Paysera.com Review – Pros & Cons of Banking With PaySera

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About The Company

Paysera is an online payment provider that was founded in 2004, which makes them an older and way more experienced company than other FinTechs. It is primarily a virtual bank offering an online account (for individuals and businesses) that is completely free of account maintenance fees. The service can also be used by web shops to process payments online.

The FinTech company is a Lithuanian online bank with a corresponding license that distinguishes the company as an Electronic Money Institution. The license was issued by the Bank of Lithuania and allows Paysera to offer its services throughout Europe.

The top floor of the company consists of the three co-founders Kostas Noreika, Šarūnas Broga and Audrius Lučiūnas, who together with a man named Rolandas Razma are shareholders of the company. More than 100 staff members work for the eastern european FinTech company.

PaySera Financial Services

The experienced FinTech company offers a comprehensive portfolio of electronic money services. These include:

• Currency accounts for daily banking
• One debit card (prepaid) for daily payments
• Cheap and fast international bank transfers
• Currency exchange at particularly favorable exchange rates (31 major currencies supported)
• A payment gateway for online shops
• Electronic payment service for POS (real retail stores)

PaySera Bank Account

PaySera offers its users bank accounts within the SEPA system that have an IBAN number.

As Lithuania is an EU country and therefore connected to the SEPA system, all incoming and outgoing transfers to other EU countries are free of charge.

So you can actually use the Paysera account without any fees or account maintenance fees if you use it completely online. It is only when you buy a Paysera credit card, for example, that the fees are actually due, and even then the fees are quite low. For example, the credit card will be sent to your preferred address for €3.00 worldwide.

In addition: If you have difficulties or no bank account in your country, e.g. because of a SCHUFA registration in Germany or similar, no problem: With Paysera you get a bank account without problems.

If you have a bank account with Paysera, you have a Lithuanian bank account, which means that you are more independent of your country, the banks of your countries and the access of your country and your authorities.

With PaySera you even get a multi-currency account, which means that you can receive many global currencies within your account and exchange them very cheaply. The fees charged by the Virtual Bank are far below the exchange fees charged by traditional banks or bureaux de change.

Money Transfer Types With PaySera

Within the PaySera transaction options you generally find 3 types of transfer:

• Bank transfer (SEPA or Swift)
• Internal transfer to other PaySera user
• WebMoney transfer (only in USD and only to WMZ)
• Mobile phone transfers (for users who have phone payments enabled)

Bank Transfers

We have already mentioned that Paysera can be used to make SEPA transactions. SEPA transfers within Europe (EEA) do not cost private users anything and companies pay only 15 cents per transfer. However, SEPA transfers outside Europe generally cost €7.

In addition, international SWIFT / BIC transfers are also possible if SEPA is not supported. However, they are not free of charge, which is simply not possible, as these transfers are subject to a charge on the part of the banks involved. Of course, PaySera cannot bear these costs for its customers.

Send Money Worldwide for Cheap

With Paysera you can send money quickly and cheaply to all sorts of countries and in over 32 different currencies. The money can be sent directly to the recipient’s bank account. Of course, money can easily be sent from user to user within Paysera. For example, if an emigrant working in Europe wants to send money to his home country, this is especially easy and completely free if the family members are also with Paysera.

The PaySera Bank Card

If you want to use Paysera not only for cheap payments, but also for withdrawals or payments, you can relatively easily apply for a credit card – at very low fees. With a Paysera credit card, you can pay worldwide or withdraw money at ATMs.

The PaySera account card is a prepaid debit card from VISA. This means that payments are made directly with the card and the corresponding amounts are immediately deducted from the account. Unlike “real” credit cards, where amounts can also be reserved or blocked. Debit cards are more comparable to cash in their functionality: What you spend leaves your wallet immediately.

Details On Card Ordering

Bank cards are sent exclusively within the EEA (European Economic Area). The prepaid debit card is usually delivered within one month.

Once you have received the card, you must activate it within your Paysera account. The card works normally with a PIN required for payments or ATM withdrawals.

Card Fees

Ordering a Paysera debit card costs €3 for Pivat users and €5 for entrepreneurs.
There is also a monthly fee of 0.45€ which is paid in advance. So if you want to order the card, there must be a few euros in your Paysera Online account to deduct these costs.

