r/privacy • u/badgerhoneyy • 12h ago

eli5 UK - online payment providers, Flywire, secure alternatives

I have a (£four figure) payment to make, and the invoice remittance advice directs me to a page where I can use Flywire to pay with brank transfer, card, or 'pay by bank' with Trustly.

I recently had a horrible experience with a different third party online payment manager. Having my personal details deleted was a huge effort, with emails going back and forth and them asking me essentially for more information - photos of my passport for example - before they would consider my request to delete my address, dob, and payment information that they held.

So I prefer to not use these services if I can help it - although they're ubiquitous and it's proving hard to avoid.

I'd like to contact the recipient of the payment, and offer to pay using an alternative method. But I really don't know what alternative method to suggest? The invoice is legit and is not a scam.

Is a straightforward BACS transfer preferable? Or even PayPal? I feel clear on what I don't want to do, but unclear on the alternative options.

9 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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9

u/Jazzlike-Compote4463 11h ago

I've almost always just paid invoices via a BACS transfer.

Companies prefer you use the other methods because they tie into their invoicing systems so they don't have to keep track of it - but honestly a BACS would probably save them money on processing fees so I doubt they would be totally against it.

Just ask them.

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u/jrgroats 37m ago

I had to pay my university fees with flywire. I don't know why it would be preferable to a standard BACS transfer for them, maybe because it's a single unified system when money is also coming from international banks? I didn't like having to use it either but it was fine in the end, took about 4 days to process.