Summary of e-Wallet account offerings:
- An online 'virtual' account, often operated by a mobile phone app, which provides a dashboard from which all the provider’s other services are operated. You will also have the ability to both make and receive payments to other account holders - usually completely free of charge.
- One or more bank account numbers (with a recognised bank) into which payments can be received (receiving accounts). In some cases these accounts can directly be used for outgoing payments, although this is much less common.
- One or more pre-paid debit cards often in US$, € or £. These can be topped up from the dashboard, used just like a normal bank card e.g. Internet, shops and ATM withdrawals, or are effectively debit cards against the relevant currency account.
- Foreign exchange. Most providers offer very good rates for converting currency. In almost all cases these rates are better than offered by the banks.
- Merchant services - the ability to collect payments from your customers by:
a) shopping cart
b) pay-by-link*
*Pay-by-link is offered by some providers, whereby you send an invoice and a payment link (by email) to your customer and they settle by clicking the link and entering their credit card details.