ATM withdrawals usually cost €1, but if you withdraw currencies other than the EURO within Europe (Norway, Poland, Croatia, etc.), you add 1.8% of the withdrawal amount. In the rest of the world, i.e. outside Europe, withdrawals in local currencies always cost 1.5€ + 1.8%.

Top Ups – Depositing & Top Up Fees

Top Ups (deposits) can be made by normal bank transfer of any bank. Fees for such bank transfer deposits vary between €1 and €10.14, depending on your bank and country. Top Ups are made into your personal PaySera current account.

Payment Gateway

PaySera is also particularly practical for online shop operators, who can have payments processed via PaySera. The virtual bank can be easily integrated into shop systems as a payment option. If you use PaySera as a business account and as a payment gateway, you have your finances completely under one roof and therefore particularly clear. This makes business banking particularly efficient.

PaySera even offers a payment gateway for electronic payments for retail stores, which can easily be processed using a smartphone. This type of payment is particularly efficient and cheaper with Paysera than with other providers. Only small fees are charged for successful payments. There are no other fees for this POS payment service.

The Payment Gateway can be used with the following Online Shop Systems:

• Shopify
• WooCommerce
• WordPress
• WIX
• Laravel
• Opencart
• PrestaShop
• Django
• Drupal
• Zurb
• Magento
• B
• Oxid eSales
• Joomla

PaySera Tickets (Special Application Of The Payment Gateway)

An extra service of the FinTech company is “PaySera” tickets, which enables users to create event tickets and sell them online. Such tickets can be purchased with a variety of payment options and can be taken as e-tickets on the mobile phone to the appropriate mobile phone. Examples are festivals, shows of any kind or sports events.

Opening A PaySera Account Online

Registration with Paysera is possible worldwide. Only the VISA Debit Card will be sent to European residents only. Apart from the bank card, the virtual bank with SEPA accounts and cheap remittances can be used from all over the world.

Opening a bank account with Paysera is easy:

First you register with Paysera on the website and get instant access to your new account. Here you can see your account balance, your account movements and: that your bank account is denominated in euros.

In order to use your Paysera account to its full extent, e.g. to apply for a credit card or receive your own Iban, you must first identify yourself to Paysera: In Germany this is done with Postident, at Paysera online, via the browser. In other countries, ID documents must also be transmitted electronically.

Paysera has different levels of identification. To use Paysera properly, you need level 3. All you need to do is confirm your email address, confirm your mobile phone number and upload identification documents (driver’s license, identity card or passport).
Your Paysera account will be fully unlocked within 48 hours. I have unlocked Level 4 myself, but it is not necessary.

Here again the documents you need for ID verification:

• Identity card, passport or driver’s license
• Mobile phone number
• Proof of Address (may be requested when ordering tickets)

We are not sure whether a proof of address is always required by default. If not, digital nomads with a European passport would of course be able to have the card sent to relatives or friends in Europe, even if they do not live there themselves. We still have to clarify this question.

PaySera Business Accounts

A business account is basically more expensive than a private account, but still relatively cheap. For example, SEPA transfers cost a few cents, which is of little importance especially for larger amounts. The fact that international bank transfers are fast and cheap, and that fair exchange rates apply, makes Paysera an ideal solution for freelancers and international entrepreneurs who receive payments from abroad.

Security

As far as security is concerned, the online banking company is structured like other online banks including SSL encryption on the website and so forth; all information on security and data security can also be found on the Paysera website.

Due to KYC laws concerning licensed and regulated financial institutions, the virtual bank is required to perform an identity check.

The VISA card is protected with Verified By Visa, which makes online payments even more secure, because you need not only the data on the card to complete the payment, but also an extra code that a data thief cannot know.

What we can’t find is any particular information about client funds insurances. So we’re not sure if funds are protected in the unlikely event of Paysera bankruptcy.

Conclusion

In a nutshell: Paysera is an online account of a Lithuanian online bank, without account maintenance fees, which can be used with a cheap credit card like a conventional bank account.

The banking service provider can be described as a SCHUFA-free and secure bank account with no account maintenance fees and is a kind of all-rounder when it comes to modern banking due to its wide range of financial services.

The only thing that’s very unfortunate is that you can’t get a card if you don’t live in Europe anymore. Emigrants may have a European passport, but if their current address is outside Europe, there is unfortunately no PaySera card for them.

Links with Further Information:

https://www.lb.lt/en/sfi-financial-market-participants/paysera-lt-uab