Global payments company begins catering to the domain name industry.
Payoneer is a large payments company that handles payment distributions for companies like UpWork and Airbnb. It sends payments in 150 currencies to people in 200 countries.
The company acquired escrow company Armor Payments earlier this year to expand into online escrow and has now renamed it Payoneer Escrow.
Scott Reynolds co-founded Armor Payments in 2013. Armor Payments had a technology-centric approach to escrow, offering an API to third-party marketplaces. About half of its business originates through the API.
Reynolds told Domain Name Wire that Armor hasn’t previously focused on domain name escrow because “there was a well-run, well-established incumbent”. He’s referring to Escrow.com.
The desire to cater to domain name buyers and sellers grew as a number of existing Payoneer users requested it. Reynolds also says people were starting to look for an alternative to Escrow.com.
It helped that long-time Escrow.com President Brandon Abbey had left Escrow.com, the leading domain name escrow company. Payoneer brought him on to lead its domain name escrow effort.
“Very few people know this segment like Brandon does,” said Reynolds.
“Now there’s a licensed, legitimate alternative to what’s previously been out there,” Abbey told Domain Name Wire.
“The barrier to entry is extremely steep if you’re going to do it right and get the [escrow] licenses,” he said.
Abbey said that a number of things kept him up at night while running Escrow.com: regulation, compliance, know-your-customer.
“All that stuff is lock, stock and barrel the way these guys have set it up,” Abbey said.
Payoneer Escrow is launching with broker tools to allow domain name brokers to participate in the escrow and receive their commissions.
For now, only brokers and sellers can initiate transactions. The company is building buyer-initiated capability and plans to add credit card payments this fall. It is also working with domain name marketplaces to integrate its escrow services via API.
Expect Payoneer Escrow to compete on price. A price comparison provided by the company shows that it plans to undercut the competition, especially with sub-$10,000 transactions, which make up the majority of the market.
So far, entrants to the domain escrow business have been smaller players. Payoneer is a large company with 24×7 support and over 700 employees, so this will be interesting to watch.
competition is good. My only problem with escrow.com is even when the buyer both marks the domain as received and confirms they accept it. escrow.com still emails them saying they need to confirm a 3rd time if the name is under privacy.
The recognition that “Very few people know this segment like Brandon does,” is very true. Good score for payoneer. I look forward to working with Brandon again in the future.
Evidently, someone didn’t sign a non-compete agreement and decided to beef up the competition. Congrats to Brandon on the new Escrow venture with Payoneer. I’m curious what their fee’s are going to be in comparison to Escrow.com. Guess I’ll need to start looking more into this.
Eric, there’s a calculator here.
It looks to be really cheap. 1.5% for transactions below $5,000 with a $10 minimum and the rates go down from there. So a $1,000 transaction will be just $15.
This doesn’t include disbursement fees like wires.
Freelancer.com screwed up big-time by firing escrow heavyweights like Brandon Abbey from Escrow.com They obviously thought they were saving money and raising ROI, and maybe they did, but at what cost? Now we see how firing all the brains at Escrow.com is turning out. There were some fine people there that got canned.
Escrow.com has gone downhill a lot since they got bought out. They don’t communicate nearly as effectively or at all anymore. I have had promises of follow-ups to problems completely ignored by Escrow.com in the last few months. That would have never have happened under the old regime. They screwed up their reputation with me and I suspect others.
I’m more than happy to jump ship and try out Payoneer’s escrow service after all I’ve been through over the last few months with Escrow.com.
Bring it on, and thanks Payoneer and Brandon.
For real, why entrust a company that buys Escrow.com and then fires all of it’s employees including the brain behind it all, Brandon, and then makes the move from LA to San Francisco far away from all the people that worked there for so long. That’s a staright FU for all those people that ran Escrow.com a lot longer than the circus running it now.
Congrats to Brandon and I wish him the best with Payoneer and I am so happy that Payoneer and him got together. I am a long time customer of Escrow.com, but this move rubs me the wrong way and definitely pushes me to want to start using Payoneer especially with Brandon at the helm.
Obviously, Escrow.com owners came in cocky and now DN.com & Payoneer are going to hurt there business more than they ever thought possible.
Thanks for this nice information, how will it be in the case of someone with payoneer cards will they integrate their cards on this new business or how?
Yes, we have integrated the Payoneer payment capabilities into our escrow platform. So, if you already have a Payoneer account, you can receive payments from escrow directly to your existing account, anywhere in the world.
Escrow.com has gone from first to worst in my book. Every transaction over the past few months has been a nightmare. Looking forward to trying out Payoneer.
I agree Escrow needed to stick to the basics, not sure where they got sidetracked, there chat is a useless joke, everytime I chat with them, I am asked to email support directly, or call a phone number, lame.
I couldn’t agree more with you, their live chat is a complete joke where they just pay people to twiddle their thumbs as they dont help and then always ask you to email.
Our experience with Escrow.com chat system (used it recently this month) has been a positive one, and was better than emailing or calling support.
We quickly used Escrow.com chat to ask support to send an email to buyer (a newbie) on completing their profile and making payment, and the Escrow agent we chatted with, did exactly just that in a matter of minutes, then cc’d our email address on record as a receipt of completing the request.
The email was professionally crafted and buyer followed thru in few hours—completed profile and made payment for their domain name purchase.
That being said, I still think there’s some lag in communication at Escrow.com. I shouldn’t have to remind any escrow service company on what to do when it comes to timely communication with both buyer and seller.
