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 150 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 4,000,000 customers in such a short space of time. In fact, in 2019 and 2020 alone it gained more than 1,000,000 customers per year. With offices in London, Scotland, Canada and Russia, 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.

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.

Fast forward to 2021 and the firm certainly hasn’t slowed down its expansion activities. In this year alone, 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. 

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 customer’s money in a bank account up to £85,000.

In 2019 Paysend applied for a money service business (MSB) license in Canada and received formal approval to operate as an MSB in Canada in 2020. 

As of late 2020, Paysend became available for American consumers through Paysend’s new partnership with Central Payments, the payments subsidiary of Central Bank of Kansas City.

Awards:

PaySend is beginning to gain recognition for its fantastic services and fast growth, as it won the Mastercard – 2019 Top 5% Processing Quality, Paytech awards – 2018 Best Cards Initiative and the FinovateSpring – 2018 Leading Fintech Product.

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 is taking it in their stride and has already developed a huge customer base. There are very few companies expanding at the pace of Paysend and enjoying the level of press coverage they have received as a result. The US and Canada are sure to be huge growth markets in 2021.

Paysend Customer Reviews

Research:

PaySend has received over 24,200 reviews on Trustpilot, the world’s leading review platform, with an overall score of 4.7 / 5. This is an impressively high rating, especially given there are such a large amount of Paysend reviews. It fairs even better on the App Store with a 4.8 / 5 rating based on over 1,300 reviews.And its Google Play Store rating, which was once 3.9 / 5 based on 11,000 reviews in 2019, is now 4.5 / 5 based on over 53,000 reviews in mid-2021. Improving the Paysend review score on Google Play from 3.9 to 4.5 is no mean feat and shows the firm has adopted feedback from android users to ensure a smooth and hassle-free international payment experience. 

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 2022 which praise the speed in which Paysend transactions have gone through. 

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 very understandable given Paysend’s lack of clarity in this area on its website). We’ve contacted Paysend to determine exactly which countries users are able to register from, but for now it appears to be the UK, EU, Canada and USA. Customers from these territories can make payments to over 90 countries around the world.

So if you need to make an international money transfer from Australia, be sure to check out that page for our best recommendations / PaySend Australia alternatives.

Paysend Exchange Rates & Fees

Fees: 

Paysend’s fees are clearly displayed and very easy to understand:

Opening an account and holding your money – FREE

Adding money to your account – FREE

Spending money with your card – FREE

Cash withdrawals – First £200 free per month, then 2% fee on amounts above that

Currency exchange – FREE

Transferring to other Paysend Global Account users – FREE

Virtual card – FREE

SEPA transfers – FREE

Physical card – £4.99 / €5.99 for card delivery in the UK/EU

A flat payment fee of only £1, €1.50, $2 USD, $3 CAD for card-to-card transfers regardless of amount. This is a competitive price and 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 actual exchange rate that banks trade at with one another. 

However, it appears PaySend actually uses an exchange rate that is close to the mid-market rate when FX markets are closed. This is a bit like with Revolut who themselves 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 is 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 Wise (formerly Transferwise) have in place. 

Conclusion:

Ultimately, PaySend provides a cheap way to send money with 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.

Paysend Global Reach & Service

Research:

• Dedicated Dealer: No dedicated dealers
• Offices: London, Scotland, Canada and nd Russia
• Ways to approach: Online, phone, email
• Translations: 15 supported languages
• Accepts clients: UK & EU 
• Currencies Handled: send to  90+ countries

Client reviews: 4.7 on Trustpilot out of 24,272 reviews

Conclusion:

The service of PaySend appears to be good for individuals who are remitting small volumes back home, but perhaps isn’t as specialised and personalised as some of its currency broker competitors that focus on large value transfers. Despite this, it has a good global presence with 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 90 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 that integrates with either Visa or Mastercard (in virtually all countries worldwide) should be able to receive payment through Paysend. It’s just a case of 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 seven 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. 

July 2021 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 take a while to launch – although we like the innovative solutions that Paysend is trying to bring to the market. 

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 foreign exchange experts who can provide support for transfers, so you may struggle to perform complex transfers. 

The global account solution is set to compete with some of the best multi-currency account providers on the market today. Though with just seven currencies for now, it’s still a little behind that offered by Wise for individuals and WorldFirst for businesses.