Alternate Payment Platforms for International Transactions (1 Viewer)

[davislane]

PP still charges fees for FF transfers even if you have USD in your account.

I just dont do any conversions...I keep the $$ in my account.
The fee is the least of my concern for a hassle free, safe & instant payment

You can always open a second bank account (specific in USD), link it in PP and convert it that way

 

[Thomacetti]

I know...but these are 2-3 EUR, again...that's nothing for a safe, instant international payment.

 

[Kasper Storrs]

I rate transferwise, as they have good conversion rates and small fees. Sending money can take a few days though.

 

[Marius L]

Anyone from the US made a revolut account yet? I've used it a few times with Euro transactions from GB and Germany, and it has worked great. Good exchange rates if you want to send the money to/from your bank account, and no fees on transactions IIRC. I'm sold on them. Would happily do a couple of small test transfers to US users to see how it works with USD.

 

[LeGold]

Alternatively, if someone over there would be willing to help by means of accepting wired money (sent via Revolut or TransferWise) and do PP/Venmo locally on demand (for instant payment on classifieds stuff), that would be amazing.

 

[Marius L]

I know...but these are 2-3 EUR, again...that's nothing for a safe, instant international payment.

It does add up though, if there is a free/cheaper alternative there's no point to keep paying this.

Buying a DB here, some singles there, a rack here a set there... It adds up, and feel pretty ridiculous especially on small purchases. If you buy a DB shipped for $7.5 and you have to pay $2.33 extra as fees That means about 25% of your payment is fees. Pretty crazy on small purchases. Obviously it's not a deal breaker for lost of us, as we are still here. But we should still look for other cheaper options if they exist.

I could probably buy at least a rack of chips just from these international fees alone that I've paid in my time here. I'm sure other international chippers are in the same boat. It's not huge, but it is what it is.

 

[wuffle]

It’s about 4.5% if I use PayPal G&S (we don’t have FF option here in Singapore).

I will gladly pay in crypto or USD denominated coins such as USDC/GUSD/USDT

 

[tabletalker7]

remove the possibility to let the card issuer due currency conversion instead of PP doing it

Paypal is cheaper than the card issuer doing it for those of us in the US - most people have a flat rate (ridiculously high) foreign transaction fee to pay on our cards to go along with their pitiful conversion rate.

 

[LeGold]

Paypal is cheaper than the card issuer doing it for those of us in the US - most people have a flat rate (ridiculously high) foreign transaction fee to pay on our cards to go along with their pitiful conversion rate.

Ok, quite the opposite here - there's a standard ~2% conversion fee, but PayPal's rate is much worse.

 

[Marius L]

If I understand it correctly Revolut has free, instant transfers from one Revolut account to another. Transfers can be any of the standard currencies. This is perfect for PCF, and it can be used in most places, for example Europe, Singapore, and the US. Theres a full list here:

Spoiler: Country list

We are currently only supporting legal residents of the European Economic Area (EEA), Australia, Canada, Singapore, Switzerland, Japan and the United States. The EEA includes:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

You can keep different currencies in your account (all the common ones, but most likely will be EURO and USD for chippers), and it can sit there if you plan on using it to buy more chips soon, or you can transfer it to yout bank account. To transfer to your bank account you might have to exchange the money first, which you can do at the interbank rate (essentially free) during weekdays. (they add 1% fee if you do it on the weekends)

Spoiler: interbank exchange rate

The interbank rate is the constantly fluctuating price at which banks trade currencies with each other. Unfortunately for consumers, most banks charge up to a 5% margin on the interbank rate when they send your money overseas, which could cost you hundreds depending on the size of your transfer.

This is obviously really helpful, espescially for people like myself from Norway, Sweden, Canada, Euro-based countries, Singapore or whereever that dont use USD.


Here's a link to an overview of the fees from revoluts website.

So lets do an example.

I want to buy some chips from a US based PCFer and I have just opened my free revolut account. I want to buy a rack of chips that cost $100 shipped in the US. (for easiness sake, lets say I have a US reshipper to help me with shipping). I send money from my bank account to my revolut account. I send it in my currency, Norwegian Kroner (NOK). (This is free, and instant if using a debit card. - I just tried). So now I have $100 worth of NOK in my account. I then exchange it in my revolut account (super easy to use mobile app btw). If this is on a weekday/night it gives me the best posible rates. Better than most banks, and certainly better than Paypal. I then transfer the $100 to the US based PCFers who also have a Revolut account. This transfer is instant. The seller now has $100 USD in their account, that he can either leave there to use for chips later, or transfer to his bank account. (also free, but takes a few days I believe)



Heres three screenshot of the confirmation page on both Paypal and Revolut. I dont currently have any US friends on my app, so I can't actually do the excact same thing, but I'm comparing the confirmation screen on sending $100 to someone on paypal (two options, with pp conversion price and my banks conversion), and simply exchanging the money on my revolut account. Please let me know if you live in the US and have a Revolut account and I can add you as a friend just to show what it would look like.

PayPal ff with pp conversion fee:

PayPal ff with my banks conversion fee (won't know until it's been processed)

If exchanging NOK to $100 USD on revolut.

With PP conversion+ FF international I would have to pay 948 NOK for $100, compared to 886 NOK for $100 through revolut..

 

[tabletalker7]

Ok, quite the opposite here - there's a standard ~2% conversion fee, but PayPal's rate is much worse.

I have a flat rate $15 charge - and that is before they set their exchange rate pitifully low.

