Skrill
| Skrill Limited
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Limited |
| founding | 2001 |
| Seat | London , GB |
| management | Siegfried Heimgärtner (President & CEO ), Nikolai Riesenkampff ( Executive Director ) |
| Branch | Financial services |
| Website | Skrill.com |
Skrill (until 2010 Moneybookers ) is a payment service provider based in London . The service enables payment over the Internet . Skrill is a UK regulated e-money institution and has been part of the listed Paysafe group since 2015 .
background
The Skrill Group, which includes Skrill, Paysafecard , Payolution and Ukash , operates in nearly 200 countries. Skrill processes over 150 million online transactions with a total volume of almost 13 billion euros per year. As an e-money institution, Skrill is under the supervision of the British regulatory authority FSA .
Company history
The company was founded in 2001 in London under the name Moneybookers and started its service in April 2002. In February 2003, Moneybookers was licensed as an e-money institute and has been authorized to issue electronic money ever since. In May 2005 Nikolai Riesenkampff became the new managing director of Moneybookers. In March 2006 the company had 1.6 million customers.
In March 2007, who took over private equity -Investor Investcorp by buy-out the majority of Moneybookers, where the company was valued at 105 million euros. In the summer of 2007, the Management Board of Moneybookers was expanded with Martin Ott as Managing Director. Since then, Ott has been responsible for the business areas of e-commerce, marketing, product development and service. With the appointment of Ralf Wenzel as Chief Operating Officer (COO) in December 2007, Moneybookers expanded its sales department and continues to focus more on e-commerce.
Siegfried Heimgärtner has been the CEO of Skrill since June 2012 , together with the previous Co-CEO Nikolai Riesenkampff as Executive Director . In July 2012 the takeover of the Austrian Paysafecard group was announced, which was completed in February 2013.
In August 2013, Investcorp announced the sale of Skrill to private equity investor CVC Capital Partners for 600 million euros . In August 2015 the Skrill Group was 100% taken over by the Optimal Payments Group , which in turn renamed itself the Paysafe Group in November 2015 .
functionality
It was originally a prepaid system, which means that the customer first had to deposit money in order to be able to make payments. In the meantime, however, online payments are also possible without first topping up your own Skrill account.
The recipient of such a payment does not initially need to have a Skrill account. A recipient who is not logged in will receive a message from Skrill about an incoming payment and will be asked in the email to create an account via the Skrill website. Once the account has been created, the new customer can dispose of the money received. Creating an account and receiving money is free for end users. Everything else costs fees. The service is available in 40 different currencies. When logging in, the customer specifies an account currency that cannot be changed for this account after the deposit has been made. Customers with premium membership have the option to have multiple accounts in different currencies.
Payment orders can no longer be canceled once a transaction has been carried out. After verification, customers can send a maximum of 10,000 euros per transaction by default, but this limit can also be removed if desired. Payment is made by specifying the amount and the e-mail address with which the customer has his Skrill account; therefore, when purchasing digital goods without a shipping address, payment to the retailer is made without disclosing any further personal data.
Skrill provides an HTML code-based HTTPS interface and API for merchants; the installation of special software is not necessary. There are various banner tools for private customers. Skrill has established itself specifically on the alternative auction market away from eBay and as a payment system with escrow service on the Internet.
Customers have the option of ordering a prepaid Mastercard from Skrill that is linked to their account. The card is available in USD, EUR, PLN and GBP and gives customers direct access to their online credit.
Verified customers are offered a security token. After activating the token, this individually generated PIN must be entered to access the Skrill account. Accounts with an activated security token will be promised a refund in the event that their account is misused.
Payment security when selling for dealers
Registered traders have the option of protecting themselves against fraud through paid insurance.
Charges / fees
Registration is free. In the event of “inactivity”, there is a provision fee of 3 euros per month for consumer accounts with credit. A user is considered inactive if he has not logged into his Skrill account or made a transaction in the last 12 months. If you have registered your Skrill account as a payment receiving account (for example with an internet auction house), it is counted as a merchant account, which has also been charged with a provision fee since 2012. Receiving money is free of charge for private users. If money is sent to another participant, the sender pays an additional fee of 1.9%, up to a maximum of EUR 20. In addition, there are fees for a currency exchange, a payout to a bank account or credit card or when a check is issued.
Customers with high transfer volumes are offered a free premium membership, "Skrill VIP". The discounts and additional offers are similar to those of the sister company Neteller .
For commercial users, a percentage fee is charged depending on the monthly transfer volume per reception process. Dealer-initiated credits or refunds are also chargeable.
criticism
At the end of 2017, Skrill and other payment service providers were criticized for collecting too much consumer data without informing customers sufficiently. Furthermore, the data protection declarations of the service providers are often difficult to understand.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ News and Opinions. In: skrill.com. Retrieved November 14, 2018 .
- ↑ Investcorp Technology Partners completes buy-out of Moneybookers Limited for 105 million euros. In: ots.at. March 28, 2007, accessed November 14, 2018 .
- ↑ David Henning: Skrill hires new CEO: Siegfried Heimgärtner takes over the management. In: Internetworld. June 12, 2012, accessed November 14, 2018 .
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Announcement of the takeover of Paysafecard by Skrill. Retrieved October 14, 2013 .
- ↑ sabrina: Skrill completes acquisition of paysafecard.com Wertkarten AG. In: Skrill. February 8, 2013, archived from the original on October 21, 2013 ; accessed on November 14, 2018 (English).
- ↑ CVC Agrees to Buy Skrill From Investcorp for $ 800 Million. Bloomberg, August 13, 2013, accessed November 22, 2016 .
- ↑ Optimal Payments closes Skrill acquisition. In: Finextra Research. August 10, 2015, accessed June 21, 2016 .
- ↑ Paysafe. In: www.paysafe.com. Retrieved June 21, 2016 .
- ↑ Skrill: Benefits of "Skrill VIP" . Retrieved October 20, 2013.
- ↑ Skrill: Security token with a "money-back guarantee" . Retrieved October 14, 2013.
- ↑ Fees | Skrill. Retrieved April 11, 2017 .
- ↑ Comparison of Skrill and Neteller . Retrieved August 3, 2019.
- ↑ Skrill: Overview of merchant fees. Archived from the original on September 19, 2013 ; Retrieved October 14, 2013 .
- ↑ Online payment services collect too much customer data. In: time. November 8, 2017. Retrieved January 12, 2017 .
