Skrill Review

Skrill is an online payment platform that gives PayPal a good run for its money and the two regularly go head to head. You may have come across Skrill before, back when it was called Moneybookers, until the firm rebranded itself in 2011.

Since then Skrill has established itself as one of the fastest growing payment firms to come out of the UK. It offers fees and commissions that work out considerably cheaper than PayPal and it’s clearly on a mission to capture the EU market – although it’s attracting clients worldwide in the process.

With more than 30 million customers on board, progress is good too. We’re sure those prices are winning over plenty of business owners to begin with, but there’s always more to payment firms than pricing. So can Skrill match its price promise with the kind of services that will make it a genuine PayPal competitor? Let’s find out.

Products & Services

Skrill is the firm that pioneered a system which allows shoppers to pay for goods using only their email address and password. Since then the company has expanded its services to maintain its competitive place in the industry.

Wallet Solution

Simple payments: Let customers pay with nothing but their email address and password, helping you complete more sales.
Instant payments: No waiting for payments to be processed.
1-tap mobile payments: Creating an even faster payment system for mobile users on the move.
Card payments: Skrills wallet solution can also process Visa and MasterCard payment.
Local payments: So you can accept payments from a wider range of international customers, using the card of their choice.
Global integration: Connecting you to 80 major banks worldwide.

International payments

Simple transfers: Send and receive money to/from anyone with an email address or phone number in 200 countries.
Instant transfers: No need to wait for money to be sent or received.
Competitive rates: So more of your payments reach the person you intend it to.
Clarity: You see exactly how much recipients receive from the total payment before you send.
Multi-currency: Support for 40 currencies and 100 to withdraw money.

VIP club

Cheaper rates: Lower card upload and bank upload fees – both of which become free if you transact more than €15,000 in a 90-day period.
Higher limits: Higher daily ATM limits on your Skrill Prepaid MasterCard, depending on how much you turn over.
Fixed transfer fee: Pay no more than €1 to send money via Skrill.
Freebies: Free Skrill Security Token, free ATM withdrawals, Free MasterCard and other extras as you spend more.
VIP Support: Dedicated 24/7 VIP Care so you always have someone on hand if you experience any problems.
Additional Incentives: Offering better rewards for firms that handle more money. You can find out more at the Skrill website.

Skrill certainly doesn’t offer the widest range of services, compared to many firms, but it has a unique system that makes payments incredibly convenient for your customers.

Fees

Skrill has a very transparent policy with its pricing structure – something more common with online payment firms than traditional merchant account providers. Skrill has a dedicated page for fees, which clearly marks out what you’ll pay for usage, although there is some small print you’ll want to pay attention to.

Free: Online payments at stores that accept Skrill.
Free: To receive payments into your Skrill wallet.
Free: To upload funds with most options – some charges apply.
1.9%: Fee for Visa payments
£4.76: Fee to withdraw to your bank
7.5%: Fee to withdraw to Visa

Contract Length

Although Skrill doesn’t quite offer the full range of merchant account services, the main upside is you don’t have to worry about any contracts or termination fees. That’s a huge plus with any firm in the payments industry – and for online businesses that don’t need the additional services, a huge burden off your shoulder.

Sales & Advertising Transparency

We’re also pleased to announce Skrill doesn’t use any third party sales agencies to promote its services. Instead, the firm mostly markets itself via its website and traditional advertising. As usual, this rules out customer complaints about deceptive quotes, false promises or pushy sales tactics, which we always like to say about a payment firm.

The only real downside is some merchants have complained about Skrill’s fraud prevention and withholding policies. We’ll cover this in more detail shortly, but part of such complaints is that the firm could make its fraud policies more clear to merchants before they sign up.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Things start to go down hill a touch when it comes to customer service, if customer reviews are anything to go by. There are plenty of complaints to choose from too, but most of them come down to fraud and withholds, as we mentioned before.

Whatever the complaint, merchants have to contact the support team and this is where poor customer service often adds to the list of grievances. Many say it’s difficult to get hold of anyone in the first place and those that manage to aren’t exactly full of praise.

Positive Reviews and Testimonials

It’s not all bad press for Skrill, though, and you can find some positive reviews if you dig deep enough. This is pretty standard for online payment firms that have huge customer bases – just take a look at how many negatives PayPal has, for example.

“I’ve had over 50k of gambling transactions in the last 7 years through Moneybookers and never had a problem (and the one time I had a problem with a transaction which wasn’t even their fault, they refunded). When I did the verification process I found it pretty straight forward, certainly no worse than PayPal.” – jaydeeuk1, Money Saving Expert forum.

You’ll find similar comments in the same forum thread that mention a long history of using Skrill without problem. Though, admittedly, they are pretty spread out between complaints that fill most of the page.

Negative Reviews and Complaints

Search for Skrill reviews online and you’ll see just how condemning the feedback can be. The words “scammers” and “thieves” come up quite a lot, which would be enough to put any business owner off – something the firm surely needs to address.

That said, many of the complaints you’ll come across are from customers who say they have been ripped off by other companies using Skrill. For the merchants, it’s those funds withdrawals, suspended accounts and Skrill’s customer service that have business owners fuming.

“I have been a Skrill Merchant account holder for over a year now, within this year the customer service levels have gone from poor to completely diabolical. My company has turned over a six figure sum in the last year so they have made good money from my custom, the least I would expect in return from them is a response to any queries/problems within 48 hours.” – Jay, UKTrustPilot review.

You’ll see customer service is raised time and again, not only by merchants but personal account holders too.

Final Verdict

The best measure of Skrill as an online payment firm is to compare it to its closest rival PayPal. Both serve a huge pool of customers and both come into plenty of flack from negative online reviews. In terms of features and overall service there isn’t a huge amount between the two. Pricing means Skrill tends to work out cheaper for European firms, but it gets a little more complicated once you throw international payments into the mix.

Skrill and PayPal merchants typically complain about the same things too – withholding of funds and poor customer support. Clearly, both firms have a challenge on their hands in dealing with so many customers and trying to keep on top of fraud protection.

So, if you’re a European merchant that mostly operates online then Skrill is certainly worth a look. Or, if you’re on the hunt for a genuine PayPal alternative, then this will be one of the first options you’ll want to consider.