experiences with STORMPAY or MONEYBOOKERS

share and relate your experiences

[sunandoghosh]

Hi everyone,

We all know that Paypal offers the best alternative (i know they have problems but in relative sense)to expensive merchant accounts and payment gateways like ccavenue and 2checkout...

I would like everyone to share and relate their experiences and comments to two specific alternatives

a. stormpal
b. moneybookers

from both SELLER and/or BUYERS perspective....

any experiences good or bad...

regards,

sunando

[Miklo]

Well, I have used StormPay from a buyer perspective (I had a monthly rebilling with a stupid MLM program) and it works identical as PayPal: Open an account and use your credit card to put money on the account. No problems there, however, now I don't use the service anymore and I get these annoying emails EVERY day (!) that I have missed my subscriptions and that I need to put money in the StormPay account, otherwise the service will be cancelled.

Tried to login to my StormPay account but I forgot my answer to my secret question. (Does anyone know how I can retrieve that information?)

The best solution would be if StormPay just cancelled the membership after a period of time and don't send these stupid emails anymore.

One more thing, for me personally, if I buy something on the Internet, I will never use PayPal, StormPay, MoneyBookers, iKobo or similar services to pay through again as it is too much of a hassle. It is much easier if merchants just use services like MultiCards, CCNow, 2CO or have their own merchant account.

[Beagle]

Miklo, I'd appreciate your thoughts on what separates the services in your first list (Paypal, etc.) from the ones in the second list (CCNow, etc.). I've been looking into CCNow and it worked fine when I bought a few things through it. But I'm not really clear on how it would be better than Paypal. Are there real advantages for the seller and/or the buyer?

[EstoreSeeker]

I have used Moneybookers for my online business for the last 1 year. I think it is reasonable as it allows my distant customers to pay me and the funds can't be refunded without my permission - unlike with Paypal. Paypal also will not support some of my specifications.
Although i must say that their customer service is very bad sometimes, they don't provide good support.

ESS.

Ecommerce works better when it involves reliability.

[caran1]

Tried using moneybooker for receiving payments from customers, but the signup procedure for customers outside Europe is quite complicated. Also withdrawal fees (to convert to Indian Rupees) are high - approx. Rs 200

[Jon_King]

I use Moneybookers each month from the US and it works like a charm.

[Miklo]

Well, if people want to buy from you or subscribe to your services, the easiest solution will be if they have to give their information once. When using Paypal or Stormpay, they are redirected to another site where they have to enter their information again and go back to your site. With a 3PP this is already integrated.

People who really want to buy your product will follow these procedures, however, it will decrease the number of impulse orders. I am not saying Paypal and similar services are bad, it will just drive some customers away. It will be perfect if you have both Paypal and a 3PP. (Or of course, your own merchant account.) There are also buyers out there, who buy everything through Paypal just because they have an account.

[publish]

StormPay and MoneyBookers are worlds apart. You can't even compare them.

MoneyBookers is regulated in the UK by the FSA (Financial Services Authority), has venture capital backing, has phone support...

Sometimes it's a little clunky to put money in, but this is deliberate to help combat fraud.

I've never used StormPay and don't intend to. Last time I visited their website there was no phone number, hardly any company details, and the address was way offshore. It seems to be back in the US though, but I just don't get a good feeling about them at all.

There's plenty of fly-by-night billing companies which have come and gone. Globill and WebSiteBilling to name two. I personally would put StormPay in the same league as them, and MoneyBookers in the same league as PayPal, just not as big.

Just my opinion though.

However, for taking orders online, it works best to accept credit cards either with a merchant account or a reliable third party billing company where the customer doesn't need to set up an account.

[Agitprop]

We have use MoneyBookers extensively for international payments and have never had a problem sending or receiving MoneyBookers payments. Their security is much better than PayPal and they don't reverse payments or permit chargebacks as PayPal does. They now offer downloading of funds to any Visa card which is a real low-cost boon to US sellers who have few safe international payment options other than BidPay money orders.

No experience with StormPay.

[Manish Singh]

You really can't rely on the fraud screening procedure of Stormpay. They require you to fax your bank and id documents to get a verified status. This feature was implemented to cut out fraud. Well I received a chargeback from a "certified" account and reason reported was "stolen card".

They have stopped doing international wire transfers, check can take ages to come.

I have used them few times for small amounts both as a seller and buyer.

Rating: Average.

No experience with moneybookers!