Alternative to PayPal?
Does anyone know any european alternatives to PayPal? Since their customer support is also really annoying I'm considering boycotting PayPal completely as well.
I guess there is Klarna sometimes? And of course I can also buy directly with one time use virtual credit cards for example..
I'd say SEPA is the European alternative. It's been getting better and better at forcing banks to get their shit together in regards to quick money transfers.
SEPA direct debit should be a standard every shop offers. It's quick, easy and customer friendly. I think its existence is the reason why PayPal took so long to gain a footing in Europe. The national versions of it were the standard way of paying for stuff over a distance.
It's kind of magic that (some) international translations are now instant and free in the EU.
Klarna is from Sweden, as far as I know. But their business practices don't make them better than Paypal. Some years ago I had to use them as payment method for an item I bought online. Unfortunately, that item was not availiable anywhere else and this shop did not offer Paypal as a method of payment, other than credit card, which I don't have. So I had to go through Klarna.
Klarna wants to coerce you into handing over your online banking credentials so that they can take care of the payment. That's a big No-No. Luckily I was able to pay per invoice, meaning that I had to wire the money to Klarna by myself. Klarna does act in the same way as Paypal: when you buy an item online, Klarna pays up for it, but you have to reimburse them.
This is my experience with Klarna, which was in 2021. Your experience may differ.
fuuuuck klarna. predatory as fuck
Wero is starting in many countries to be a replacement for PayPal
GNU Taler might be an option in the future if the EU selects it for the digital euro:
What's your use case for PayPal?
I find Revolut convenient for single use cards at vendors I don't fully trust to uphold security best practices.
Wise is great for receiving, converting and sending money in different currencies. When I was unemployed but had an American client willing to shell money at me if I could take USD payments via ACH, Wise saved my ass. The ACH system was ridiculously slow but once I held the dollars, they became euros instantly.
My use case is mainly to pay for things online fast.. Sometimes sending colleagues lunch money. I also use revolut, and wise for yen<>eur transfers.
I mean if you can get your colleagues on Revolut, that already pretty much takes care of everything. Most places allow paying by card, and some payment gateways already let you save your card so even if try to pay somewhere else but it uses the same payment gateway, you can reuse information fairly quickly.
Your browser can also keep payment card information - optionally (and I recommend this) in the OS keychain rather than in some plaintext file. But I do have to tell you here that since I don't use it, I haven't looked at any browser's implementation to check if it's secure for real or not.
Klarna is pretty sketchy...
First attempt to pay: "Instant bank transfer" (don't know the English term). Klarna like this: pleasy enter PIN from your bank account...
Second attempt: ok, I'll pay by "direct debit". Klarna like this: listen here you little shit, give me the PIN from your bank account now...
I then ordered the stuff somewhere else.
Fun fact: when Klarna wasn't so shit yet, I had once paid via purchase on account. A year later I wanted to buy something again, but the invoice was rejected due to insufficient creditworthiness. Jokers.
I'm I able to subscribe to a service using Revolut as payment method like with PayPal?
If they accept card payments, yes... And Revulot has virtual cards and disposable cards too for extra safety.
I don't know if it's an alternative but Liberapay is european.
Liberapay is more like Patreon than Paypal I guess
If in Switzerland. Twint is a godsend. (I think they are expanding to Austria too?)
In Switzerland it's Twint, but if you are from here you probably knew that, we seldom need to use any other payment system.
Wero work really well!