paybox

...as a translator, but whilst paybox was running in Germany and the UK as well as Austria, there was no excuse. Unfortunately, due to a reorganisation of the company in early 2003, most of the countries no longer offer paybox services - Austria is now left out on a limb in that respect. I continue to have a paybox account - I have found it useful for online auctions to have one - and also in Austria for paying for taxis and rail tickets when I managed ...
...incurring €13 in handling charges, paybox looks to be a viable solution, since the cost of an international transfer is a mere €1.50. Of course there is a slight restriction, namely that it has to be between countries in the paybox network (Austria, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the UK) which is obviously of limited usefulness for a lot of people, although for me it does have a purpose. As well as using it to transfer money between you and friends / ... more

I have heard a lot of "the cheque is in the post" lines in my time as a translator, but whilst paybox was running in Germany and the UK as well as Austria, there was no excuse. Unfortunately, due to a reorganisation of the company in early 2003, most of the countries no longer offer paybox services - Austria is now left out on a limb in that respect. I continue to have a paybox account - I have found it useful for online auctions to have one - and also in Austria for paying for taxis and rail tickets when I managed to leave home without my bank card.

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I had seen assorted adverts on various websites regarding paybox, but had never signed up for it, having not had any need to do so to date. With business taking off with a German contact, and with cheques (even from one Euroland to another) incurring a hefty handling charge e.g. a €93 cheque incurring €13 in handling charges, paybox looks to be a viable solution, since the cost of an international transfer is a mere €1.50. Of course there is a slight restriction, namely that it has to be between countries in the paybox network (Austria, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the UK) which is obviously of limited usefulness for a lot of people, although for me it does have a purpose. As well as using it to transfer money between you and friends / business partners, there are a number of services which accept payments via paybox, and currently I can order pizzas, cinema tickets, place sports bets, or load prepaid mobile phones (at www.paybox.at), and the number of services is even greater at the UK site (www.paybox.co.uk)

Until now I had never viewed my mobile as more important than my wallet, but for paybox it is – once your user info is stored, then your mobile is all you need to use the service, as well as a net connection.

Sign-up

All you have to do is enter your personal details, e-mail address, mobile phone no. and bank details, and if referred by a friend their mobile number (this will net them a healthy referral fee). Currently the referral fee is £5 in the UK – although there is no referral scheme in Austria. With the membership fee currently €15 in Austria or £10 in Britain per annum, the outlay is not that great, and if you can get two friends referred then you will not have to pay for the service in theory. Once you have filled out your details you will receive a call to your mobile where you must confirm the four figure pin no. you chose and also to record your name for your account name. This pin no. is the one you use to enter your account area, which is done by entering your mobile no. on the paybox site and then entering your pin on your mobile when you are called (followed by the hash key). If you get your pin no. wrong three times in a row, then your account is barred and you have to contact paybox to get a new pin no. This will then let you into your account area, so you can see you transactions.

Obviously you need a mobile phone (PAYG is fine) to receive their calls to you and also to call them, and in Britain you have to be over 18 to qualify for the service. In Austria there is now a cut down service for 15-18 year olds, which attracts a lot of use, being an easy way to transfer money between friends.

Credit limit

There is an initial daily credit limit, which is determined by your credit scoring, and increases once you have sent in the written confirmation of your account details and completed the online confirmation. The amount may also be periodically reviewed.

The main reason for my use of paybox is to send and receive money:

Sending money

To send money you need to go to the “Sending money” menu on the website and select to whom you wish to send it (by entering another paybox members mobile no.) e.g. Fred in Germany +49 (German Code) 1234567890 as well as how much. You can of course send it to a bank account, although the real reason for having it is to send it to another person’s mobile. The recipient is then sent an e-mail and then logs in to pick up there money. The transaction time is about three days – quicker than an international bank transfer – and the commission is €1.50 for an international transaction – that’s a lot better than the €13 I paid on that €93 cheque.

You can also:

Request money:

Similar to the above process, although obviously in reverse. To access this feature on www.paybox.at your account must have been unbarred (i.e. signup completed) but once it is, then you are up and running. This can be done for example to pay for restaurants, taxis, pizzas whereby you are then called as per normal and you just have to authorise it and then payment goes through. Obviously they have to have a paybox account to be able to do this, and not that many businesses do at the moment but I have been surprised by the number that do.

Shopping:

Naturally paybox want to make money by getting you to shop with them – and there are assorted promotions which are offered as incentives to get you shopping. A number of friends have taken advantage of the CD Wow promo – with CDs home delivered for just £3.99 each, although if you are having to pay to sign up then it is not worth doing, unless you frequently intend to use the service.

The costs:

Other than calling an 0870 number (national rate) from your mobile there are no costs for internal transactions. The membership fee in the UK is currently £9.99 per annum reduced from £14.99 (c.f. €15 in Austria) and there is a £1 charge for international transfers (still a lot less than in banks). Obviously if you are roaming on your mobile phone, then the roaming charges do come in, which can prove expensive.

Conclusion:

Given the fact that paybox is backed by Deutsche Bank I have no fears about its reliability and security. Obviously whilst the number of people and businesses using the scheme is relatively small, then the service is not going to be as useful, nay indispensable, as it would be if everyone were using it. I’ve made a couple of transactions to date and will be observing this one closely to see if the product lives up to its promise. At the moment I'll give it four out of five but will change that as soon as I start to see what the system is really like in the long term.

Please note that the box about APR is not relevant below and there is no real reward scheme other than the affiliate scheme.

AMENDED CONCLUSION:

I'd have to drop a star off my old rating - as whilst the system used to work pretty well, now that Austria is somewhat isolated with the demise of other paybox countries there is not so much incentive for me to use the service. Although some core services (ÖBB, Taxis, Pizzamann etc.) take it, Paybox is far from being the most accepted service. In the National Bank I now use the Quick chip more often, and given the fact that most supermarkets accept Quick and not paybox I have not tended to use paybox - other than for topping up my sms.at account with SMS credits. Ergo three stars maximum... 

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