ePayments Review 2021 – Pros & Cons of Using ePayments

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ePayments is a financial services provider based in London. The company was founded in 2011 and today employs around 300 people.

The general idea behind the FinTech company was to simplify the growing international payment traffic, which inevitably continues to expand on the Internet through e-commerce and cross-border business connections. As the founders come from the online marketing and eCommerce sector, they have experienced the need for simplified money transfers themselves.

FinTech companies such as ePayments are an important step towards a global money transfer system that is compatible with the modern Internet. After all, information and data can be transferred in milliseconds. Cross-border money transfers should not take days, if they are possible at all.

ePayments, for their part, have created their own network that allows payments between different payment systems.

What exactly is ePayments?

Basically, ePayments is a platform that enables or simplifies international online payment transactions for freelancers and companies on the Internet. The platform makes sense for people who have to handle international payment flows via the Internet because of their job. This concerns e.g. freelancers, affiliates, bloggers, but also shop owners who offer their goods or services internationally. An ePayments account can also be useful for private individuals who use many different payment services on the Internet on various platforms for consumer purposes.

Licensing & Regulation

The regulatory authority which has licensed ePayments is FCA, as is customary for financial service providers in the UK. As a result of this regulation, the company is subject to certain requirements concerning the prevention of money laundering and the enforcement of a certain KYC policy. The financial services provider must also maintain a safe and efficient handling of customers’ deposits, as well as sound management by senior management.

Main Target Groups:

• Freelancers
• Affiliate Marketer/SEOs
• Bloggers
• Small businesses
• eCommerce
• Frequent Online Shoppers

Accounts & Services

IBAN Bank Accounts

IBAN bank account for EUR
(GB-IBAN numbers, as ePayments has bank accounts in the UK),
IBAN bank account for RUB
(LV-IBAN numbers, as ePayments has bank accounts in Latvia)

In-House Digital e-Wallets

USD-Wallet
EUR-Wallet
RUB-Wallet
Within these wallets, the credit balances are combined in the respective currencies.

International Bank Transfers (SEPA or SWIFT)

Both SEPA transfers (with IBAN) and SWIFT transfers (with account number and BIC) can be carried out. This makes bank transfers possible globally, not only within Europe. However, there may still be exceptions, which may be due to the outdated and inflexible banking system of individual countries.

Unfortunately, bank transfers take as long as usual, up to a few working days, because they still go through the banks.

Currency Exchange

Within your own account you can change currencies against each other

Mobile App

Of course there is a mobile app to manage payments anytime on the go. The app is very simple and user-friendly.

Diverse Digital Money Transfers

Transfers to the following online payment services are possible:
Yandex, QIWI, WebMoney

Receiving money is possible from:
Yandex, WebMoney

ePayments Prepaid MasterCard

Clients of the virtual bank can order a MasterCard within their account. The card can be shipped to Europe (EEA) and Russia. You have a choice of EUR or USD MasterCard.

An ePayments account can generally be used without the card, ordering the card is optional if you need the possibility of card payments.

Card Payments

Sending: Payments can be made to VISA/MasterCard/Maestro and MIR cards.
Receiving: Payments can be received from ISA/MasterCard/Maestro

ATM Withdrawals

As with any MasterCard, users can make ATM withdrawals worldwide, provided the machine supports MasterCard.

Cryptocurrencies:

Outgoing transfers:
You can buy one of 8 crypto currencies or pay in these currencies where they are required: BTC, ETH, LTC, BSV, BCH, USDT, EURS, BTG.
This option can be found in the “Payments and Transfers” section, where you can exchange your USD or EUR from your e-wallet for a crypto currency of your choice. For this you have to enter a crypto-wallet address of the corresponding coin as recipient.

Receiving cryptocurrency payments:
The virtual bank gives you the option to receive cryptocurrencies as a means of payment. However, there are no cryptocurreny wallets in your ePayments account. If you receive a payment in BTC etc., the amount will be credited to your e-wallet in EUR or USD. This means that incoming crypto payments are exchanged directly into Fiat money. Obviously ePayments doesn’t want to keep private keys, so they don’t provide cryptocurrency wallets.

An important detail when deciding to receive cryptocurrency payments:

“When receiving money from cryptocurrencies your access to bank transfers in USD and local currencies will be restricted.”

Obviously, you are not allowed to receive both Fiat currency payments and cryptocurrencies. Why? We don’t know. Probably it has something to do with the legal regulations of the FCA.

Registration with ePayments

In general, legally adult users can register worldwide. However, there are some countries whose residents are excluded.

