payments.amazon.com.
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This post needs an update – a lot has changed since then. now there actually are alternatives that offer lower fees than Paypal like Skrill, Paysera for selling or Transferwise, Xoom for money transfers.Western union is still a quite expensive option.
They’re not alternatives. Western Union take huge amounts of money for a service PayPal offers at lower cost. If someone else comes along cheaper, then perhaps we’ll have an alternative.
i’ve never trusted paypal ever since i beagan hearing about people having trouble getting their money out of paypal. while it may take a bit longer i can send a postal money order via snail mail.
I just checked Western Union and they charge £12 for sending £10 to Australia – total cost £22!
Not a good option for small payments, which is what Paypal was designed for.
All of these options cost MORE than PayPal.