How Dwolla has disrupted the payment processing sector

What is Dwolla?

Dwolla is a payment service that allows anyone, business or individual, to send money for a flat fee of $0.25 per transaction over $10, and free for transactions under $10. You can send money to email addresses, phone numbers, Facebook friends, LinkedIn connections, Twitter followers, and any of the many businesses that accept Dwolla.

You can even send to someone that does not have a Dwolla account, but they will need to create one to accept the funds. And the best part is, only one person pays the fee. By default the fee is paid by the receiver, but you can change this setting. Today, Dwolla processes millions of dollars in transactions every day. Every. Day.

Free transfers, anytime

Dwolla lets you keep more of your money by letting you transfer your money between Dwolla and your bank any time you want, for free. No more constant fees for every transaction you conduct. Should you need to pay a large group of people at once, for example, payroll, you can send payment to more than 2,000 people at a time; PayPal only allow 250. You can also apply for increased spending/sending/receiving limits of up to $99 million.

Dwolla is different in that it never shares your personal information with the person receiving money. You share only your email address, phone number, or Dwolla ID. This helps protect you and your business from identity theft and fraud. And if you use Dwolla at a business, there is no way for them to collect or store your information because you have shared nothing with them, unlike when you pay with a credit card. And as added security, any time you make a change to your account (send, deposit, or withdraw money) you will be prompted for your four digit PIN.

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Using Dwolla in your business = awesome

If your business frequently uses a payment service, consider this: if you sold ten pieces of art for $100 each PayPal would charge you 2.9% + $0.30/transaction. That would total $29 + $3 (assuming each piece is going to a different person, for the $0.30/transaction fee). With Dwolla you would pay only $2.50 ($0.25 per transaction). I think we can all agree we would rather keep the $29.50 difference for ourselves.

The only downside to Dwolla is that they do not allow credit cards, but this is how they keep their prices so low. So, if you can get by without using plastic, this is a great PayPal alternative.

You can use Dwolla on the web or from their free mobile app (Android and iOS).