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Online escrow companies add new features

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Escrow.com and Payoneer Escrow announce new features.

Two online escrow companies popular among domain name investors have added new features.

Escrow.com released a new plugin for WooCommerce. It allows the two million WooCommerce users to add Escrow.com payments as a payment option.

The company plans to build additional plugins for online store platforms.

Payoneer Escrow has also added new features.

Payoneer Buy-It-Now buttons are now available. Domain owners can create a button and insert it on a landing page, allowing a visitor to start a transaction to buy the domain name at a fixed price.

The company also introduced domain holding transactions that let buyers pay for a domain name over time.

Escrow.com drops minimum fee to $10

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Small transactions are now cheaper at Escrow.com.

Escrow.com is dropping its minimum fee on transactions to $10.

This will lower the price customers pay for the standard service for any transaction under $775. It will lower the price for transactions using a credit card under $400.

Escrow.com GM told Domain Name Wire that this move was made to compete with PayPal. “This will give people escrow protection without the need to pay $25 on a $300 domain,” he said. “$10 makes it a no-brainer.”

Payoneer, a competing escrow service, also has a $10 minimum.

Domain name escrow price and services guide

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A comparison of popular domain name escrow options.

The domain name escrow landscape has changed in recent years. Escrow.com is under new ownership, Payoneer has added a service and some escrow services have closed.

With this in mind, I spent some time comparing the services based on features, payment options and fees.

I limited my analysis to Escrow.com, Payoneer and Escrow.domains (the latter being a legal service of Greenberg & Lieberman). You might consider other services for secure domain transactions including those offered by Sedo and Afternic.

Each escrow service has different fees both for the overall transaction and the methods of payment. Here’s a comparison: Click to continue reading…

Want to use Escrow.com? Prepare to be verified.

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New verification process is designed to meet regulations.

Escrow.com has started a new verification process for its customers, both buyers and sellers.

In order to send or receive payments to a personal account, users will have to provide a copy of a government-issued ID (such as a drivers license) and proof of personal address (such as a utility bill).

Businesses will need to provide a copy of a representative’s government issued ID, proof of address of that representative, and company registration documents.

This will no doubt add friction to the process of buying and selling domain names, particularly if the other party is not a frequent domain trader.

But the verification is necessary for Escrow.com to not run afoul of government regulations. Escrow.com GM Jackson Elsegood wrote on NamePros:

To combat the funding of terrorism and money laundering activities, US Federal law requires all financial institutions (including escrow companies) to obtain, verify and record information that identifies each person who opens an account. This requirement is present in many pieces of legislation, but the strongest requirement comes from FinCEN and the US PATRIOT Act, section 326. You can find more information about the US PATRIOT Act and it’s requirements on the US FinCEN site.

Payoneer jumps into domain name escrow business

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Global payments company begins catering to the domain name industry.

payoneer-escrowGlobal payments company Payoneer is getting into the domain name escrow business with the help of former Escrow.com president Brandon Abbey.

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.