Skrill Review: Our Opinion On This Online Payment Giant
In this article, we review Skrill which is an online payment platform and we will tell you what you need to know about it before you decide to use it.
The world is changing and with it the means of payment and banking services. If traditional banks are increasingly obsolete, some payment services are on the contrary on the rise. This is the case with Skrill which offers you the advantages of a current account, with much more simplicity and some advantages. What is Skrill? How to open an account? Is it reliable? We give you our opinion, complete and detailed!
Skrill: presentation
Skrill, like Paypal or Neteller, was created at the time of the explosion of e-commerce in 2001. Initially, the company was called MoneyBookers, and it wanted to make money transfers simpler and faster both for individuals and businesses, whether to buy and sell on the internet, transfer money to a friend or recover the winnings from our online games.
The ease of use and the possibility of having a Mastercard credit card did the rest, and Skrill has experienced quite incredible growth, and it doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.
From now on, we can pay via Skrill in more than 35 million stores and withdraw our money from all Mastercard partner bank distributors.
Today, Skrill allows us to manage our money and exchange it in 40 currencies. You can open an account in more than 200 countries and tens of millions of users have already taken the plunge. On the strength of its success, Skrill bought the leader in prepaid cards in 2013:
Paysafecard, then Ukash in 2014. In short, Skrill is an online payment giant, which remains relatively unknown in France.
Skrill Services
Skrill works like Paypal for an individual. We will be able to receive money, make deposits, then use our account to pay on merchant sites using this payment method.
It is finally a wallet allowing you to manage your transactions on the Internet while protecting your bank details. No need to use your real bank account and leave your details on all the sites you visit. At Skrill, a single email address and password allow you to receive or send money.
Transfers are very fast whether you are sending or receiving money. It's almost instantaneous from one Skrill account to another, and it only takes 48 hours to transfer to your bank account, in most countries. It is also a very fast way to receive money from your winnings for sports betting or other online games.
Security and reliability
Thanks to Skrill, you never reveal your bank details to e-commerce sellers. So there is no risk of being hacked on our main account. The money kept in our Skrill account is protected by a very secure system, which has not had the slightest problem for the last 18 years.
Also, unlike traditional banks, Skrill keeps its customers' money in single accounts. The company is not allowed to gamble on the stock market with users' money, which all traditional banking institutions do. That's why you can, without notice and in seconds, withdraw all the money from your Skrill account.
Opening a Skrill Account
Signing up is simple, free, and only takes a few minutes of your time. You are first asked for a valid email address and a password that you will need to confirm. They will be your credentials to access your account.
You are then asked for some personal information, your first and last name, date of birth, country of residence, or even the currency you will use most often. Choose well since fees will be applied to each change of currency. You will need to provide a full address and telephone number.
It remains only to validate the conditions of use of the site.
We then move on to step two which consists of verifying our Skrill account. To do this, we start by validating the email address by clicking on the link of a message sent to us in our mailbox. Then, you will have to validate the account by sending a photo of an identity document and proof of address.
Finally, you can link a bank account and a bank card to make your first deposits into your Skrill account. You can then configure the payment or withdrawal limits as you wish, whether cumulatively or per transaction, in order to properly manage your cash outflows.
The Skrill Card and fees
After opening your account, you can decide to receive a prepaid Mastercard payment card. It only costs €10 for postage and is valid for one year. It allows you to pay in shops, or online, and of course to withdraw cash from authorized Mastercard distributors.
Its use online or in a store is completely free. On the other hand, a fee of €1.80 is imposed on each withdrawal. It's expensive for those who usually withdraw in France, but for those who often withdraw outside the eurozone, it's much more expensive than the usual bank charges.
It is also quite low compared to the competition. A withdrawal with a Neteller card costs almost twice as much.
Sending money to another Skrill address will cost you 1.45% of the transfer amount. There is no option to send money to a friend or relative for free, which is a bit of a shame. However, the fees are still quite low.
Finally, the exchange fees amount to 1.99%, we are in the low average, which is therefore good news. We can exchange our currencies without losing too much money.
Customer service.
The Skrill site offers a forum to ask all the questions you want or to find answers to topics that have already been covered. Overall we find everything we want.
In the event that all our questions are not clarified, we will be able to communicate by email or telephone with a contact person.
By email, the response time is generally less than 24 hours. It obviously goes faster over the phone and the advisers are very professional. The response time to get someone online is still under 5 minutes, which is pretty decent.
Skrill Review: Benefits of Skrill
- Skrill is a reliable and perfectly secure payment service.
- Bank details are never shared.
- Transactions are very fast, whether sending or receiving money.
- Fees are low.
- A prepaid card allows us to use our funds immediately, both online and in physical shops, restaurants, hotels, etc.
- English law assures us of almost total anonymity.
- The use is pleasant, and the site like the smartphone applications are very easy to use
- Responsive customer service
Skrill Review: Disadvantages of Skrill
- ATM withdrawal fees
- Charges for a transfer to another Skrill account
- Deposit only by bank transfer or credit card
Our opinion on Skrill
In place for nearly 20 years, Skrill has nothing more to prove but continues its evolution towards greater simplicity. We can store, receive or send money easily, and use our money both online and in physical stores thanks to the prepaid Mastercard card made available to us.
It is an English company that ensures us certain anonymity while ensuring security and flawless protection of our bank details. It's generally free to use, and the few fees for sending money, ATM withdrawals, or currency exchange aren't high.
Using the Skrill site or applications is very simple, from creation to use of the account. Customer service is present and responsive, with professional advisers who always respond quickly to our questions.
Skrill really is simplicity in its raw state! A wallet that allows us to manage our money easily, inexpensively, anywhere on the planet. The success of this online payment giant is clearly not stolen.
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