Why is it so hard to find an alternative to PayPal?

Because there are virtually none. Sorry if that seems unhelpful, but PayPal is probably the easiest payment processor to use on the Net and as they store credit card/bank details 'securely', this makes them a popular choice.

Let's be honest; most people don't like to keep typing in their debit or credit card information to all and sundry, so if they can do it just once by storing it in PayPal, then they feel more comfortable and secure when purchsing over the Internet. There is also the advantage of speed of ordering - not having to fill in forms with name, address and other details every time one orders.

There have been and are still alternatives similar to PayPal; AlertPay is one (although is reputed to be having difficulty with some credit card companies at the time of posting), but none have been able to 'stay the course' like PayPal has.

There are many other options, such as merchant accounts; so please carry out a thorough search on the forum, as there have been dozens of threads posted on this topic.

Regards,
Jeff.

They managed to sew up the market by having it used by ebay. There are many alternatives, but if they don't get that 'popular factor' then they are not worth the money or time being spent on them.

It's the same in many areas of life. You could ask, Why only one facebook? Why only one Twitter? Why only McDonalds has taken off in such a big way?

Skrill / Moneybookers is nice, but I think it's just a credit card transfer system, but it's simple, and reliable. I often see it as a substitute to paypal. And maybe WebMoney?

agree with Jeff - and in fact sevaans it is the other way round as in Ebay produced Paypal to have an effective online payment method and did so so well it is an entity of its own and unrivaled, we hear horror stories of money getting locked up so be smart about what you leave in there and for how long.

I know that paypal was made by ebay, but it was because it was used at ebay that it became the defacto payment system. It was born into the number one spot by its first creator and client.

I would also be hesitant at keeping too much money in any account that wasn't my bank account, as with any of these online services, if you get one problem and they have a lot of your money sitting in their account, your options are much more limited. I can't understand why people have over 1,000 dollars sitting in their paypal account sometimes even though they know what the deal is. But I guess some people do get a bit relaxed on rules that were strictly kept previously.

Actually loi77, that would then be the reason that they're forced to use credit cards all the time (from what people tell me..).

I'm starting to get worried. I hope that this won't happened to me nor to anyone else. Paypal truly is reliable, but sometimes, I feel like acquiring another service. I also want to be informed with your other choices.

The other ones are much less user friendly to set up for small businesses and rely mostly on consumers using their debit or credit cards and having funds processed that way. People are still iffy about using their credit or debit cards on smaller less established pages. PayPal is more established and assists in detaching people from their money so it is more freely spent online.

eBay also did not create PayPal.

I am facing same problem bro, i want alternative of Pay Pal...

What can we do if we don't want to put all the eggs in one "PayPal" basket?

PayPal seems to rule the whole internet market place.

Online merchants had lot of hopes when Google Checkout came in market. But it is still for only US & UK, slowly it lost curiosity & popularity due to very limited options, while it have all infra structure to become a substitute/alternate of PayPal, So we can say PayPal is eWorld's King, and there is no any prince, no any minister near to him. Amazon's interest is for only his online store.
So still we don't have any other options with similar facilities as PayPal.
In each country there are some domestic payment gateway, as in my country (India), but they charge a big amount annually apart from commission from each transaction.
Few years before I opened account in the 2CO, but I don't use it after few transactions and left some money there. They are calling to every client as confirmation call. Some time buyer may be not available or call transferred to voice mail & they hold the money, neither release, nor return to client. 2CO also not permit us to withdraw all our money and keep some as 'hold'. While PayPal is very comfortable. Only 1 button, no any long form for buyer as well as seller, no any formalities to withdraw the money.
Now in my country, PayPal gives us daily auto bank transfer of all balance so we are on minimum risk. Our all purchase activities are conduct from our credit cards enrolled at PayPal, whether we have money in account or not. It is all due to new govt. laws of our country and PayPal follow, & respect law.

Well paypal is a real secure payment processor. I personally don't see the need to sign up for a new one as of this moment yet. I know that there is google checkout and alertpay but paypal is the most convenient thing to use. I mean, come on it is widely accepted all around the world and there is no reason not to use it unless you are up to doing illegal activity or whatsoever.

Ryuchi

I've alway's used paypal for all my online sales but I've recently been using alertpay and moneybookers. Even though I prefer paypal over the other two since it is the biggest and i personally think the safest, There are a few company's out there that will accept Paypal, moneybookers, alertpay, etc on your behalf (thru 1 account) which in turn will help you out cause you wouldn't have all these different payment processors for your client's to choose from and it would all be processed by 1 company.

You don't usually hear the whole story when PayPal closes down an account - most of the "horror" stories are just their side of the story (IMers), the story of how nice and good they were before PayPal suddenly and with no specific reason at all decided to close them down.

Also, half of the stories I hear are from people who are not even verified - they get a certain amount of $ in transactions and PayPal has a limit, which I think is ~$3k/year. When you reach it, they freeze your funds and tell you to send in some documents to become verified. Ain't that a horror story..

