Marketing
It can’t be denied. When you scroll through the company site, you can’t help but be drawn to it. It is easy to navigate and it clearly separates between personal and business accounts. However, it’s more flash than anything else. Once you dig deeper, its loaded with a bunch of slick promotions and deals, many related to gaming. The site definitely doesn’t offer enough substance about its services.
It tries a bit harder on Facebook, where it refers to its page as the “Skrill Fan Page.” On this social media platform, it promises to offer the latest news about the company, including promotions. Some customers do use Facebook to ask customer service questions and to vent. We were happy to see that Skrill did respond, even if the answers were obviously templated.
Honesty
On the surface, nothing about Skrill appears dishonest. However, the “Exclusive Offers” on the homepage make it look cheap and gimmicky. When you click on it, you are bombarded with more than 20 offers for free games and spins on casino sites, as well as prompts to share them with others. Though there are links to terms and conditions listed under each, we believe something that looks too good to be true often is, which is why this page gives us a whiff of something misleading. Additionally, there are plenty of complaints of sales representatives failing to fully explain specific fees and conditions to customers. On that note, let the buyer beware, though we feel like it would be much more honest to fully explain to customers everything they can expect once they sign up. Many of the issues that customers complain about are included in their terms and conditions, which are included on its site.
Pricing
It is free to use a Skrill wallet at retailers and online businesses that accept it. Also, it is always free for your wallet to receive money. Sometimes, there is a small to uploads to a Skrill account, it depends on what method is used. For instance, a direct bank transfer costs less than using a credit card.
Sending money to an another Skrill wallet or an email address costs 1.45% of the amount sent.
Through March 31, 2018, the upload fees are 0% for UK customers only. Those who want to take advantage of the promotion, must have a Skrill or Neteller account and the account not be used for commercial purposes. All other fees outline in Skrill and Neteller’s account terms of Use, as well as foreign exchange fees still apply, according to the promotion’s terms and conditions. If a credit card is used to upload funds for gambling purposes, your issuer may charge a cash advance fee. Skrill has no control over that fee.
Transaction fees start at 1.9% plus 0.25p per transaction. Depending on the payment method used, users can get charged up to 7.5% to withdrawal fees. On top of the transaction fee, it also charges a 3.99% currency conversion fee.
Skrill can charge a £131.04 administrative fee if it determines an account holder is sending or receiving money for a prohibited activity.
A fee of £21.83 is charged for every chargeback of a credit or debit card transaction and a fee of £6.11 for every direct debit chargeback. According to its terms, the fees are still charged even if the transaction is challenged or reversed.
It also charges 0.43p for a every refund. Many other processors don’t levy such a fee. Also, it charges a minimum fee, which is does not disclose, to merchants that generate less than £8.73 pounds per month. On the bright side, Skrill does not charge an account set-up or maintenance fee and its fraud protection tools are free.
Termination Fees
On the upside, Skrill operates as a pay-as-you-use service, so there is no contract, so there is no early termination fee. However, when a merchant signs up for an account, it must agree to Skrill’s terms and conditions, as well as its merchant terms and conditions. According to those, a merchant may terminate its agreement at any time without reason by giving notice to Skrill. Skrill can do the same, terminating an agreement without causing by giving micro-enterprises and small charities two months of notice and give other merchants outside those categories three weeks of notice about closing the accounts.
Hardware Costs
Skrill discloses no information about equipment, potential charges, or leases.
Complaints
On most rating sites and online forums, Skrill gets poor scores. According to TrustPilot, Skrill has one out of five stars, and 70% of its 1,156 complaints are “bad.” It has more than a dozen complaints on the RipOff Report, and according to the Better Business Bureau, Skrill has 53 complaints and a rating of B-. There are complaints about everything, from poor customer service to a lack of disclosure about fees to getting accounts locked due to a large money transfer.
Many of the hidden fee complaints, as well as those that have had accounts shut down unexpectedly, likely are because merchants failed to read their terms of use completely or they didn’t understand it. We predict many of these closures were due to Skrill’s suspicion or finding that the account was used for a prohibited activity.
Skrill’s terms and conditions clearly notes that customers are asked whether they intend to use accounts for private or commercial purposes. If you start using an account privately and then, begin using it for commercial purposes, you must notify customer service. Those who use accounts for commercial purposes are bound by Skrill’s terms and conditions and its merchant terms and conditions.
According to its terms of service, Skrill strictly forbids anyone from to sending or receiving payments as to consider for sale or supply of: “tobacco products, prescription drugs, drugs and drug paraphernalia, weapons (including without limitation, knives, guns, firearms or ammunition), satellite and cable TV descramblers, pornography, adult material, material which incites violence, hatred, racism or which is considered obscene, government IDs and licenses, including replicas and novelty items and any counterfeit products, unlicensed or illegal lotteries or gambling services (including without limitation the use of or participation in illegal gambling houses), unregistered charity services, items which encourage or facilitate illegal activities, prepaid debit cards or other stored value cards that are not associated with a particular merchant and are not limited to purchases of particular products or services, third party processing or payment aggregation products or services, multi-level marketing, pyramid selling or Ponzi schemes, matrix programs or other “get rich quick” schemes or high yield investment programs, goods or services that infringe the intellectual property rights of a third party, un-coded/miscoded gaming, timeshares or property reservation payments.”
If any person is found to conduct or attempt to conduct a transaction of one of its restricted items, Skrill has the right to the reverse the transaction, close or suspend the account, report it to law enforcement, and charge an administration fee of up to £131.04.
One of the other major sticking points for customers seems to be Skrill’s lengthy verification process. Customers have not only complained about the sensitive information, such as government-issued IDs and social security numbers, that was requested but the many weeks it takes to get verified. Many also complained that they spent weeks waiting only to find out they were turned down.
