Dwolla an Alternative to Paypal

Ever heard of Dwolla? It’s more than just an alternative to Paypal and you should know about it.

The company itself started with a simple mission: provide an easy and fair way of sending and receiving money, and pay for services online. For the most part,  Paypal has been the only way to move money around through internet storefronts. Their great partnership with Ebay years ago has placed them in a position of strength. Yet, someone looked at what Paypal and credit cards were doing and thought they could make something better. That someone is Ben Milne.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Paypal is amazing, not to mention a financial giant, but for someone who is looking for a great alternative, here you go. The fee structure is very simple: receiving less than $10, is free; receiving more than $10 will cost you only 25 cents, always. Simple, right?

Milne, the company’s founder, has been honored since taking his company public in 2010. He has been on the 30 Under 30 list and made MIT Technology Review’s 35 Under 35 in this Sept.’s issue. In fact, Technology Review reported Dwolla most likely will process over $1 Billion for 250,000 businesses and consumers in 2013, which goes to show that it Dwolla is a viable alternative to Paypal.

With some top investment firms backing Dwolla, like Andreessen Horowits, who, incidentally, helped Twitter and Skype make it, it’s no wonder the company is taking off and starting to show that they can rival the Paypal juggernaut. If not rival, at the very least, they are a healthy competitor and provide consumers and businesses more choices.

What is amazing about the way that Dwolla works is how it’s already integrated into the services we participate in. If someone already has an account, you can send them money by using their name, their Facebook ID, their Twitter handle, even their LinkedIn profile, telephone numbers, or email addresses. Sending and receiving money between two private parties has never been this easy.

The amazing thing about Dwolla, and Paypal as well to a certain extent, is that it allows us, the consumer, to move money around cheaply. This whole process is to do away with credit cards and the money they take from us. Part of the use of credit cards is to pay for the infrastructure that is already in place to continue running. That infrastructure is what is needed to process that sixteen digit card number. While this system was great back when the cards were first introduced in the 1970’s, with today’s technology and culture, it is no longer the best way to go.

Dwolla, in short, is doing its best to streamline and make it cheaper for people and businesses to move money from one back account to another. In making this process more efficient, they have also made it cheaper.

While Dwolla may not be the final solution, nor Paypal for that matter, it is defiantly clearing a path for more to follow. And in the path clearing that Dwolla is doing, it is showing that it is not only a good alternative to using Paypal, but a good alternative for credit cards as well. Provided, of course, that you have the money sitting in your account.