Is PaySend Safe?

Company size:

PaySend is the global Fintech company on a mission to change how money is moved around the world. With an estimated 250 employees, PaySend has developed a lot since its 2017 incorporation just a few years ago. It has scaled so quickly that it has hit an incredible 7,500,000 customers in such a short space of time. In fact, since2019 it has gained more than 1,000,000 customers per year. With regions; offices in Ireland, Scotland, Serbia and the USA, PaySend is certainly proud of its growing influence and seeks to provide payment solutions to countries all across the world.

Paysend’s first major USP was that it was one of the first fintech’s to introduce global card-to-card transfers and connect 12 billion cards across Mastercard, Visa, China UnionPay and Alipay. Nowadays, Paysend provides over 40 payment methods for online SMEs.

Company Funding:

In 2018, Paysend received investment to the tune of £20m in its series A funding round led by MARCorp Financial, valuing Paysend at $160 million at the time.

\In 2019, Paysend conducted further fundraising through Seedrs, offering a wide variety of different equity share options. The firm received £4.6m of investment from 926 investors, including £3.95m alone from GVA Capital. The fundraising campaign also saw the launch of Paysend’s global digital currency, Pays XDR, a stablecoin running on the Stellar network that tracks the performance of five currencies – GBP, EUR, USD, JPY & CNY. The idea being that Pays XDR could be a straightforward way to make international payments without running the risk of sudden drops in value due to any currency volatility.

2019 saw further investment into product capabilities with Paysend expanding the destinations for which it can facilitate payments, launching payments to countries such as Sri Lanka, Japan and Turkey.

The firm certainly didn’t slow down its expansion activities in the year that followed. In 2021, the payment company completed its expansion into the US & Canada, completed a series B fundraising and launched the global account – a digital multi-currency account banking service similar to that offered by Wise & Revolut – in partnership with Mastercard. The series B fundraising saw Paysend raise an additional $125m, valuing the company at over $700m – a 4.5x increase in its 2018 valuation. The huge growth Paysend enjoyed – it reached 3.7m customers by the time of its series B fundraising – is perhaps the most impressive point to note. Other notable fintechs have required a much larger injection of capital to enjoy the same tremendous levels of growth.

While the company has received no further investment in recent years, Paysend certainly hasn’t slowed down its expansion activities. The firm continues to partner with a range of global payment networks to enhance its solutions in countries like Israel, the USA and Latin America. This is in addition to its growing global presence which now sees staff employed from over 30 countries and a new office launched in Dublin, Ireland.

Regulated By: 

PaySend is authorised and regulated by the FCA (reg no. 900004) and HMRC, meaning they have all the necessary licensing and authority to trade from the UK. As Paysend offer ‘card2card’ transfersthey are also a registered ‘MasterCard MoneySend’ and ‘Visa Direct’ institution. In addition to the UK, Paysend holds money transfer licenses in a wide number of jurisdictions, including the European Union, Canada and 48 states in the USA. In short – PaySend has sufficient regulation to ensure it operates within all of its regulatory requirements.

Customers should however note that funds held in Paysend’s digital wallet are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which protects an individual customer’s money in a bank account up to £85,000.

Awards:

PaySend has gained recognition for its fantastic services and fast growth over the last few years. These include:

• Financial Times – 2023, 1000 Fastest Growing Companies
• Mastercard – 2019, Top 5% Processing Quality
• Paytech Awards – 2018, Best Cards Initiative
• FinovateSpring – 2018, Leading Fintech Product

Conclusion: 

Despite its relatively recent launch just six years ago, PaySend has established itself as a big hitter in the online money transfer industry. Like with any hyperfast-growth company, there will always be both fanfare and a laser-focus on mistakes, but PaySend continues to take it in their stride and has already had over 7.5 million registrations. There are very few companies expanding at the pace of Paysend and enjoying the level of press coverage they have received as a result. New strategic partnerships are focused on improving the ease at which US migrants can remit money home. A territory where Paysend holds money transfer licenses in 48 different US states.

Paysend Customer Reviews

Research:

PaySend has received over 32,000 reviews on Trustpilot, the world’s leading review platform, with an overall score of 4.3 / 5. This is a pretty impressive rating, especially given there are such a large number of Paysend reviews, but it is, however, down on their 2021 rating of 4.7 / 5, based on 24,000 reviews. This signals a downward trend for the firm, suggesting that more and more customers are finding faults with the service.

Conversely, the firms Google Play Store rating has improved from 3.9 / 5 in 2019 (based on 11,000 reviews), to  4.4 / 5 in 2023 (based on over 92,000 reviews). Improving the Paysend review score on Google Play from 3.9 to 4.4 is no mean feat and shows the firm has adopted feedback from android users to ensure a smooth and hassle-free international payment experience. The firm’s score has slightly worsened on the App store, reducing from 4.8 / 5 in 2021 to 4.6 / 5 in 2023.

Check our top international money transfer apps for a list of the leading alternatives.

Conclusion:

The simplicity of Paysend’s platform and speed of PaySend’s transactions are perhaps the most positively reviewed aspect of PaySend. There are hundreds of reviews in 2023 which praise the speed in which Paysend transactions have gone through.

However, many individuals are left feeling frustrated by Paysend’s list of ‘supported countries’ as they are confusing this for being able to register for the service from this country (something which is very understandable given Paysend’s lack of clarity in this area on its website). Australians cannot register with Paysend, so if you need to make an international money transfer from Australia, be sure to check our page for the best PaySend alternatives in Australia.

More concerning in the negative feedback is that the customer service has been so slow for some, they feel like they’re being scammed. In the instances when customers are required to provide extra documentation for their transfer to be processed, slow customer service has left them anxious as to where their money has gone. Many users report multiple days or even weeks without access to their money. In another scenario, one user reports how a hacker got into their account but valuable time was wasted having to get past an automated chat bot, before they could raise the issue to a real human.

