Originally Posted by Adraco
Let's try to do some calculations, with $1000 payment from Chaturbate.
Paxum
Account is free but the card costs $45 per year, which would equal $3.75 per month.
No fee for you as account holder to receive a payment.
All payments are also received so you can use them in your account within minutes from them being sent.
When you want to transfer to other account holder or from your Paxum account to your card account, you do pay a transaction fee of $0.25 per transaction.
ATM fee, $2 Paxum fee per ATM transaction plus anything that the ATM owner will charge (but the ATM owner fee will be the same regardless of Paxum or FCP card).
First Choice Pay
Account costs $2 per month, if you have money in your account. So if you get paid every month, you will pay $2x12 = $24 in account fees. If you only get paid six months per year and have your account COMPLETELY empty the other six months, you will only pay $2x6 = $12 in account fees.
FCP has a fee to receive payments, depending on which fee schedule the paying sponsor has choosen. This fee will range between $2 to $5 per payment. Normally, it costs $2-$3 for a payment which will be credited to your account within 2 business days from it being sent. If you want "immediate" load, you will pay the $5 fee and it will be credited to your account within 2 hours.
ATM fee, $2.75 per ATM transaction plus anything that the ATM owner charge, but as noted above, will be the same for both cards.
FCP also writes in their list of fees, and I quote:
* When a transaction is made as a foreign transaction or is requested in a currency other than USD, charges of up to 3% may be assessed above all charges assessed by MasterCard for the transaction.
End quote.
Meaning, if you have a FCP card in USD currency and withdraw in Europe as you say, you will not be withdrawing USD but some European currency. This means that FCP will ding you with some extra "up to 3%" in currency exchange fees - on top of what Mastercard already charge! Since both Paxum and FCP are Mastercards, it is safe to assume that Mastercard themselves will charge the same exchange rate at any given time for both the cards but FCP will add their own 3% fee on top!
Let's now think of a scenario, where you receive $1000 per month, 12 months per year and withdraw them in full, from a European ATM every month (I know it will be impossible to withdraw exactly $1000 USD each month due to exchange rates but for calculations, let's assume this is still possible!)
Paxum
Yearly card fee, $45
No fees to receive payments to your Paxum account
Transfer fee from your Paxum account to card account, 12 transactions @ $0.25 each = 12x0.25 = $3
ATM fee, 12 withdrawals @ $2 each = 12x2 = $24
Total fees for Paxum,
when receiving $1000 per month for a full year:
$45 + $3 + $24 = $72
From your 12 x $1000 = $12 000
you deduct the $72 fees and you get $11 928 USD left.
On top of this come any fees that the ATM owner will charge, but again, those will be the same for both Paxum and FCP cards.
First Choice Pay
Monthly account fee, 12x$2 = $24
Fee to receive payments, let's assume the cheapest and that you are willing to wait 2 business days for each payment to get the lowest fees: $2 per payment, 12 payments gives 12x$2 = $24.
ATM fees, 12 withdrawals @ $2.75 each gives 12x$2.75 = $33
On top of this comes the FCP currency exchange fee where
1% would be $120 USD in exchange fees
2% would be $240 USD in exchange fees
3% would be $360 USD in exchange fees
I think it is fair, for comparison and calculation purposes to assume half of the "up to 3%" that FCP mentions, meaning 1.5% in exchange fees which amounts to $180
Total fees for FCP,
when receiving $1000 per month for a full year:
$24 + $24 + $33 = $81
From your 12 x $1000 = $12 000
you deduct the $81 fees and you get $11 919 USD left.
But then you also have to consider the exchange fee, which in our example would be another $180 which leaves you with
$11 739 USD left after all fees.
Given those calculations, we see that for one single monthly payment from a sponsor, both cards are identical in total fees up to the point of having received the funds into the account which is connected to your card.
For Paxum, those fees would be $45 + $3 = $48
For FCP, those fees would be $24 + $24 = $48
Then they will differ slightly on the ATM fees and FCP will prove to be the real loser due to the extra currency exchange fee that they will add on top of the Mastercard fees.
But amount of fees are not everything here in life. You also need to compare which system is most reliable and ask yourself how much you value customer service and how trustworthy you consider each company to be. I will leave that part up to you!
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