Payment Processors the key to your money
Payment processors such as PayPal, AlertPay, Moneybookers and e-gold are key to making money online. Without them everything would be done with credit cards and things would get very confusing very quickly. PayPal is probably the largest payment processor at this point with around 150 million accounts by my best guess. They also are one of the oldest payment processors, being around since late 1999. They also have operations in hundreds of companies. PayPal is a great company to have an account with as you can do business with so many different people.
AlertPay is another payment processor based out of Canada. AlertPay, according to DNS records, was founded on October 30th 2005. Otherwise, their history is very difficult to track. They have no Wikipedia article of anything about it on their website. However, AlertPay is the payment processor of choice for many Paid to Click sites. Paid to Click sites are no longer allowed to use PayPal as a payment processor due to PayPal’s Terms of Service. While PayPal has blocked out this large source of income, AlertPay has welcomed it with open arms. The disadvantage with AlertPay is that many of the bank transfers take a long period of time to get to and from your bank account. In my experience, they have usually taken around 5 business days.
Moneybookers is a payment processor based out of the United Kingdom. They offer a different twist on payment processing. They allow many transactions considered to be “high risk”. These include paid to click sites, casinos and pornography sites. They have very stringent rules of money laundering. Also, there are no fees to the person who is receiving money. The downside once again with Moneybookers it that their support is not very good. They also have fees for everything, sending money, getting a check, using a credit card, getting a deposit in the bank. It is really overkill and if they would eliminate some of the fees it would be very nice.
Revolution Money Exchange or RME is a payment processor based out of Florida. They are very new launching in 2007. They offer $10 for every new account you get to sign up. They do require you to give out your Social Security Number, therefore only U.S. residents can have an account. They have very low fees with no send/recieve fees and free bank transfers. A check from Revolution Money Exchange costs $2.50. I have not had to call Revolution Money Exchange support, so I have no comment on their support. They seem like a nice payment processors overall.
The one payment processor I would avoid entirely is e-gold. They have been the subject of a federal investigation and nearly all of their transactions are considered to be high risk. They have been caught doing some illegal activities and they company itself is not very ready to help you if you have any problems. Use on of the four above, they at least have some policies in place to help you should you need it. I hope you enjoyed this review of different payment processors.
I have been with paypal for what seems like forever, just recently joined AlertPay and curious to see how they are going to work out for me…
Good article here Ryan.
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Thanks Bree!
I wish there wa sa better alternative to paypal. They have been okay for me so far but other users have had troubles and found their customer service very unhelpful and some decisions highly arbitrary.
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A great review here Ryan , I was not aware there were so many different online payment processors. I have always used Paypal and occaisionally Google checkout. It’s amazing how huge it has all got online today.
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Hi Ryan.
Thanks for the good information.
You’ve confirmed, once again, my opinion of e-gold.
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I’ve always used Paypal, but am thinking of trying RME. Thanks for the warning about e-gold!
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I’ve had an RME account for about 3 months now and so far I’ve been very happy with it. Now that many Etsy sellers accept RME as payment I can use my balance easily and I’ve found that a lot of my clients prefer it to PayPal.
Been a user of Paypal for many years. Definitely a service I’ve found invaluable as someone who works freelance and on the Internet.
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Long time fan of Paypal even when others are putting them down. They are, for me, easy to get on the phone if needed and extremely helpful should I need help.
Good information on alternate choices though, thanks!
Great article Ryan! I’ve used PayPal processing since the day it became available I think. So far it’s been great, so no need to change just yet.
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Great post! I have been using Paypal forever, so I didn’t even know there were other choices out there.
Working off line as a network marketer I have always known what to do. Online is another story Payment processors is going to be a great help Thank you so much.
Thanks for the onfo. I didn’t even know about some of them. Great post
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I currently have RME. They have been great. When I first signed on, they gave me a twenty five dollar sign-on bonus. I sent them a “Thank You” and received a prompt response. Seems like a great company! - Nards
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I’ve always used Paypal but have joined some other services when they added a bonus to the account for signing up. E-gold sounds like something to avoid.
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