Out of curiosity I compared PayPal, MoneyBookers and Envato SWIFT transfer rates to see what is cheaper. I’ve used those three. Unfortunately I have no data about Payoneer card rates.

PayPal

PayPal rates are similar to anyone who lives outside US – They don’t charge any commission for receiving money. They charge 2EUR (around 2.73$ per withdrawal) and they don’t let you withdraw more than 500$ at a time. So if you get 1000$ in your PayPal and want to get it to your bank card this will cost you 4EUR which is 2EUR twice for each 500$ transaction. If you have 1020$ in your PayPal and want to get it to your bank card this will cost you 6EUR which is 2EUR two times for each 500$ + one more time for last 20$ You might call this fixed rate, but actually it’s variable – it get’s bigger with every 500$ you withdraw.
Also they have low currency exchange rates which means – you’ll get less than if you would go to local bank and exchange the same amount of $ there. You might say – no big deal – I’ll withdraw in $ and exchange to my local currency in my local bank. That’s not going to work. PayPal only allows withdrawals in your local currency so you have to accept their bad exchange rates. This is variable as well. More you withdraw the more you loose on this exchange rate difference.

MoneyBookers

If some has variable rates and some has fixed rates – there must be threshold where one become cheaper than other ones. And this is the main point of this article. If you’re lucky and they still think Envato is your grandmam who sends you money every month – you don’t have commission for receiving money. This is against their policy though because when you signed up you promised to inform then whenever you start to receive commercial payments. If you’re selling with Envato and Envato is paying commission – that’s commercial payment. If they don’t know – you’re lucky. If they find out – they will start to charge you for receiving money according to how much you’re receiving in month and according to where you live (EU or non EU).
What commissions do MoneyBookers charge. Basically they charge the same 2EUR per withdrawal like PayPal does. Good thing is they don’t have withdrawal limit per day. So you can withdrawal your 1030$ and still pay only 2EUR instead of 6EUR like PayPal does. So this is fixed rate. But wait- there is one more thing they don’t advertise out loud. It’s their exchange rates. They carry out withdrawals in EUROS only. Which means – your hard earned $ get transferred to EUR using their low exchage rates (similar to what PayPal has) and then you need to exchange those EUROS in your local currency – again loosing some money. Again this is variable commission. The more you withdraw the more you loose.
Now – if you’re lucky – this is all they’re charging. If you’re not – they’re taking 2.9% from every money that comes into your account. Or even 3.9% from every money – if you live outside European Union which again is variable commission that depends on how much money you get.

SWIFT transfers

Now SWIFT transfers. They are normal bank transfers from Envato bank account into your account. Since they’re in Australia and you’re not it’s international transfer which has some commissions as well. Transfers to my country (Latvia, EU) cost 20$ some people reported it’s 25$ to their country, but whats good to know itš fixed. no mater if it’s five hundreds or five thousands – the commission stays the same. Since it’s more complicated to carry out SWIFT transfers Envato introduced their own commission for SWIFT transfers. It’s 35$ per transfer. So in my case SWIFT transfer costs 20+35=55$ per transaction. Swift transfers are available if you withdraw 500$ or more (Envato policy)

Now with all that said. If some has variable rates and some has fixed rates – there must be threshold where one become cheaper than other ones. And this is the main point of this article.

The comparison

If you’re making up to 1000$ PayPal and MoneyBookers are almost the same. Abowe 1100$ Swift transwer is a way to go. If you’re lucky and MoneyBookers don’t charge you merchant fees then up to 1075$ Moneybookers is the cheepest. You’ll loose around 61$ on their withdrawal fees and curency exchange (USD to EUR to your currency) Actually Paypal is almost the same difference is around 1$ and it’s even less for smaller amounts. So If you make up to 1000$ a month – PayPal or MoneyBookers is a way to go. When you start to make around 1100$ – SWIFT is cheaper.

If you’re not lucky and Moneybookers charge you 2.9% (EU standard merchant rate)
PayPal is the cheapest up to 1030$ if Paypal isn’t available – MoneyBookers is cheaper up to 720$ then SWIFT transfers takes lead.

If you’re not lucky and Moneybookers charge you 3.9% (non EU standard merchant rate)
PayPal is the cheapest up to 1030$ if Paypal isn’t available – MoneyBookers is cheaper up to 640$ then SWIFT transfers takes lead.

If you check the Merchant Fees on Moneybookers website- you might notice as you start to earn more your merchants rate could go as low as 1.9%, but that doesn’t make sense. Because if your rate is 1.9% – Payal is still cheaper all the way up to 1030$ and if PayPal is not available MoneyBookers holds up only to 800$ then SWIFT transfers takes lead again. But to get this 1.9% you have to transfer more than 65 000$ a month through their system which is muuuuch higher than 800$ starting from which SWIFT is cheaper.

How I did this

I’m selling with Envato since August 2009 and withdrawing money every month using different strategies. I compared my PayPal, Moneybookers and Bank statements with the historical currency exchange rates to calculate how much I lost. Those calculations might not be the most percise, but definitely lays out some guidelines for which payment method to choose.

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