Which scores better when comparing CurrencyFair vs Paypal? See how each provider scores and who wins when comparing their services, fees, supported countries and customer service.
CurrencyFair
Overall score:
67
67
PayPal
Overall score:
54
54
Personal Features
Business Benefits
Fees & Exchange Rates
Ease of Use
Support & Countries
Trust & Transparency
38
38
CurrencyFair for individual customers offers a range of services beyond just international money transfer. CurrencyFair adds to their service offering for individuals on a regular basis. Currently they offer only online international money transfer features.
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33
PayPal provides different services for personal customers from a number of countries. However, the services on offer vary from one region to another. PayPal's consumer product is a digital wallet where the customer's ID can be their email address and phone number. PayPal customers can send money to each other's digital wallets quickly and easily. The PayPal digital wallet can be connected to a bank account and debit or credit cards. This allows customers to withdraw available funds to their bank accounts. Connecting their bank cards allows customers to buy goods and services on e-commerce stores where PayPal is accepted as a payment method.
44
44
Along with features for personal accounts, Currencyfair offers business customer benefits although there are gaps to their offering. iCompareFX keeps in close contact with CurrencyFair management and Currencyfair’s scoring will be adjusted as new benefits are released.
56
56
PayPal for business provides a range of specialized services for businesses from different countries. Businesses can use PayPal to create and send invoices and receive payments. PayPal's merchant solution allows online sellers to accept PayPal as a payment method. Customers can use the PayPal payment gateway to buy goods or services using their PayPal account or directly with credit or debit cards. PayPal has more solutions for business accepting micro payments which may be quite useful when selling low cost products.
50
50
Exchange rate margin fee - Between 0.25% and 0.45% on top of the real exchange rate.
Transfer fee - Transferring out of CurrencyFair can cost €3 (currency equivalent).
International intermediary bank fees - Some currencies supported by CurrencyFair have the receiving account (the one you send your payment to), not in the home country of the currency. E.g. ZAR is located in London. This means that transferring ZAR to USD through CurrencyFair can attract an additional charge for the banks to send ZAR internationally. This can be up to US$20 currency equivalent. Currencies without local bank transfer payment support:
AED, CAD, HUF, NZD, USD, ZAR
Express deposit fee - In some countries, if you choose an express deposit or payment to CurrencyFair, it can be with an additional fee.
CurrencyFair free transfer offers - Yes! There are CurrencyFair coupons with up to 10 transfer fees free.
No. CurrencyFair exchange rate margin fees are non-negotiable with larger transfer sums.
0
0
PayPal fees vary based on where you live and the services on offer. Below we show sample fees for the USA. For more detailed information on fees for PayPal merchant solution, iCompareFX has created an interactive payment gateway fees comparison tool and more detailed breakdown of merchant variable and fixed fees by region.
| Payment method | Fees |
| PayPal Cash, PayPal Cash Plus or a linked bank account | $0 |
| Credit card, debit card or PayPal Credit | 2.9% of the transfer amount, plus a fixed fee |
| Payment method | Transaction fees | Funding fees |
| PayPal Cash, PayPal Cash Plus or a linked bank account | 5% of the transfer amount (minimum of $0.99 and maximum of $4.99) | $0 |
| Credit card, debit card or PayPal Credit. | 5% of the transfer amount (minimum of $0.99 and maximum of $4.99) | 2.9% of the transfer amount plus a fixed fee |
| Mode of selling | Fees |
| Selling in the US | 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction |
| Selling internationally | 4.4% plus a fixed fee based on the currency received |
| PayPal Here card reader | 2.7% for card swipes, or 3.5% plus $0.15 for manually entered transactions |
PayPal adds a margin of up to 3% on existing mid-market rates when carrying out currency conversion. Combined with the fees you need to pay, the cost of sending money overseas through PayPal becomes rather prohibitive.
83
83
CurrencyFair’s focus on customer service and user experience is of very high standards. Customer onboarding and service process management are clearly well thought out and wrapped in great design.
Account registration - Fast and easy to follow wizard.
ID verification - ID checks can be completed within 24 hours. Sometimes instantaneously with some countries. Proof of ID can be uploaded directly within the CurrencyFair app. Use your phone to take photos of ID and upload with ease.
Transfer speed - 1 - 2 business days upon receipt of payment.
Payment options - There are local bank transfer, local country payment solutions (e.g. BPay), debit card and express deposits available in some countries.
CurrencyFair mobile app - A very well designed Android and Apple mobile app. Very easy to use. New features are added regularly.
Minimum transfer amount - €8 equivalent.
68
68
Sign up - Signing up takes little time, and you may do so by using the PayPal website or app.
Payment options - You can fund your account and transfers in different ways such as bank transfers, debit cards and credit cards.
PayPal app - The PayPal app is available for iOS and Android.
Phone transfers - PayPal customers can not send money over the phone.
56
56
Supported destination currencies - 21 currencies. AED, AUD, CAD, CHF, CZK, DKK, EUR, GBP, HKD, HUF, ILS, INR, NOK, NZD, PHP, PLN, SEK, SGD, THB, USD, ZAR.
International presence - CurrencyFair local offices can be found in Ireland, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.
Customer support - CurrencyFair’s customer support is very good. Local offices in Ireland and Australia provide 24/5 support.
Foreign language support - CurrencyFair’s website is available in English, French and German.
USA support - No support for US residents.
Local settlement accounts - Not all currencies support local bank transfer payments to CurrencyFair. This can mean higher fees by intermediary banks. (Read more in the CurrencyFair fees section).
CurrencyFair payment bank accounts - These have changed with some frequency. This can cause customer confusion and time while funds are paid to the wrong banks.
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88
Supported countries - PayPal provides its services in more than 200 countries and territories.
Multilingual website - You can use the PayPal website in different languages.
Local phone support - PayPal could do better by providing local phone support in countries with large customer bases.
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69
Regulated by - CurrencyFair is regulated by ASIC Australia and the Central Bank of Ireland.
TrustPilot - A rating of Excellent by TrustPilot. CurrencyFair monitors TrustPilot for negative reviews. They respond publicly and work diligently to correct legitimate customer complaints.
iCompareFX visitors - Customers referred by iCompareFX make thousands of transactions with CurrencyFair yearly.
CurrencyFair has low and very competitive exchange rate margin fees. There is no need to not be completely transparent. iCompareFX believes that showing the real time exchange rate and the margin fee clearly within their money transfer wizard would result in a more positive customer experience.
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32
Customer rating - PayPal gets a rating of Bad on Trustpilot. Several PayPal reviews written by customers highlight the company's poor customer service. None of the recent reviews have been answered by PayPal. Regular PayPal complaints are related to business accounts being suspended during disputes with no notice or follow up by PayPal. This has lead to a large number of unanswered complaints on Twitter, TrustPilot and Google reviews.
Exchange rate transparency - The non-transparent exchange rate margin leaves many customers wondering about the true cost of their transfers.
WinnerCurrencyFair wins despite Paypal being similar across most categories. The difference is in the Fees and Exchange Rates and Trust and Transparency sections. The reason for this is Paypal charges higher than average fee and exchange rates.
