Online payment services: comparison of providers
In this practical tip, we will compare three of the largest providers of online payment services.
1. Online payment service: PayPal
PayPal is the world's largest online payment service provider with more than 230 million member accounts.
- Payment: You can top up your PayPal balance by direct debit, bank transfer and credit card. The transfer of money to another PayPal account usually takes only a few minutes and takes place via the recipient's email address.
- Fees: Sending money is free of charge via PayPal. The recipient must pay a fee of 35 cents plus 1.9 percent of the total amount.
- Availability: PayPal can be used in almost all online shops worldwide and is particularly popular because of the fast money transfer.
- Other: PayPal can also be used to issue invoices and make bulk payments. Since your transaction partner only needs your email address, your bank and account details remain secret.
2. Online payment service: Giropay
Giropay is an online payment service that was founded by several German credit institutions.
- Payment: To be able to use Giropay, you need a current account at a bank that supports Giropay. You do not need a separate Giropay account, but will be redirected to the website of your bank for authentication when paying. Here you will find a completed transfer that you can authorize by TAN.
- Fees: Giropay only incurs additional fees for retailers.
- Availability: Giropay is supported by more than 1, 500 banks and by numerous German online shops such as Redcoon, Saturn and Media Markt. The distribution does not come close to that of PayPal.
- Other: Giropay payments cannot be reversed. To find out whether your bank supports Giropay, the provider offers a search function on its website.
3. Online payment service: Skrill
Skrill (formerly MoneyBookers) is a PayPal-like online payment service with 35 million user accounts worldwide.
- Payment: Skrill works on the prepaid principle. To be able to make payments and transfers, you must first deposit money. The deposit is made by credit card or bank transfer.
- Fees: When sending money to private customers, there is a fee of one percent up to a maximum of 10 euros. Money can be transferred to traders free of charge. Receiving payments is free of charge for private customers.
- Availability: Skrill is supported by 135, 000 online retailers worldwide, as well as all gaming and gaming portals.
- Other: Optionally, every customer can request the "Skrill Prepaid MasterCard", with which you can access the money deposited in your account worldwide. While payment in restaurants or other shops is free, there is a fee of 1.80 euros when withdrawing from ATMs. The annual fee for the "Skrill Prepaid MasterCard" is 10 euros.
If you make many online transactions, you should make sure that you only buy from reputable shops. In the next practical tip, we will show you how to recognize reputable online shops.