 

[LeGold]

OK, I've just revoluted myself.

 

[davislane]

Thanks for everyones contributions. Has anyone successful transacted with US chippers here using Revolut that can vouch for it? We need feedback from members to help establish trust in using the service.

 

[davislane]

Revolut sounds like a great and direct replacement for paypal but It will probably take a while to get some traction here on PCF. Since most of the transactions are done on USD here we would need a large portion of the US chippers on here especially the veterans to willing open an account on REVOLUT and go through verification process etc. I would expect some resistance especially since they dont have to. I have had plenty of people just so paypal or nothing.

The current benefit I see with Transferwise is thats its simple for the receicer to use. You ask for the first and last name and email address. The sender initiates the transaction. They receivers gets an email where they enter the accounts details which arent privy to and the money shows up a few days later. The biggest downside is that its not instant but there seems to be less resistance to a delay in receiving funds versus having to go up through a whole sign up process which is off putting to some.

Just some of the considerations and challenges to overcome when considering an alternative to Paypal and trying to get more US based PCF on board.

 

[Marius L]

Revolut sounds like a great and direct replacement for paypal but It will probably take a while to get some traction here on PCF. Since most of the transactions are done on USD here we would need a large portion of the US chippers on here especially the veterans to willing open an account on REVOLUT and go through verification process etc. I would expect some resistance especially since they dont have to. I have had plenty of people just so paypal or nothing.

The current benefit I see with Transferwise is thats its simple for the receicer to use. You ask for the first and last name and email address. The sender initiates the transaction. They receivers gets an email where they enter the accounts details which arent privy to and the money shows up a few days later. The biggest downside is that its not instant but there seems to be less resistance to a delay in receiving funds versus having to go up through a whole sign up process which is off putting to some.

Just some of the considerations and challenges to overcome when considering an alternative to Paypal and trying to get more US based PCF on board.

BTW you can do wire transfers from your revolut to someone's bank account as well, so might still be a good option for the sender to avoid bad exchange rate. (at least I'm 99% sure)

 

[davislane]

BTW you can do wire transfers from your revolut to someone's bank account as well, so might still be a good option for the sender to avoid bad exchange rate. (at least I'm 99% sure)

That requires the receiver to send you their bank details which they may not be comfortable in doing. A big reason why paypal is popular is because there is a privacy element to it.

 

[LeGold]

That requires the receiver to send you their bank details which they may not be comfortable in doing. A big reason why paypal is popular is because there is a privacy element to it.

That is interesting and new to me. In Norway, it is perfectly normal to give someone your bank account number to get a payment. Not judging or anything, just being curious.

 

[tabletalker7]

That is interesting and new to me. In Norway, it is perfectly normal to give someone your bank account number to get a payment. Not judging or anything, just being curious.

In the United States, the only people who ask for for your bank account number are thieves trying to empty said account into their own.

 

[LeGold]

In the United States, the only people who ask for for your bank account number are thieves trying to empty said account into their own.

Thought it might be something in that direction... but how can they do that?

 

[davislane]

In the United States, the only people who ask for for your bank account number are thieves trying to empty said account into their own.

This

 

[PocketAces]

I don’t think you necessarily need a bank account. one can send money instantaneously to a Revolut contact just using their phone number.

 

[davislane]

I don’t think you necessarily need a bank account. one can send money instantaneously to a Revolut contact just using their phone number.

Convenient if members want to give you their phone number.

 

[LeGold]

Convenient if members want to give you their phone number.

Well... if someone doesn't trust me with they phone number, why should I trust them with sending potentially several hundreds of USD...

 

[davislane]

Well... if someone doesn't trust me with they phone number, why should I trust them with sending potentially several hundreds of USD...

Not sure how many members here request / give out their phone number in order to complete a transaction.

Anyway trusting the vendor to send your chips after they have your money is a whole different topic and Im sure there are many threads about it.

This thread was started to try and discuss an alternate payment platform for non US based chippers transacting in USD and trying to establish "trust" in a such a platform.

Im trying to encourage members who have tried a non paypal platform to receive funds to share their experiences with the hope others may be open to trying the alternative also.

Remember US based chippers are the majority here and there is no real benefit for them to use an alternate platform since the status quo works for them especially for US to US FF transactions.

The only way we can expect them to help us save money is to pick a service that is easy for them to use and most importantly is secure and hopefully provides them with a similar level of privacy afforded to them with paypal.

 

[tabletalker7]

Thought it might be something in that direction... but how can they do that?

Computerized wire transfers

 

[Marius L]

Convenient if members want to give you their phone number.

Is this much worse than giving out your email address for PayPal?

 

[tabletalker7]

Is this much worse than giving out your email address for PayPal?

I have a separate email for my online shenanigans. Nothing truly important goes there. My phone number is solely meant to be used by the 9000 people calling me to try to sell me an extended car warranty

 

[RowdyRawhide]

Just read an article yesterday about an app that is on the horizon called HUMBL. Its supposed be on par as some sort of international Venmo or Zelle. I couldn't find details as far fees were concerned but it could be another option around the end of the year.

 

[LeGold]

I can now confirm that my first chipping transaction using Revolut was a success and went very smoothly!

 

[Don Clay]

Hi,
Thanks @davislane for running this conversation.
So, it looks there are two possible alternatives to PP : Revolut or Transfer wise?
I need to go and check that
PPs change rate is scandalous and they charge huge fees imo.