Those who regularly buy medications online would probably notice that paying for medications can be a little different. It isn’t exactly the same as other online stores. Normally, what you do is “check out”, choose “credit card/PayPal” as your payment method, press “Pay Now”, and be done with it.
We are always honest with our customers. Online pharmacies can’t operate that way. One of the biggest reasons is that most of our customers don’t have prescriptions. We perfectly understand it and try our best to serve our customers knowing that they really need the medications.
That’s why online pharmacies prefer Alternative Payment Methods (APM) such as Bitcoin, Wise, Western Union, etc. However, most customers feel discouraged by these methods and want to know why they can’t just pay using their credit cards/PayPal.
The answer is “if we could, we would”.
The regular Mainstream Payment Methods (MPMs), while easy, carry some risks- and not just us. They put the customers at risk.
However, there’s a silver lining. The world has come a long way. There are many APMs available now that we didn’t have 10 years ago. Here, we’ll discus many of them. You’ll learn the goods, the bads, and the risks that all the payment methods carry so that you can make an informed decision.
Following is a list of payment methods that have been organized from the best to the worst. We have also divided them into two main categories: Alternative Payment Methods (APM) and Mainstream Payment Methods (MPM)
Alternative Payment Methods (APMs)
1. Bitcoin or BTC
Bitcoin (BTC) is the number one choice when it comes to customer safety. From the pharmacy point of view, we prefer it the most because Bitcoin has virtually no restrictions and it’s untraceable. We can process unlimited orders with Bitcoin.
The only hassle is to set up the BTC wallet first. Once you have done it, you shouldn’t have problems anymore. The more you use it, the better it’ll get.
Yet, we know there are some rumors surrounding BTC or any cryptocurrency, but if you really want to learn, please read our article.
“Why Crypto the Best Payment Method”.
In the article, you will find all the info you need on how to setup and use bitcoin. We have also included country-specific wallet providers where you can buy and transfer BTC easily. We have also provided video instructions on how to use the wallets.
Since, we like it so much, we give our customers a 20% discount to cover any transfer fees.
Note: Did you know that PayPal USA account holders can now buy and transfer Bitcoin from their PayPal account?
2. Wise/TapTap Send/Remitly (Transfer Apps)
As mentioned before, the world has come a long way from PayPal and Credit Card era. Every country now has at least one e-Wallet or Transfer App.
Some charge little transfer fees, so we give our customers a 15% discount for that.
Following are a few international transfer apps that you can use:
Wise
It’s the coolest app. It allows you to open virtual bank accounts to more than 50 countries. You can have USD, AUD, CAD, NZD, JPY, GBP accounts and so many more. Once you have downloaded and verified your account, you can send and receive money to and from almost anywhere in the world.
To learn more on how to set it up, read our article:
“Wise- A New and Exciting way to Pay”
You can download the app here:
TapTap Send
It’s a one way Sending App. It’s also the easiest to use and has no transfer fees. Once you have downloaded and verified, you can link your Debit/Credit Card as your source of funding and you can transfer money to any bank account virtually anywhere in the world.
Only one thing is, you should not send a large amount on your first transfer. Keep it below $200. As you use it, you limit will also increase.
You can download the app here:
Remitly
The same as TapTap. It has a very little transfer fee, but has a higher sending limit. One additional feature on Remitly is that you can also request money using Remitly, which means you have both “Send” and “Receive” options.
3. Western Union (WU)/ MoneyGram (MG)
These two are older methods, but still relevant. You can use them both online or offline.
For online, you have to create an online account, get verified with an ID and use a Debit/Credit Card as your source of funding.
For offline, you go directly to an agent location and pay cash.
WU/MG are most popular when you want to transfer money to a person. We’ll provide you with the name. There’s a little transfer fee and we offer a 15% discount for that.
Mainstream Payment Methods (MPMs)
4. Credit Card
More than 60% of our customers prefer this method. It’s really easy on the customer side. All you have to do is input your credit card number and press “Pay” and you are good to go. The reason online pharmacies don’t prefer this method is that the risk is both on the customer and on the pharmacy.
In order to process credit cards online, we need a “Credit Card Merchant (Processor)”. It’s fine. Most banks offer it. Yet, before clearing all the transactions, and transferring the money to our bank account, we must provide them with invoices. That means every sale will have a record.
It’s still not a problem for us, but if the customer has no prescription, we can’t produce the invoice for that particular sale. That’s why we sometimes have to fake it. That is a risk on our part. That is also the reason, we can’t attach the payment gateway to the website itself (Like other online stores when you choose Credit Card as your payment option, it brings you directly to a payment page). If we do that, the CC merchant will know exactly what medications you ordered because that software has the ability to generate the invoice of sale right there and then. So we send the invoice separately via email after the order has been placed.
Additionally, it can take months before we receive the money. On the customer side, you have paid, and you expect your shipment. On our side, we have shipped your order, filed the invoices, and will wait for a month to get that money.
Not to mention, the processor takes huge cut and takes some more money during the currency conversion.
That’s why CC payments are limited and we provide no discounts.
5. PayPal
The last of all the online payment services is PayPal. Although it is very secure when you make the payment (It has a secure payment page), the transaction itself is not very secure. Any government, government subcontractors, and even some non-government organizations can see the transactions.
PayPal allows backdoor access to them. We have literally experienced it where a government sub-contractor called LegitScript gained access to our PayPal transactions. When we asked PayPal about it, they didn’t give any explanation. They froze 6 of our accounts with thousands of dollars in them.
If not to family members, PayPal to Paypal transfers take a long time. Once a customer has paid, it will take at least 21 days for us to get that money. Not only that, PayPal won’t release the money to us until we have provided PayPal with the tracking number of the shipment.
Although PayPal doesn’t know the content of the package, it tracks the packages. That’s why, for safety (with customer permission), we inform PayPal that the transaction is for a “service” and not a “product” to avoid providing them with the tracking number.
Not to mention, the PayPal takes huge cut and takes some more money during the currency conversion.
That’s why PayPal payments are limited and we provide no discounts.
There you have it. Now you know why online pharmacy payment systems are different than a regular online store. It is what it is, and we deal with it by protecting ourselves and our customers. One thing we can say is that at EuroMeds One, we’ll do our best to make the experience easy for you.
We encourage you to try any of the Alternative Payment Methods (APMs) rather than the mainstream methods. It’ll save you and the pharmacy a lot of fo trouble.
Our customer support is top of the line, and they are well-oriented on all the payment systems. If you encounter any difficulties, just let us know and one of our agents can guide you through the process over the phone, via email, or on the OnSite Chat.
I am able to pay thru western union