Personal Features

OFX

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OFX offers international money transfer solutions for individuals specialising in international bank transfers.

What OFX offers individuals

  • International money transfers
  • Personal account manager
  • Regular transfers
  • OFX mobile app

What OFX does not offer individuals

  • Digital wallets for individuals
  • FX optimised travel cards
  • Cash pick up or international bill payments

PayPal

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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.

OFX wins!

OFX scores better in the Personal Features category.

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Winner

Business Benefits

OFX

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Where OFX really shines is their business solutions and partnerships. Global businesses small and large can take advantage of their variety of solutions to work with global customers and suppliers. Most importantly they help manage currency risk. 

What OFX for business offers

  • Risk management
  • Multi-currency accounts
  • Global payment solutions
  • Business specialists
  • Xero accounting integration

What OFX for business doesn’t do

  • Business debit card optimised for FX

PayPal

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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.

OFX wins!

OFX scores better in the Business Benefits category.

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Winner

Fees & Exchange Rates

OFX

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OFX Fees

Exchange rate margin fee - OFX offered exchange rate includes a fee of 0.5% and 0.7%. This is low and competitive.
 

Are OFX exchange rates negotiable?

By calling an OFX Expert and discussing your money transfer needs, it may be possible to arrange better pricing. In particular for larger sums and large yearly volume trades.
 

Are there additional OFX fees?

Yes. When sending under CA$10,000 or AUD$10,000, there is an additional fee of $15.
 

OFX & iCompareFX offer

OFX offers customers referred by iCompareFX a low exchange rate margin fee of 0.4%. This is an outstanding offer and is sure to lower all your money transfer costs which means more money being transferred.


PayPal

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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.


OFX wins!

OFX scores better in the Fees and Exchange Rates category.

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Winner

Ease of Use

OFX

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What OFX does well

Sign up process - Fast and intuitive.

ID verification - If requested, ID verification is generally your drivers license ID number and a quick phone call to discuss your money transfer requirements.

Transfer speed - 1 - 2 business days upon payment.

Mobile App - To initiate money transfers. Current and historical exchange rates are also available.

Where OFX could improve

Payment options - There are limited payments available other than local bank transfers.

Minimum transfer amount -  The minimum transfer amount is US$1,000, AU$250, CA$250, £100, €250. 


PayPal

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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.


OFX wins!

OFX scores better in the Ease of Use category.

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Winner

Support & Countries

OFX

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What OFX does well

Supported destination countries - OFX supports over 55 currencies and many more exotic currencies. 

Global presence - OFX has seven global offices in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, United States, Canada and the UK.

Customer support - Customer support is available locally in the global offices, over the phone and via email.
 

Where OFX could improve

Languages - Customer service and their website is in English only.

Customer sign up countries - Currently OFX supports customer registration from USA, Canada, UK, Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.


PayPal

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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

OFX

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What OFX does well

  • OFX is fully regulated in multiple countries UK, Australia, USA and Canada.
  • OFX is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and therefore is regularly audited for the compliance and safety of customer funds.
  • OFX has a Trust Pilot score of Excellent. Customer complaints are dealt with on TrustPilot quickly and directly by their customer service team.
  • iCompareFX customers make thousands of transfers through OFX yearly.

Where OFX could improve

Exchange rate margin fee transparency - OFX’s offered exchange rates include margin fees. While the exchange rate margin fee is low, it would be beneficial for current and future customers to clearly understand the fees. This would improve customer satisfaction of their money transfer service.


PayPal

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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.


OFX wins!

OFX scores better in the Trust and Transparency category.

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Winner

The Result

Winner ribbon iconWinner

 OFX

There is no contest here with OFX a clear winner over Paypal.  The only category OFX does not win is in Supported Countries as Paypal has a wide reach.  That said Paypal has high fees and hidden rates that you should be aware of.