Payment providers - who to go with, and why

Interesting that one of the first public posts on this site is not about making money, but rather about getting paid and making payments.

I am aware that PayPal is probably the biggest online payment processor worldwide, particularly well known in those economies that do not enforce stringent exchange control regulations.

This post is for everyone, but it does offer some answers and solutions to those that have difficulties with bureaucracy and huge amounts of red tape. If you do not have difficulty with registering with PayPal in your particular region then I would naturally recommend that this is the company to go with. They are well known, and have huge resources to sort out any issues that may arise.

 When you find yourself in countries such as South Africa, where the stranglehold on the financial services is so overwhelming, you will need to be a bit more creative. If you merely want to be paid and be able to transfer your funds to a bank account Payza (previously Alertpay) are a good solution to go with. However you need to note that Payza currently have difficulties meeting new requirements in some European countries and the US, so you wont be able to just change your payments to a new country.

A rather creative solution is to use Payoneer. Payoneer are a prepaid debit card service, but with a twist. Regardless of where in the world you happen to be they give you an American bank account number and routing code (sort code in the UK and branch code in South Africa have the same meaning)This means that if you live in South Africa, once you have registered with Payoneer, you can then register with PayPal and use the banking details on your account to send and receive money. You can use the debit card to withdraw funds in South Africa and the charges are competitive with South African banks.