As more startups use independent consultants (programmers, web developers, marketing, sales people, freelance writers) who are based in other countries, they need to find a way to pay them in various currencies without those nasty bank charges. This is where Paypal comes in.
Paypal does not charge you a fee to make a payment to a contractor even if he or she lives in another country. Banks, on the other hand, charge hefty fees, sometimes as high as 15 EUR per transaction.
The other nifty feature about Paypal is that if you deliver services to clients, you can easily create an invoice using Paypal and get paid that way. Paypal tracks unpaid invoices and sends you a reminder. The record-keeping functions of Paypal make it easy for those who pay and get paid to keep track of their finances.
After having a long drawn out run-in with Paypal’s “customer service” department I can only advise people to stay away from them.
I’ve been using http://www.moneybookers.com ever since (2 years now) and have never looked back..
E.