MoneyBookers
MoneyBookers Poker
Moneybookers is an e-commerce business that allows
payments and money transfers to be made via the
internet. It serves as an electronic alternative to
traditional paper methods such as checks and money
orders. Moneybookers performs payment processing for
websites, online auction sites, and other corporate
systems. It is also a popular payment transfer service
for online
poker players.
Unlike many competing online fund transfer services
(e.g. PayPal, Click2Pay, etc.), Moneybookers requires
identity verification before a customer can use their
service, I would assume as a measure to minimize fraud
and prevent money
laundering. Additional verification steps raise the
maximum amount transferable to 20,000 Euros or your
currency's equivalent within a 90-day period.
Moneybookers does not usually get involved in
merchandise disputes and the availability of credit card
chargebacks may be limited. In essence, this company
doesn't piddle around.
MoneyBookers.com
The moneybookers.com domain was created June 18,
2001. Almost 2 million new users registered with
Moneybookers over the course of the first eighteen
months of operation. Currently (as of August 2008)
Moneybookers claims to operate in all
countries with internet availability, and also claims to
handle over 4.2 million accounts. Moneybookers was
bought by Investcorp Technology Partners for well over
$140 million American in March 2008.
Moneybookers allows customers to send, receive, or hold funds in 29 international currencies -- customers from around the world, mind you -- and offers local payments in more than 25 countries. Moneybookers also offers escrow payments (for online trading) as well as online SMS and fax sending services. Moneybookers charges its fees directly to the sender of the payment, and not the recipient, unlike its main competitor Paypal. The long and short of this means that the seller receives the full amount owed.
A quick rundown of the services offered by Moneybooks goes something like this:
- The website advertizes "Fee-free" online accounts -- sounds like fiction to me, but if true it is miraculous.
- The deposit and withdrawal of funds using your local payment methods (bank transfer, payment card, check).
- A so-called "Transparent fee structure", featuring low funds withdrawal fees, admittedly around 2 bucks American.
- Instant online money transfer services between users at a nominal cost (1% but not more than a buck or two).
- Integrated web SMS gateway and fax sending service, fairly unique to a service such as this.
- Something Moneybookers refers to as "Merchant solutions" -- this is basically free website integration, card processing with full chargeback protection, etc. Industry standard stuff.
- A website available in multiple languages. This is also becoming standard.
Reading customer reviews, one gets a very two-sided idea of the company's customer service. On the one hand, Moneybookers seems to offer relatively simple use in terms of their website function -- combine that with apparent high security of transactions and it sounds like an amazing program, right?
Complaints run the gamut -- and include comments like the following:
- Lack of multiple currency support - some users report that accounts are denominated in a single currency only. What is more, the account currency can never be changed, unless your account is rather new and has no transaction history. This is apparently true even for customers who move from one country to another. This flies in the face of their claim of "multiple currencies accepted."
- A limit on the number of email addresses registered to any single account. What is more, once registered, an email address can never be removed from the Moneybookers system. This has the apparent effect of reducing the available limit.
- Some users report that customer service is poor and that Moneybookers rarely responds to email querys or on site notification capabilities. Telephone complaints receive attention but customers are charged around a quarter per minute for this service.
So perhaps Moneybookers is not the customer friendly atmosphere they would lead us to believe? Still, a solid online financial institution is hard to find, and all companies have customer service issues. The bottom line is that Moneybookers is just about the most "succcesful" alternative to Paypal. If you have issues with Paypal (as I have had time and again -- accounts deleted for no reason, etc.) or are interested in using an online payment service for online gambling, you should check out Moneybookers. Four million people can't be all that wrong.