The exclusion concerns the following countries:

Afghanistan, Angola, American Samoa, Botswana, Bahamas, Burundi, Colombia, Cuba, Central African Republic, Crimea, Cote d’Ivoire, North Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ghana, Iran, Iraq, India, Libya, Liberia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Palestinian Territory, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Samoa, South Sudan, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia, Trinidad and Tobago, US Virgin Islands, Venezuela, Yemen, Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe

People from the United States are also excluded, even by their citizenship – so they can’t use ePayments even if they do not live in the USA anymore.

Required Documents at Registration (KYC)

As is currently the case with financial services on the Internet that involve Fiat money, users have to verify their identity. This requires identification documents, national ID or passport. A proof of residency is also required. These are common documents such as utility bills, bank statements or other documents that prove that you are resident at the address given. Verification of verification takes place quite quickly, within the same day.

There are some complaints online that the registration and verification would not work. After our test account has been set up without any problems, we cannot reproduce the problem. The bad reviews don’t give any information about why it might fail in individual cases.

Further Details on Transfers / Payments:

You can make transfers in: USD, EUR, RUB
You can receive transfers in: EUR, RUB

The following rates apply:

Bank transfer local: $3
Bank transfer international (SWIFT): 0.5% (min $15)
Note that the larger the amount, the more sense transfers makes, because of the minimum transfer fee of $15! For each transfer below $3000 you pay $15, so it makes sense to merge amounts below that, so you only pay the $15 once.
SEPA EUR transfer: $0.60

Payments to bank cards: 2.9% (min. $3.5)
Deposit from bank cards: 2.6%

e-Wallet transfers as well as card transfers are possible in all 3 currencies.

Signup Possible Without Having Other Bank Account?

It seems that ePayments can even be used by people who don’t have a bank account. For example, if you work as a freelancer and are paid via Yandex, QWIK or WebMoney, or via ePayments itself, you could use the service for your further banking. The point is, that you don’t need another bank account to fund your ePayments account, which differs the FinTech firm from some others. It’s probably not intended that people replace their house bank with ePayments and do all their Banking with this service only, but it seems possible in theory.

To Which Countries Can Users Send Payments?

Payments can be transferred worldwide, including bank transfers, via SEPA in Europe, but also via SWIFT with Account Number and BIC worldwide.
Important for international bank transfers that are not SEPA: In this case you pay a fee to ePayments per transfer, but it is usually the case that the recipient bank also charges a fee.

These are usually quite high for bank transfers, about $40 or something in that direction. Therefore, international bank transfers are only worthwhile for higher amounts. If you transfer e.g. $70, you can expect that in this case most of the fees will go away. Unfortunately, this is still the case with non-SEPA transfers, even with services such as ePayments, which cannot change the bank charges.

Automation of Recurring Transactions possible?

We do not find it possible to set up recurring transfers.

Minimum/Maximum Amounts to Send/Receive?

Outgoing:

• ePayments in-house transfers: from $0.1
• Bank transfer: $50 to $100,000
• Card: $10 to $2 000 (daily limit $2 500 monthly $15 000)
• WebMoney: $0.1 to $20 000 (daily limit $40 000, monthly $100 000)
• Yandex: ₽1 to ₽60 000 (daily limit ₽300 000, monthly ₽600 000)
• QIWI: $0.2 to $900 (daily limit $4 500, monthly $9 000)
• To mobile phone account: from ₽20

Incoming:

• ePayments in-house transfers: from $0.1
• Bank transfer: from 1
• Card: $10 to $1,500 (daily limit $5,000 weekly $10,000)
• WebMoney: $10 to $10,000 (daily limit $20 000)
• Yandex: ₽1 to ₽60 000 (daily limit ₽5,000, monthly ₽15,000)

The Mobile App

All services of ePayments can be used with the mobile app as well as on the website. In theory, it would not be necessary to download the app to use the service. However, the app is particularly user-friendly and handy. The card can also be ordered via the app.

The ePayments MasterCard

Ordering the payment card from ePayments costs $5.95.

The card you receive is a prepaid Mastercard Debit Card. So it is not a credit card but a debit card. No payments can be made on credit. The user can only use the card to spend what he has in his account in his card wallet.

How long does shipping take?

The free delivery worldwide takes 3-6 weeks, in Russia it is a bit faster, there it is 1-3 weeks. Express deliveries are possible for a fee, so that we shorten the delivery time to 5 to 12 days.

With the card, a monthly fee of $2.90 is due, which will only be charged from the 3rd month. However, if your card spending exceeds $300 per month, the fee will not be charged.

What can you do with the card?

With ePayments Mastercard, credit card payments can be made online and payments can be received. The card can also be used in the real world in POS, and at ATMs to withdraw money. In principle, it can do everything else that is possible with Mastercard. Exception: Where credit cards are explicitly required, such as at car rental companies abroad, where the rental company blocks a deposit and wants to be able to withdraw it later if damage occurs. This is not possible with a prepaid debit card.

What are ATM withdrawal fees and limits?