However, this lag in communication exists in just about every other (payment) companies out there, including Payoneer, whom we use to receive payment from ad networks.
As someone stated earlier, competition is good; only the best wins!
Thanks to all for the comments. I am very excited about the capabilities Payoneer brings to the community.
Brandon, congratulations on the new role. How can we get in touch with you?
Thanks
[email protected] will work
I’ll get in touch with you today, thanks Brandon 🙂
I’ve seen only good things from Escrow.com. Nonetheless, competition drives customer service and innovation. So it’s good to see Payoneer enter this space. They’re hiring someone with plenty of experience, which is promising.
Nice to see you again Brandon.
Does this new escrow service accepts Paypal payments worldwide for paying and disbursing?
Hi Francois, sorry, we do not currently accept PayPal as a method of payment, nor as a method to disburse funds. However, Payoneer offers a very cost effective way to receive funds and is used by millions of account holders around the world. Hopefully you’ll give us a try!
I forgot to deposit an Escrow.com check within the expiration period printed on the check (Either 60 or 90 days). I contacted support via email with no response. It took two more attempts to get a check reissued several weeks later. I was beginning to wonder if they were dodging me and not going to issue another check. This experience does not sit well with me.
Hiring Brandon Abbey shows that Payoneer is serious about competing here! Kudos! In what capacity will Brandon Abbey be working with Payoneer? Will he be hands on day to day and available to help as he was with Escrow.com? What is his title and what are his responsibilities?
We’re very excited to have Brandon on board! Since we have a large team here at Payoneer to take care of the day to day escrow activities, Brandon will now be able to focus more on the strategic elements to ensure we are successful in supporting the domain community. He is a key part of the team and will be driving our efforts in the domain space. Thanks for your support and we look forward to serving your needs moving forward!
I am not happy with escrow.com either! Bad support.
Finally! An option for customers held hostage by Freelancer’s complete disregard for Escrow.com’s procedures in place at the time they took over, not to mention the mistreatment and unceremonious dismissal of long-term, dedicated employees who truly cared about Escrow.com and the customer experience. There’s one (count ’em, ONE!) employee from the former staff who is still on the payroll. Crazy. Anyway, so great to see Brandon bringing his wealth of experience to Payoneer’s service. This can only be good!
Apologies, correction there. As of 9/15, two original employees remain.
@Sandra — I’m aware you’re one of the top former Escrow.com managers, but I don’t think it’s fair to blame Freelancer for an action taken and signed over by the former key people at Escrow.com (Brandon Abbey, etc)—when they agreed to sell out for a large sum and give up their titles. That is an acquisition deal.
This is in reaction to your statement…
“An option for customers held hostage by Freelancer’s complete disregard for Escrow.com’s procedures in place at the time they took over, not to mention the mistreatment and unceremonious dismissal of long-term, dedicated employees who truly cared about Escrow.com and the customer experience.”
Happens all the time when large companies or startups ‘sell’ for financial gains or struggle. This is why end-users usually never welcome the idea of a take over/buy-out.
Sandra, what company are you working with now?
Ben,
http://www.PotentialDomainSales.com/
Update
Just wanted to add that Brandon reached out to me regarding my comment, and cleared some misunderstanding that he was not one of the former owners of Escrow.com.
From our communication, Brandon was let go the first week Freelancer took over Escrow.com, without any severance pay given to him, considering his many years of commitment. If true, that is definitely unfair.
Hey Sandra, nice to hear from you again!
You’re totally right, and I didn’t like how they treated you guys when Freelance took over the company … and now you see, service has worsened and people are complaining …
I’ve heard you are working for Uniregistry now, wish you the best. 🙂
Hi Brandon,
Which currencies will be supported?
USD, GBP, EUR?
Hi Ed,
We currently support US dollars inbound and through the Payoneer system approximately 150 outbound. The roadmap include additional inbound currencies including the ones you mentioned. Best regards
Brandon
@Scott
I thought I will be able to login to the escrow site using my initial Payoneer account but it appears I have to create another account for Payoneer Escrow. Is there a likelihood that these two will be combined later?
Hi Dayo, yes, that is correct, you will need to create a separate escrow account. That said, if you already have a Payoneer account, you can easily link it to receive payouts from escrow.
And yes, we are working on a single sign on, so that you will be able to use your existing Payoneer account to log on. Much more to come!
Brandon Abbey was unceremoniously dumped when Freelance took over? What a bunch of sorry, no account rat bastards. Sort of makes one wonder if they have parent company whose mascot is a mouse with big ears. They have their employees train their lower priced replacements to maximize profits, but care nothing about the people whose lives are disrupted.
Great news. I’ve been using Payoneer to complete domain sales directly with buyers for a couple of years now. I would like to integrate Payoneer Escrow in our marketplace right away but on your website it says somewhere that you only accept Wire Transfer and eCheck and somewhere else it mentioned Credit Card payments.
You also have a typo in the Domain Name Escrow page located here: https://escrow.payoneer.com/segments/domainnames
It says “Seller transfers payment to secure escrow account”. You mean “buyer” I guess.
Please keep me updated because as I mentioned I’ve used Payoneer to complete tens of domain sales and I also receive payments from companies through the “Global Payment Service”.
I know Payoneer is fast and it never failed me. It has low fees for all the services they provide. so I’ll integrate it right away in our Marketplace if everything is as I expect it.
Hi Sameh, thanks for pointing out that typo – this has been fixed. Happy to hear you have had a positive experience so far with Payoneer! Please contact us at [email protected] so we can answer your questions and help you get your marketplace integrated.