I didn't check the file you attached and I'm not saying there aren't real "horror" stories, I'm just saying that most of them are crap and are not PayPal's fault.

Well.. it isn't, there is Skrill (Moneybookers), 2checkout, AlertPay etc... lets scrap AlertPay as I was never able to trust that site, but I can vouch for Skrill, they are one of the best payment processors out there... Skrill also works with ebay(and Aliexpress) now + Skrill is the only payment processor (i think) that is FSA approved (they can't take your money away like PayPal can... they can lock your account but can never take your money).

Skrill works like a bank account (as I see it), very strict policies, once you open an account you need proof of ID, proof of bank account, proof of residency before they allow you to be a full fledged merchant. I suggest that if you do try them, get over with all there verifications first before trying to use it (as a merchant), it works almost like PayPal, I think its better then Paypal.

Hey, new here... had been wondering through the forums for months, saw this post where I could contribute so registered, hope it helps. I'm Waqas from Karachi, Pakistan.

If you want a processor that accepts paypal then might be worth looking at worldpay. This company is regulated by the UK financial authority and has been around for longer than paypal!

Rich

PayPal is the number one leading web transaction website in the world. I would never look for an alternative unless I had no other choice.

PayPal stood out from other similar providers such as moneybookers, etc.

you can checkout these payment processors

alertpay
clickbank
plimus
2checkout
googlecheckout

I hate PayPal and I know of people who have had dramas with Google Checkout
Has anyone tried Paymate?

Actually I have been using Moneybookers for a very long time and it works great. But the problem is that the buyers don't have an account on Moneybookers.

This is because of the fact that Paypal is a darling among marketers and others. It has got such a good name that finding its alternative has become almost an impossibility. Moneybookers can be said to be a close competitor to Paypal in more than one way.

Although Moneybookers works the same way as Paypal, as one of the members in this thread has pointed out most buyers do not have an account with Moneybookers. This is the big tragedy!

I prefer and use AlertPay over PayPal and it works pretty much the same way except they are IM friendly!

Hey David, there are a few options that most people either ignore or believe its impossible, its quite the opposite.

Maybe my store will help you in finding a solution to your problem, 3 months ago I decided i wanted to start an ecommerce store based in the US market, i am sure you can imagine 95% of the suppliers i spoke to wanted me to incorporate a business. So i went ahead and did that, I formed an LLC in New mexico (I wont explain the reasons why, its probably not important at this moment, however the yearly fees are lower than any state.) I also looked around to find a forwarding address i could use as my business address, which turned out to be successful.

I contacted a couple of bank that are not world wide known, but a nationally known bank in the US. I finally got a business account, now the great thing is the same bank that opened an account for me, was able to set me up with a merchant account and gateway provider which is called authorize.net. Now i am able to accept credit card payments, I also use paypal still, despite what people say, Its worth having both payment methods on your site.

I hope this helps.

Thanks Darren!

I am aware of authorize.net, but you need to be a resident of US to use it. I am in Australia, so that is not an option for me.

Hey David, I don't know if you realised in not a US resident either. If you help check out MyUSBusiness.com

All the best

Hi David,

I would suggest that the reason that it is so hard, is because there isn't one. Every payment processor has it's pros and cons, and Paypal seems to be the one that the majority settle with, despite their search for alternatives.

IMHO Your next best choice would be a merchant account, and/or perhaps Clickbank as a backup.

Read Paypal TOS carefully, and make sure you abide by their rules. There are also many helpful threads here in the forum, both of pitfalls to avoid, and solutions if you have any problems with them.

I'm not saying that you aren't right to be concerned.. but I am also not as surprised as some, regarding the banning of at least one particular marketer.

I had a new paypal verified account with all limits removed and just after one week I sent an invoice to a customer. I needed to cancel that since we agreed to change the payment amount. And Boom.... paypal locked my account after cancelling the invoice.

Hi David, Paypal it's unique because it has no competitors at all.
Paypal it's easy, store information automatically, and it's connected with eBay network.
It was the first to do this, and no one has ever tried to grab its lead.

Many other paying systems are available, but they have always something who doesn't work by one side.
The better competitors are these, I think:

1) Alertpay (big problems with credit cards)
2) MoneyBookers (very good but you must accept payments only from one website you declare)
3) Neteller (no transaction fees but lack of many options)

But Paypal is the leader for another thing, very easy to comprehend. Until everyone uses Paypal to accept payments, every buyer must choose Paypal also by his side.
And that continues without stop.

Also I, whenever I will saw an Alertpay buy button, I will continue using Paypal and I will not buy from that seller.
That's the main problem...

If one company wants to kill Paypal dominance, it must ask no transaction fees upon a certain amount, opening to the internet marketing world, and spending a huge amount of cash in advertising (tv, web, email, newspapers, radio and so on), making some prizes for the users who use it on daily basis.

It's hard and I think no one wants to try.
See you soon,
Alessandro