PayPal has become one of the most popular payment systems at e-commerce for its ease of use, the security of transactions and the effectiveness of the refund system in case of problems or controversies in the purchase of an item online. Born as an integral part of the eBay e-commerce site, it is now an independent leader in the financial intermediation sector.
Among the large e-commerce sites only Amazon (for commercial choice) does not support PayPal but requires the direct insertion of the payment method (a credit card or a prepaid card supported).
And if we wanted to try an alternative to PayPal, perhaps for transactions that the latter does not accept or that refuses to refund "> Create a Paypal account to pay and receive payments online
Characteristics of a financial intermediation site
Before seeing what are the alternatives to PayPal let's try to understand what are the characteristics that a good financial brokerage site must have in order to truly define itself as a replacement for PayPal:
- Security : no need for explanations!
The site must be secure, accept only encrypted connections on all pages (TLS) and keep the credentials of credit cards or associated current accounts in hacker-proof servers.
- Compatibility : it is useless to use an alternative service to PayPal if it is not supported by any site!
Let's make sure that the chosen site is accepted by most of the e-commerce sites on which we want to make purchases.
- Customer support : one of the strong points (which can make the difference) in a financial brokerage site is the quality of customer service, which must always be available on any day of the week, better still if by telephone.
- Refunds : we try to find out what are the conditions to exercise the refund of the sums spent on an e-commerce site or in the purchase of a service.
If we have problems in a transaction, the brokerage site must act as guarantor of the sums spent and if the reason is on our side to refund the amount spent in full.
These are certainly the fundamental requirements to be able to find a valid alternative to PayPal without regrets.
All the sites that we recommend in this guide have these requirements, so you can use them as a substitute for PayPal!
Alternatives to PayPal
After seeing some features that a financial intermediation site must have, here are the best alternatives to PayPal that we have managed to try.
1) Masterpass
This service offered by MasterCard but accessible with any credit card (also Visa) or with prepaid cards allows you to pay online without ever having to enter your credit card details, but using only the credentials of this site and the advanced system of protection offered by a large company such as MasterCard that allows you to obtain the code with which to authorize the transaction via app or SMS.
Currently Masterpass is supported by the following services or sites: MediaWorld, Italo, Trenitalia, Unicoop, Monclick, Esselunga and many other online sales services.
We can subscribe to the service from here -> Masterpass
2) Amazon Pay
Amazon has launched its competing online wallet system that allows PayPal to pay both on its own site and on other affiliated sites.
For those who are already Amazon customers, obtaining this service is very simple: simply log in with the email address and password of your Amazon account to immediately get Amazon Pay and start paying online.
The purchase protection system is the same as Amazon, so in case of problems, just contact the same assistance to get support.
We can subscribe to the service from here -> Amazon Pay while in a specific article we have the guide on how to pay with Amazon Pay
3) Apple Pay
The Apple payment system integrated in all its devices (including Apple Watch) allows you to pay quickly and without problems in many physical stores that display the Apple Pay logo (with POS enabled) and in online stores.
Using it is very simple: we add your credit card or prepaid card to the system and let you manage payments via Contactless technology and the efficient authentication system developed by Apple by fingerprint or Face ID (for those who own iPhone X).
We can subscribe to this service from here -> Apple Pay
4) Skrill
Once called Moneybookers, Skrill is a service very similar to PayPal in many respects, including the ease with which you can manage a transaction without ever having to communicate your credit card or prepaid card data and the ease with which you can transfer money between different Skrill users.
Much used on foreign e-commerce sites (especially in the USA) it can be a valid substitute for PayPal for those who buy a lot abroad.
We can subscribe to this service from here -> Skrill
5) NETELLER
At the dawn of financial intermediation (so before PayPal became what it is today) there was NETELLER, a complete brokerage service with very efficient assistance.
This site supports any credit card and allows you to send and receive money both from other NETELLER users and to pay on affiliated sites (especially in the USA).
We can subscribe to this service from here -> NETELLER
6) MyBank
If instead of the credit or prepaid card we want to use the current account to pay online and authorize transactions we can rely on MyBank.
This service offers a common platform between seller and buyer where money can be safely transferred from one account to another, even between different banks; to make a purchase, simply enter the credentials to access the bank and the security code via SMS to confirm the transaction.
To check if our bank or e-commerce store supports MyBank just click here -> MyBank
7) PostePay
The PostePay App allows you to send and receive money in P2P without commissions, becoming a great alternative to Paypal in many cases, as explained in another article.
