PayPal: Make room for Revolution MoneyExchange
Besides Roland, has anyone else grown weary of PayPal (and its big brother eBay)? Thanks to Curve Magazine for letting its readers know there’s an alternative:
There’s a reason your lesbian friends are switching from PayPal to Revolution MoneyExchange‘¦ Revolution MoneyExchange provides users with a secure, PIN-protected account. Through the website, you can instantly check your balance and send money to fellow user via her email address. She receives a notification, and the money is deposited directly into her account. For iPhone and Blackberry users, you don’t even need a computer.
Obviously, to use the service, you need an active revolutionmoneyexchange.com account. Except for this disclaimer about certain fees, the service is free:
Free to register for an account
Free to add money to your bank account
Free to send money
Free to receive money
Free to request money
Free to transfer money to your bank account
This 24 year old self-proclaimed geek had this to say about the service:
I despise PayPal because monopolies are bad for the consumer. PayPal has become the defacto method of sending money across the Internet and paying for eBay auctions. I just sold an extra CPU on eBay for $60 and PayPal took their $2 cut (don’t get me started on the $5.41 eBay got). Google Checkout was supposed to be a big PayPal competitor for retail sales, but peer to peer transactions are stuck using PayPal. There might be a viable contender in town now. Revolution Money Exchange is part of Revolution, LLC, founded by AOL co-founder Steve Case.
MoneyCrashers also wants to take down PayPal and explains how Revolution MoneyExchange are able to offer the service for free:
RME only allow users you to fund the account through your checking or savings account. They don’t let you use credit cards to fund it or pay for something. I like this concept, because then it helps people stay away from using their credit cards. The transactions are made through secure certificates, so all of your account information is safe.
I haven’t tried the service yet, but I am tired of the cut that PayPal takes on transactions. What about you? Have you tried this or Google Checkout? Is one or the other a good alternative to PayPal? We welcome your comments below.
Photo credit: Revolution MoneyExchange.
This is awesome. I’m sick of the cut PayPal takes out of all my transactions.
I might be wrong, but, I thought that paypal only took a cut of peer to peer transactions when they were funded through credit card versus checking account. :::runs off to check guidelines:::
On the other hand, I wholly support competition, so look foward to trying Revolution MoneyExchange- thanks for making us aware!
Sounds interesting. Does it work for non-Americans?
Meredith: Technically, you’re correct. From PayPal’s site:
That said, I consider a Premier account to still be peer to peer transactions. When I pay “individuals” from my Premier account, the individual receiving the payment pays a fee.
Plonkee: Unfortunately, you have to be a U.S. resident. From their FAQ page: