Receiving earnings from your freelancing contracts is probably the strongest motivation for any freelancer. I have been freelancing for about two years now and to cut the long story short, my experience has spelt out how critical it is to use a reliable third party E-payment option for my withdrawals.
PayPal is probably the most popular E-Payment gateway for most freelancers. Paypal is safe and reliable; everybody knows that, however, they are some operational bottlenecks of the payment service that can leave you with some bitter taste in the mouth. Part of this is that Paypal only supports direct wire transfers to local bank accounts from selected countries.
This means that Paypal will accept receipts of funds from your financial account but will restrict withdrawals of funds to your local bank account unless if your country is supported by the service.
Fortunately, there is an alternative to this. Moneybookers offers one of the best international wire transfer services on the planet. Moneybookers (Skrill) has handled the bulk of my earnings from my freelancing contracts and for that period, not a single dollar has gone unaccounted while using the service.
The following reasons top the list of why I prefer Moneybookers as my E-Payment solution.
Straight Forward Sign Up process
The first impression I had about the service is its simple sign up process. Unlike other payment solutions, Moneybookers has a straight forward sign up process that is free from the compulsory step by step verification that characterize most online payment solutions.
All that is required on the sign up stage is a valid physical address and your email address.
Identity Verification
Most online payment gateways, will ask for a copy of a government issued ID plus a utility bill for verification of your identity. Moneybookers however has this efficient process where they send a letter containing a verification code to the address you used during registration.
The letter takes at most two weeks to arrive and the good part about that is that you don’t even have to pay for the postage. The verification process is quite quick and I remember after verifying my identity my withdrawal limit was increased from $15 to about $4000.
Supports as little as $1 withdrawals
When I started out on my freelancing, the cash flow from my earnings was jittery. Therefore, there was a need to have a money transfer system that allowed petite withdrawals. Moneybookers allows a minimum of $1 deposit into your account. It is therefore the online payment gateway for you when launching your freelancing career.
Simple User Interface
Online Payment solutions are characterized with bottlenecks that can make international money transfers a nightmare. Moneybookers disputes this notion by providing a very simple interface for you to carry out your transaction. With an excellent layout of the services offered, you know exactly where to find the link to the service you want.
Large Outgoing Transaction Limits
By just verifying your physical address, your withdrawal quota could go up to $7000 for any 90-day period. Verifying your identity will further increase the transaction limit. The limit covers your withdrawals and other online transactions.
Simple Verification process
To enhance the security of the service, Moneybookers may ask you to verify your identity. Skrill offers identity verification through verifying your bank details or debit/credit card details. Most choose the credit/debit card option as it is the fastest way to get through with the verification process. A verified identity comes with an increase in your outgoing limit.
Zero maintenance fee
Moneybookers charges zero maintenance fee for active accounts. All that is required of you is making a transaction within a 90-Day period. This basically means that you can in fact use Moneybookers as a remote savings account and when the need arises for the cash, with just a click on the withdraw button, the cash slides into your local bank account.
Extremely Fast Wire Transfer
One thing that will awe you about the Skrill system is the quick wire transfer of funds into your bank account. Unlike other systems that will take the usual 3-5 working days, Moneybookers can handle transfers to some countries in just a single day. I am not bluffing on this, ever since I started using the service the longest period the cash has stayed on transit is two days.
Low Transaction fees
MoneyBookers has one of the lowest fees for a swift transfer platform in the financial market. Moneybookers charges a flat 2.32 USD for international wire transfer. However, you should consult with your bank the on the exchange rate commission charged on your withdrawals.
Uploading Funds to your account
Moneybookers also has this option whereby you can upload funds to your account. This can be helpful especially when you need to top up the amount in your account for an online purchase. Skrill charges a 1.90% rate on the amount uploaded from your debit/credit bank account.
Excellent Email Support
I have been with Moneybookers for about two years. For that period, I only had one support incident where there was a problem with verifying my debit card. I was still a newbie at the site but the precision that their support system handled the issue was commendable.
Additionally, the site has a smart support system where they have listed quick links to solve the most common issues that you might encounter while on the site.
Interested in the service? Create your Moneybookers account today
Have you had an experience with Moneybookers? We would love to hear about that. Drop it in the comment section below.
Kevin is a tech enthusiast and the lead writer at MobiTrends.co.ke. He has been writing about smartphones and tech related topics since October 2012. About Us | Contact Us
