Payoneer vs Skrill: Comparison for UK Businesses

Looking for a new payment solution for your UK business? Whether you want to pay clients and staff in multiple countries or find a payment processor for your ecommerce site, there are lots of options out there.

In this guide, we’ll put two popular payment services under the spotlight. We’ll compare Skrill vs. Payoneer on fees and pricing, security, features and more.

We’ll even show you a way to make and receive global payments using a Wise Business account, which links seamlessly to payment service providers (PSPs) too.

💡 Learn more about Wise Business

Payoneer vs Skrill - Comparison overview

Let’s start off with an at-a-glance comparison of Payoneer and Skrill based on their pricing and key features:

Service	Skrill	Payoneer
Pricing	Custom pricing available on application	Varied fees per transaction type Up to 3% to send payments Up to 3.99% to receive credit card payments Free to receive payments into local receiving accounts¹
Trustpilot rating	3.1² ⭐	3.9³ ⭐
Invoice payments	❌	✅
Recurring payments	❌	✅
International payments	✅	✅
API integrations	✅	✅
Checkout solution	✅	✅
Payment links	❌	✅
In-person payments	❌	❌

Payoneer review

Payoneer is a US-based platform that allows businesses to make and receive payments across international borders. It’s aimed at small-to-medium sized companies, particularly ecommerce businesses which sell online. However, it can also be used by freelancers and other types of entrepreneurs.

Payoneer’s services are split by customer type - Freelancer, Business and Marketplace, each offering a range of specially tailored services.

The main features of Payoneer include:

• International payments
• Local receiving accounts
• Client billing
• Purchasing
• Bank withdrawals
• Multi-currency conversions
• Connect to Marketplaces like Amazon and eBay
• Website payments with Payoneer Checkout
• Payment cards

Payoneer has a ‘Great’ rating of 3.9 on TrustPilot, based on over 53,500 reviews.³

Is Payoneer a payment gateway?

Payoneer is a payment gateway, providing payment gateway, payment processing and online checkout services.

A payment gateway is an online platform which allows businesses to accept payments from their customers, usually via credit or debit card, as well as other forms of electronic payment (such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, for example).

Is Payoneer safe?

Yes, Payoneer is safe to use. The company is PCI DSS level 1 certified and works with large, trusted partner banks to safeguard customer funds. Its customers include huge companies like Google and Airbnb.⁴

It also uses advanced security measures, including:⁴

• 2-factor authentication and CAPTCHA requests to secure account access and verify transactions
• RSA adaptive authentication
• Account takeover prevention
• Risk model and behaviour profiling
• Fully monitored transactions to prevent fraud, identity theft and phishing.

Payoneer is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK.⁴

Read more about Payoneer safety

Payoneer fees

Payoneer doesn’t have subscription fees, as it uses a per-transaction pricing model.

Here are the kind of fees you can expect to pay to use the platform:¹

Transaction type	Payoneer fee
Online payments	- Pay - up to 3% - Receive - Up to 3.99% to receive credit card payments - Free to send and receive money to/from other Payoneer customers - Fees vary to get paid directly from marketplaces and seller platforms
International	- Pay - up to 3% - Receive - Free to receive payments into local receiving accounts
Payoneer card fees	Annual fee of $29.95 USD (approx. £23.70 GBP)
Spending with Payoneer cards	- Free for transactions in the same currency as your card - Up to 3.5% for transactions where currency conversion is involved
ATM withdrawals with Payoneer cards	£1.95 GBP per withdrawal

Read more about Payoneer fees

Skrill review

Skrill is owned by Paysafe, which is a multinational online payments company based in the UK.

Like Payoneer, Skrill is aimed at ecommerce businesses wanting to accept payments from customers. It offers a number of solutions to facilitate customer payments for merchants, including integrating checkout solutions on ecommerce websites.