Overall, the significant majority of clients seem to have their transfers processed fine, so long as no extra documentation was required. However, in these instances, it seems like many customers have encountered a nightmare. If you’re transferring a large sum, consider working with a currency broker, with whom you’d have direct access to a personal account manager.

Paysend Exchange Rates & Fees

Fees: 

Paysend charges fixed fees for international cross-currency transfers, as below:

Australia – 2 AUD

Canada – 3 CAD

Israel – 9 ILS

Kazakhstan – 199 KZT

Mexico – 20 MXN

UAE – 9 AED

UK – £1

USA – $2

Uzbekistan – 4999 UZS

Czech Republic – 39 CZK

Denmark – 9 DKK

Moldova – 29 MDL

Norway – 19 NOK

Poland – 4.9 PLN

Sweden – 19 SEK

Switzerland – 2 CHF

Other European countries – €1.50

With regards to its multi-currency account, Paysend does not charge a fee for:

Opening a multi-currency account

Holding money in a multi-currency account

Opening a virtual card

Account top-up

Transfers to other Paysend users with multi-currency accounts

However, fees are charged for:

The issue and delivery of a Paysend plastic card – 4.99 GBP / 5.99 EUR depending on your country of registration

Cash withdrawals over 200 GBP / 220 EUR per month at 2% of the amount withdrawn (higher than the 1.75% charged through Wise).

Exchange Rates:

PaySend applies a markup to the exchange rate. It’s not made evident how much this markup is, but the exchange rate is always clearly provided prior to agreeing to a transfer, along with any other associated fees. Meaning users can always calculate PaySend’s rate against the mid market rate at the time, to see what margin is being charged. This is how the majority of payment providers operate so it’s nothing unusual, you just have to be savvy as a customer to ensure you’re getting a good deal.

Limits:

Limits are not clearly specified but customers are only allowed to transfer so much per month before they have to provide extra documentation in order to increase their monthly allowance.

Conclusion:

Ultimately, PaySend provides a cheap way to make remittance transfers with their low fixed fees and supposedly competitive exchange rates. However, PaySend may not be the best option for customers transferring large sums. In this case, dedicated dealer guidance, a range of hedging solutions, and the ability to negotiate, may land you a better rate. All things that are possible through a company like Currencies Direct.

Paysend Global Reach & Service

Research:

• Dedicated Dealer: No dedicated dealers
• Offices: Ireland, Scotland, Serbia and the USA
  
• Ways to approach: Online, phone, email
• Translations: 15 supported languages
• Accepts clients: UK, EU, Canada & America
  
• Currencies Handled: send to 170+ countries
  

Client reviews: 4.3 / 5 on Trustpilot from over 31,000 reviews

Conclusion:

Comparing PaySend with competitors, there’s no doubt they’re one of the better options for individuals who are remitting small volumes back home. However, they aren’t as specialised as  currency brokers  for large value transfers.

Even despite this, Paysend has a vast global presence, including the ability to onboard US customers, and a highly impressive 15 translated languages on its official website – which far outperforms the majority of its competitors. With translations in Cantonese and Indonesian, it’s clear that Asia is a territory that Paysend intends to incorporate into its rapidly growing international footprint.

Additional Functionalities

Paysend’s innovative solution allows users to make ‘card2card’ transfers to over 170 destinations worldwide. It’s certainly a unique approach and it’s this link up with Visa and Mastercard that gives Paysend such a far-reaching solution. Rather than focusing on ‘bank-to-bank’ transfers, this approach to the market means that any bank which integrates with either Visa or Mastercard should be able to receive payment through Paysend. The most significant stumbling block is not actually the destinations that can be reached, it’s Paysend acquiring the relevant payment licensing to launch payments from a specific territory in the first instance.

As well as ‘card2card’ transfers, users can send money via ‘Paysend link’ – sending money to a person’s mobile phone number. A very common delivery method to many countries in Africa.

PaySend is also offering a Global Account. This online digital wallet can send money for free and instantly to family and friends inside PaySend and allow users to spend money on their Paysend debit card around the world. The partnership with Mastercard means the Paysend debit card will be accepted wherever mastercard is accepted – i.e. millions of merchants around the world. As it stands, the Paysend Global Account allows users to hold balances in 13 currencies, meaning they can get paid from around the world in these currencies, and always get a good exchange rate when converting between their own account balances.

It was back in 2019 that PaySend launched their own digital currency, PaysXDR, which they expected to integrate into the PaySend Global Account ecosystem. XDR is promoted as the most stable global digital currency, backed by a basket of five major currencies – USD, EUR, GBP, JPY and CNY. The idea being that existing Paysend customers can transfer from their Paysend Global Account XDR balance to another user on the Paysend Global Account platform, minimising the risk of any quick adverse movements with the digital currency supported by the world’s ‘safest’ currencies. 

2023 update: Currently, we’re still waiting for Paysend’s Global Account to incorporate PaysXDR balances and the ability to make and receive PaysXDR transfers. Given the heavy regulatory changes surrounding crypto currencies, this may be put on hold for now.

Conclusion:

PaySend is disrupting the international payments market with a genuine focus on a unique and expanding product solution. This completely digital solution, aimed at minimising costs, is a common theme nowadays in the money transfer industry, and it certainly seems to appeal to the new age. However, there is a tradeoff. Users receive no access to a team of foreign exchange experts who can provide invaluable support for complex or large transfers.

The global account solution is aimed to compete with some of the best multi-currency account providers on the market today but it is still someway behind that provided by Wise for individuals and WorldFirst for businesses.