PaySend Money Transfer Review

Company Information and Credibility

Company size:  

PaySend is the global Fintech company on a mission to change how money is moved around the world. With an estimated 50 to 100 employees, PaySend has developed a lot since its 2017 incorporation just a couple of years ago. It has scaled so quickly, that it has hit an incredible 1,600,000 customers in such a short space of time. In fact, in 2019 alone it gained more than 1,000,000 customers. With offices in London, Scotland and Russia, PaySend is certainly proud of its growing influence, and seeks to provide payment solutions to countries all across the world.

In 2018 Paysend received investment to the tune of £20m in its series A funding round led by MARCorp Financial. The series B funding round wasn’t too far afterwards in 2019 with Paysend raising money through Seedrs, offering a wide variety of different equity share options. The firm received £4.6m of investment from 926 investors and £3.95m alone from GVA Capital. The fundraising campaign also saw the launch of Paysend’s global digital currency, Pays XDR and investment is almost certainly going to focus on product capabilities with Paysend expanding the destinations for which it can facilitate payments, launching payments to countries such as Sri Lanka, Japan and Turkey in 2019.

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’ transfers as well as bank transfers from one account to another they are also a registered ‘MasterCard MoneySend’ and ‘Visa Direct’ institution. In short – PaySend has sufficient regulation to ensure it operates within all of its regulatory requirements. Customers should note however that funds held in Paysend’s digital wallet are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme which protects an individual customers money in a bank account up to £85,000.

Awards:

PaySend is beginning to gain recognition for its fantastic services and fast growth, as it won the Paytech awards – 2018 Best Cards Initiative.

Conclusion: 

On the whole, PaySend is beginning to look like an established big hitter despite how recently it was formed. Like with any new company, there will always be both hype and a hyper-focus on mistakes but PaySend are taking it in their stride and have developed a very large user base.

Client Feedback

Research:

PaySend has received over  6700 reviews on Trustpilot, the world’s leading review platform, with an overall score of 4.7 / 5. This is an impressively high rating for such a large amount of reviews. It fairs even better on the App Store with a 4.8 / 5 rating based on 263 reviews but does fall down on its review through the Google Store, scoring 3.9 / 5 based on over 11,000 reviews.

Conclusion:

The simplicity of Paysend’s platform and speed of PaySend’s transactions are  perhaps the most positively reviewed aspect of PaySend. Many individuals are left feeling frustrated from Paysend’s list of ‘Supported Countries’ as they are confusing this for being able to register for the service from this country (something very understandable given Paysend’s lack of clarity in this area). We’ve contacted Paysend to determine exactly which countries users are able to register from, but it is almost certainly set to be just the UK and EU countries for the moment with over 70 countries these users are able to make payments to. 

Exchange Rate & Fees

Fees: 

A flat fee of only £1, €1.50, $2 regardless of amount. This is a very competitive price and is highly attractive in its structure and simplicity. 

Exchange Rates:

PaySend claims to use the mid-market rate, as they cut out all intermediaries. This is the best possible exchange rate you can receive in a general sense, as it reflects the market average. However, it appears PaySend actually use an exchange rate that is close to the mid-market rate. A bit like with Revolut who also advertise using the mid-market rate but in fact charge a spread whilst the UK FX markets are closed to safeguard themselves from big swings during this period. Exchange rates are certainly very good at PaySend, but this cannot be guaranteed and they are slightly misleading around this area

Limits:

There are no mention of upper limits in Paysend’s T&C’s but given the nature of Paysend’s offering which is targeted at high frequency low value transfers there is almost certainly set to be upper transaction limits on payments from your Paysend account, something even Transferwise have in place. 

Conclusion:

Ultimately, PaySend provides a cheap way to send money regarding its low fixed fees and supposedly competitive exchange rate. However, PaySend are misleading customers as they do not use the mid-market rate, and no matter how “close” they are (or state that they are), the price can’t be guaranteed or even commented on.

Global Reach & Service

Research:

• Dedicated Dealer: No dedicated dealers
• Offices: London, Scotland and Russia
• Ways to approach: Online, phone, email
• Translations: 12 supported languages
• Accepts clients: UK & EU 
• Currencies Handled: send to 70+ countries

Client reviews: 4.8 on Trustpilot out of 5,763 reviews

Conclusion:

The service of PaySend appears to be good, but perhaps isn’t as specialised and personalised as some of its competitors that focus on larger transfer values. Despite this, it has a good global presence with a highly impressive 12 translated languages on its official website – which far outperforms the majority of its competitors.

Additional Functionalities

Paysend’s innovative solution allows users to make ‘card2card’ transfers to over 70 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 who integrates with either visa or mastercard (in virtually all countries worldwide) should be able to receive payment. It’s just for Paysend to launch payments to that country in the first instance.

As well as ‘card2card’ transfers users can also 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 are also offering a Global Account that has just released a beta version. This is an online digital walletthat can send money for free and instantly to family and friends inside PaySend. It will utilise payments links, so payments can be sent via a messenger app, and will also perform cheap and fast traditional bank transfers. The Paysend Global Account will be able to hold multiple currencies for you to get paid from around the world, and always get a good exchange rate.

In 2019, PaySend also launched their own digital currency a XDR, which will 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. Jan 2020 update: Currently, we’re still waiting for Paysend’s Global Account functionality to transition from beta to a fully fledged product and thus gives users the ability to send via XDR. 

Conclusion:

PaySend is disrupting the international payments market with a genuine focus on a unique and expanding product solution. . The digital solution aimed at minimising costs is a common theme in the money transfer market and certainly appeals to the new age.The opportunity cost here though is that they do not have a dedicated team of support for transfers, so you may struggle to perform complex transfers. Paysend are set to release two very innovative products: a borderless digital account/payment card and a digital currency. It’s too early to speculate on how well these items will integrate into the ecosystem, but the functionalities look promising. Only Paysend employees will know when their digital account offering is set to launch but it does appear to have been in beta for quite some time now.