Fintech reviews: PayPal

PayPal is a ubiquitous e-commerce platform that allows users to complete financial transactions without swapping financial details. This has become a popular solution for shop and auction sites. PayPal charges a fee for its services. In 2014, PayPal facilitated the movement of $228 billion in 30 currencies through 190 countries, generating a total revenue of $7.9 billion for itself.

What makes PayPal a Fintech company?

PayPal have made it very easy for businesses and consumers to use their platform. They have a stated mission to ‘democratise the movement and management of money’. They have been at the forefront of mobile payments and the ‘digital wallet’ revolution for more than ten years. Businesses can create their own PayPal buttons to collect payments and easily insert them into the code of their websites. Consumers can use PayPal regardless of whether they have an account or not as they can use PayPal to pay by card. People can also create invoices requesting payment via PayPal in order to get money from clients. With other innovations like portable chip and pin machines to allow traders to take payments out in the world, PayPal have positioned themselves as a force to be reckoned with on the Fintech stage.

What about public opinion?

PayPal is virtually expected on many shopping sites now and has 160 million users worldwide. It has become a trusted name. Seeing other payment gateways can cause hesitation on the part of the user, although Apple Pay is fast becoming a competitor. Businesses can benefit from the air of legitimacy around PayPal by using it on their websites. PayPal take security seriously as they have had issues with fraud almost since their inception. This has led to innovations in security including a two part authentication process. The public seem to be polarised about PayPal. Trustpilot.com shows PayPal has 40% 5-star reviews and 48% 1-star reviews with very little in between. Most of the negative reviews revolve around transactions that have gone awry and disputes between buyers and sellers, with PayPal in the middle. Positive reviews report the opposite and claim PayPal is a joy to work with. They cite times when PayPal have protected them against the pitfalls of international or anonymous trading.