[Qgis-psc] More on PayPal and alternatives

[Andreas Neumann]

Hi,

Now that I have access to our PayPal account I can see how much PayPal
takes for its services.

On all incoming money, they get on average 5 %. If I withdraw money from
PayPal, they don't charge fees, but they unnecessarily convert everything
to CHF (during which they earn money again), which I then have to convert
again to Euros (and Postfinance, our bank again earns during this
conversion). All in all we loose an estimated 8 % of donation and
sponsorship money if someone pays through PayPal. Wire transfers in SEPA
countries (Europe) are free of charge.

I am now looking at alternatives - mainly at:
- TransferWise (https://transferwise.com/)
- Revolut (https://revolut.com/)

Both have the concept of a global bank account that appears as a local bank
account to most countries in the world in the local currencies of the
country. They use interbank conversion rates between currencies (cheaper
for the customer) and don't charge for their services. Their business model
is to earn money (0.5 %) if I withdraw from their account to an account
under the same name as the account holder. Given that most of the money is
forwarded to other people (reimbursements, payments for devs), this seems
to me like much better solution than PayPal.

With such accounts we can keep multiple currencies (e.g. €, CHF, GBP, USD,
AUD, ZAR, etc.) and only convert money when there is not enough balance for
payments in a requested currency.

Revolut seems to be slightly cheaper than TransferWise (currently). They
also offer a free multi-currency debit card.

I will test this as a private person first, and if it works fine, suggest
to introduce this for QGIS as well. If it works fine, I could even see this
as a full replacement of our existing bank account.

Andreas

-- 

--
Andreas Neumann
QGIS.ORG board member (treasurer)
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