Payoneer Review – An Indian’s Perspective

After Issues with PayPal Withdrawal in India this February many Indians have opted to go for Non-PayPal based payments methods and so am I and after testing few alternatives the one that is working the best for me is Payoneer.

I have been using them for more than 6 months now and am going to share a detailed review about Good and Not so good things about Payoneer.

So Let us begin.

Positive things about Payoneer

1. Faster Cash in Hand

You get the cash in hand much faster than PayPal or any other alternative payment methods. Apart from that if you have a Virtual US Bank account the payment from sites like CJ which takes couple of months (1 month of check arrival time and next 21 business days for funds to get cleared) to get credited in your account now takes hardly 24 hours.

2. Virtual US Bank Account

Indian’s can opt for a virtual US bank account (There are some minimum eligible criteria which you need to ask your account manager). Having a virtual US bank account means you can withdraw funds from PayPal, CJ and many other merchants and get the cash in just few hours.

3. Works in All ATM’s

Payoneer provides you with a Master Card Debit card and so it works with almost all ATMs in India and World Wide.

4. Sending & receiving money is very simple

Sending money to anyone is as simple as few clicks. See the Load Money form for yourself and if you wish to send me some money the link is even simpler – shab.in Just kidding but the link to see how you can use the link to ask your clients to pay you.

Not so positive things about Payoneer

1. Costly

I am not sure if this should be an advantage or a disadvantage but let me first put few numbers and then you can decide for yourself. Receiving money costs a fee depending on your account type, withdrawal costs per transaction charge and forex rates are bit lower than expected.

Now comparing to PayPal which costs roughly 4%+ per transactions and PayPal USD rates as we all know are worst for PayPal I think Payoneer costs me less for higher valued transactions of $50+. You may need to make your own calculation as fees can vary depending on your card type and merchant through which you get the card.

2. Forex rates are low

The have a low forex rates. Unlike PayPal they have this mentioned on their fees page and so I am fine with it.

3. Support is ok but not great

Support (Not services) is not that good. Once or twice it took 2+ days time for getting a reply to few questions. I have not tested the phone support as there has been no need for me to do that.

4. Must sign up only through channel partner

I am not sure why but unless you find a site like Elance or some other channel partner you cannot own a prepaid debit card. Though I must say they have quite a few channel partners to choose from.

5. Private payments have upper limit

When working for clients at times I get few high payments but they have a restrictions of 1000 USD that can be sent privately at any given point of time and there is no way you can raise this amount.

Final Thoughts

I think it is a must have for all self employed as well as freelancers. Share your views and experiences of Payoneer Debit Card in comments.

Tagged as: Freelancing, Payment, Payoneer, Paypal

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