The main services and features offered by Skrill include:

• Quick Checkout - a hosted solution which lets you add multiple payment methods via a single integration on your website. You can choose from over 100 local payment methods, including cards, bank transfer, PayPal and more.⁵ You can also accept payments in multiple currencies.
• Digital Wallet - a fast and easy way to enable customers to pay with just an email address and password, with the option to enable Skrill 1-tap for repeat payments.
• Pay by Bank - an instant bank transfer solution which supports 3,000+ banks worldwide.⁶ Customers can pay directly from their bank account without leaving your website.
• Shopping Carts - Skrill has partnered with major shopping carts such as Shopify, Woocommerce and WIX, so that merchants can accept payments in a single merchant account.
• Skrill Crypto - a service which lets your company’s users withdraw funds as crypto, directly to a crypto wallet of their choice.

Skrill also has an API, which can be used for integrating other business tools and services, as well as automating tasks and customising features.

As for what its existing customers think about Skrill, the company has an ‘Average’ rating of 3.1 on TrustPilot. This is based on over 23,300 reviews, although bear in mind that many of these will be from personal as well as business customers.²

New to Skrill? Find out everything you need to know in our complete Skrill money transfer review, which focuses on the Skrill account for personal users.

Is Skrill safe?

Yes, Skrill is safe to use, although you should always take steps to protect yourself when sending or managing your money online.

Skrill is a trusted, established payment service in the UK, and it has a range of sophisticated security features designed to keep you and your money safe. This includes:⁷

• Anti-fraud monitoring, where unusual activity on your account is detected and suspicious transactions are blocked
• Two-factor authentication to protect access to your account
• Logins and transactions secured using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology with high-security 128-bit encryption, certified by VeriSign.

Skrill is also regulated in the UK as an electronic money services provider by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Read more about Skrill security here

Skrill payment fees

Now we come to that all-important question - how much will it cost your business to use Skrill? Unfortunately, Skrill doesn’t publish a list of flat fees for its services, so it’s difficult to say.

The platform does have a list of fees for personal customers, which you can find here. But for businesses, Skrill offers custom pricing on application. This means you’ll need to contact its sales or customer services team to discuss your needs as a business. Then you’ll be given a tariff tailored to your needs and the services you’ll use.

This does make it a little tricky to compare Skrill to other providers such as Payoneer, as there aren’t like-for-like fees available. To get this information, you’ll need to take the extra step and get in touch with the company.

Manage your international business with Wise

While you’re researching payment gateways and processors, it could also be worth looking into how you’ll manage business funds across borders.

Open a Wise Business account and you can hold and exchange 40+ currencies at once. You can send payments to 160+ countries and get local account details to get paid in 8+ currencies like a local.

Use your Wise account to get paid in a selection of major foreign currencies by customers and clients, through marketplaces - and via PSPs too. Whenever you need to send, spend or exchange foreign currencies, you’ll always benefit from the mid-market exchange rate, with low, transparent fees.

You’ll also benefit from all of these features:

• No ongoing fees, minimum balance requirements or foreign transaction fees
• Debit and expense cards for you and your team, which you can use in 150+ countries
• Multi-user access for team members, with ways to control and manage permissions
• Pay up to 1,000 people at once with the Wise batch payments feature
• Integrate with your favourite cloud accounting solutions, and use the Wise API for automation and streamlining workflow
• Use the Wise Interest feature to make your money work harder when you’re not using it.

With the help of a truly global account, your business can grow beyond international borders.

Get started with Wise Business 🚀

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And that’s about it - our comprehensive comparison of Payoneer vs. Skrill, pitting the two payment solution providers against each other on all the things that matter to your business.

After reading this, you should have all the info you need to compare the two payment solutions and choose the right one for your company’s needs.

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Sources used:

1. Payoneer - Pricing
2. TrustPilot - Skrill
3. TrustPilot - Payoneer
4. Payoneer - Security Center
5. Skrill - Quick Checkout
6. Skrill - Business
7. Skrill - Fraud Awareness

Sources last checked on date: 27-Jun-2024