Founded in 1998, Paypal has become a household name, and many consider Paypal to be a reliable, safe and easy method of dealing with transactions on the internet. However it seems that an increasing number of Paypal users are seeking other payment methods for all sorts of reasons. So what are the alternatives?

Not surprisingly perhaps, one of the main uses for Paypal is on internet auction sites, in particular eBay. However, as an eBay seller or buyer, the choices available to you are entirely dependent on where you are in the world. In the USA, for example, sellers must offer to accept online payments from any one or more providers from a prescribed list, whereas in the UK all sellers must offer Paypal! Furthermore, your choice of additional or alternative providers is again limited depending on your location. To see which internet payment options are available to you, you should check the Accepted Payments Policy for the eBay in your country. You'll find a list of the payment options that are, and aren't available to you, and once you have that list at hand you can look amongst them for a provider that suits you.

Of course, just as there are other online payment services, there are now also dozens of other online auction sites all across the world. As well as helping you to discover other payment methods, some of these smaller sites could well be the source of some truly great bargains. We googled for "internet auction site" to see what there is available, and we were very pleasantly surprised to see how many there are.

Another important need for online payment services is for the enormous number of online advertisers who provide specialist services and/or goods. Many of these are reputable, legitimate businesses but who do not perhaps have the volume of online sales to justify credit card facilities or merchant accounts. By using recognised, well established organisations for their payment processing, their customers have the added security of going through a well known institution offering benefits such as fraud prevention.

Alternatives to Paypal

Is there an alternative payment method to Paypal?

There are many other online payment services. We have listed some of them here:

Allpay.net

CertaPay.com

Checkfree.com

hyperwallet.com

Moneybookers.com

Nochex.com

Ozpay.biz

Paymate.com

Propay.com

Google Checkout

XOOM.com

This list is not comprehensive and is compiled for your reference only. These are not recommendations and you must do your own research into their suitability for you. Not all services will be available in all territories.