Withdrawals cost $2.60
(+ 2.6% charged by MasterCard when withdrawing abroad)
daily limit: $5 000 (can also be taken at once, if ATM allows)
Limit for 4 days: $20,000
annual limit: unlimited

Cash pickup?

ePayments does not offer Cash Pickup since they are more focusing on ecommerce rather than private money sendings to family. (They don’t belong to the list of alternatives to Western Union..)

Subscriptions / Pricing Plans

You can register with ePayments as an individual or as a company. In both cases the account is free of charge. Fees are only due for the services used, for transfers or payments received. There are no basic fees, except for the Mastercard in the amount of $2.90/mo, which is not applicable for frequent use, as already mentioned.

Business Accounts

In the case of a business account, you then receive IBAN bank details in the name of the company, as would otherwise be the case with a business account with a normal bank.

Business accounts have the possibility to make mass withdrawals. E.g. to employees or partner companies. The whole thing runs via API queries or a CSV file.
Between ePayment-Wallets mass payments are again free of charge. Other payouts, such as credit cards, etc. cost 2 to 2.9%, local bank transfers cost $3 per payout in this case. Local bank transfers are available in the following currencies: THB, HKD, BRL, CAD, SEK, GBP, PHP, INR, ANDR, RUB, BDT, JPY, IDR

The fees otherwise apply as mentioned further above.

ePayment Payment Gateway for eCommerce

The financial services provider also offers a payment gateway for online shops / checkouts. You can use ePayments to receive credit card payments or payments via WebMoney, Yandex.Money, QIWI, or of course ePayments themselves. SEPA direct debits are also planned for shops. The fees amount to at least 1.13% and are calculated from 3 components:

Can Digital Nomads/Perpetual Travelers use the Service?

It’s a pity that digital nomads can’t register with ePayments, or can’t verify themselves sufficiently, because a permanent residence in one of the supported countries is a prerequisite. The card can only be obtained by residents of EEA (Europe) and Russia. The rest of the world cannot use ePayments Mastercard. However, in this case bank transfers and other services are still possible.

ePayments Review – Customer Support

In case of problems or questions, customer support can be contacted via the internal ticker system. This area can be found in the app as well as on the website when you are logged in. There is also a hotline that you can call if you lose your card.

In general, the customer support responds quite quickly, promptly on the same day. However, there are complaints that standard phrases are used. How well and quickly the support can help depends certainly on the nature of the problem and the exact circumstances.

Ratings on other Platforms

As a regulated financial services provider, ePayments is definitely not a scam. All in all, the company has a relatively positive rating if you add up all the online reviews.

In the context of negative reviews, there are repeated complaints online that ePayments simply took out the right to close accounts without giving reasons. In connection with accounts that have been closed or that have never been verified, you will also find a generally poor rating of customer support. The sudden closure of customer accounts and the withholding of deposits is something that worries us a bit if that’s true. A certain percentage of bad ratings can be found for every service, but especially with a financial service provider it shouldn’t happen that customer accounts are blocked or closed without customers getting their money back immediately. Even banks ask customers, whose accounts have to be closed, where to transfer the rest of their money. We hope to receive plausible explanations on this issue in the near future.

What’s also noticeable is that a lot of the positive reviews on Trustpilot were published on the same day. This could be a sign for being fake review campaigns, but we don’t know for sure.

The app is rated 4.5 out of 5 stars in Google PlayStore, with over 8,600 people giving a rating. ePayments has a total of over 1 million customers, most of whom seem to have no need to write a rating. It’s worth noting that people usually review something when they have a problem with it. Satisfied customers usually don’t do a review at all. For example, our experience with registration and verification doesn’t coincide with the bad reviews on this topic, as everything went very quickly and smoothly.

In general, you have to keep in mind that services like ePayments are linked to the regulations of the banking world and a lot can be traced back to certain legislations and regulations.

Today, real freedom and self-determination over our money is something we can exclusively in the area of cryptocurrencies, as long as we transfer them from peer to peer, without using a middleman service provider.

Official Social Media Accounts

The service has accounts on the following platforms: Facebook, VK, Twitter, Instagram and they even have a Telegram channel.

Our ePayments Review Verdict

Our experience with the service is very good so far, everything runs smoothly, including transfers that we have made.

The electronic payment service provider’s offer is very practical and comprehensive for people who earn or spend money over the Internet. The problem of cross-border payments is best solved by ePayments according to current possibilities.

We see here a unique set of services that can’t be found 1:1 with any other service. It’s great to get IBAN account numbers at ePayments and to be able to make international transfers – even SWIFT, which is something TransferWise doesn’t offer, for instance. And the fact that you can also use different payment services within one app is great.

We find the overall offering very useful, especially in relation to what is currently feasible in the financial sector.