Personal Features

Moneygram

50

50

MoneyGram gives individuals the ability to send money to most countries. 

What MoneyGram does

  • International money transfers
  • Cash pick-ups
  • Mobile airtime and mobile wallet top ups
  • Bill payments (US only)
  • Transfers to inmates (US only)
  • Regular transfers

What MoneyGram doesn’t do

  • Personal account managers
  • Forex hedging tools
  • Digital wallets
  • Unique local multi-currency accounts
  • FX optimised travel cards

PayPal

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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. 

What PayPal does

  • International money transfers.
  • Debit and prepaid cards.
  • PayPal Credit.
  • Links multiple payment methods to your account to shop online.
  • Digital wallet to hold funds in multiple currencies.

What PayPal doesn’t do

  • Dedicated account managers.
  • Risk management tools.
  • Cash pickup.

Moneygram wins!

MoneyGram scores better in the Personal Features category.

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Winner

Business Benefits

Moneygram

11

11

MoneyGram provides very limited international money transfer services for businesses.

What MoneyGram for business offers 

  • International money transfers
  • Biller solutions
  • Check processing
  • Money order services

What MoneyGram for business doesn't do

  • Risk management tools
  • FX-optimized travel cards
  • Unique local multi-currency accounts
  • Dedicated currency managers
  • Solutions for online sellers
  • Accounting integration

PayPal

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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.

What PayPal for business offers

  • Make and accept international payments.
  • Solutions for online sellers.
  • Digital wallet to hold funds and transact in multiple currencies.
  • Payment gateway to accept card payments.
  • Accepts in-store payments with a card reader and a smartphone or tablet.
  • Easy accounting integration through APIs, SDKs, code samples and pre-integrated solutions.
  • Risk management through fraud and seller protection.
  • Mass payments.

What PayPal for business doesn’t do

  • Account managers.
  • Currency hedging tools.

PayPal wins!

PayPal scores better in the Business Benefits category.

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Winner

Fees & Exchange Rates

Moneygram

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8

MoneyGram fees

Exchange rate margin fee - This can be an additional 5% on top of real time exchange rates. The exchange rate margin fee increases with credit card payments and cash pickup of funds.

Additional fees - MoneyGram money transfer fees vary depending on where you and the recipient reside, the mode of payment, the transfer amount, and the transfer method.

  • Cash pickup fees - Sending money to a bank account is typically more affordable than sending it to a cash pickup location. Sending cash for location pickup can cost an additional US$5.
  • Credit / debit card payment fees - Paying through a bank transfer is usually more cost-effective than paying via a debit/credit card. Credit/debit card payments can cost between US$3 and $15

PayPal

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.

Fees for sending money within the US

Payment methodFees
PayPal Cash, PayPal Cash Plus or a linked bank account $0
Credit card, debit card or PayPal Credit2.9% of the transfer amount, plus a fixed fee

Fees for sending money overseas

Payment methodTransaction feesFunding 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

Fees for selling

Mode of sellingFees
Selling in the US2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction
Selling internationally4.4% plus a fixed fee based on the currency received
PayPal Here card reader2.7% for card swipes, or 3.5% plus $0.15 for manually entered transactions

PayPal exchange rates

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.


Moneygram wins!

MoneyGram scores better in the Fees and Exchange Rates category.

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Ease of Use

Moneygram

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64

Signing up - Fairly easy, using either the MoneyGram app or website.

Payment options -  Bank account transfers, debit cards, credit cards and cash.

Speed - Up to 4 business days, and even more in some instances.

Multilingual website - Use the MoneyGram website in a number of languages.

Mobile apps - Available for iOS and Android.


PayPal

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68

What PayPal does well

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.
 

Where PayPal could improve

Phone transfers - PayPal customers can not send money over the phone.


PayPal wins!

PayPal scores better in the Ease of Use category.

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Winner

Support & Countries

Moneygram

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69

Supported payment currencies - Accepts local currency payments from its customers in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Oceania.

Supported destination currencies - MoneyGram lets you send money to more than 200 countries and territories, and offers payouts in local currencies.

Customer support - Local phone and chat support provided in several countries.


PayPal

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88

What PayPal does well

Supported countries - PayPal provides its services in more than 200 countries and territories.

Multilingual website - You can use the PayPal website in different languages.
 

Where PayPal could improve

Local phone support - PayPal could do better by providing local phone support in countries with large customer bases.


PayPal wins!

PayPal scores better in the Support and Countries category.

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Winner

Trust & Transparency

Moneygram

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44

Regulation - Regulated by financial regulatory bodies in different countries.

Average customer service - Gets a rating of Great on Trustpilot. However, several customer reviews highlight issues with the company's customer service.

Poor exchange rate transparency - The markup on existing exchange rates can be more than 5% for some currencies. 


PayPal

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32

What PayPal does well

  • PayPal is licensed to provide its services in all the regions in which it operates.
  • Dispute resolution and purchase protection for buyers.

Where PayPal could improve

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.


Moneygram wins!

MoneyGram scores better in the Trust and Transparency category.

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Winner

The Result

Winner ribbon iconWinner

 PayPal

Paypal beats MoneyGram.  Both score poorly for their fees and exchange rates but Paypal gets the upper edge across the Business Benefits, Ease of Use and Support and Countries metrics.