Stay away from Skrill, they will steal your money sooner or later

I’m sharing this experience, so you can take care.

I opened an account with Skrill (formerly moneybookers) about 10 years ago, they were a good option at the time for many countries, it was a personal account and I used it to withdraw money from my main envato account and other stockphotos markets sites.

Then they decided to change my account to a commercial (merchant) account although I don’t use it on a merchant website, but that was fine.

About a year ago, they suddenly prevented me from login to my account and asked me to some verification, I managed to pass this verification and got my account back after about 2 weeks but I decided not keep large amount of money in my balance because I started to lose my trust with them.

I withdraw all my balance and kept about $400 just in case I need to pay someone or buy something, I stop using it to receive payments from envato and other sites.

Recently, I was checking my skrill account and noticed that there is about 240 USD is missing from my balance, in transactions there was 100.00 EUR Fees (about $120) and the description says “Merchant service fee” that happens for 2 months.

I contact their support asking for fixing this and get my money back but they said that the account was used commercially therefore you were charged with the inactivity fee. I replied that there is no mention to such huge amount of fees neither in your fees page nor in the terms and conditions, and I asked them for any reference, they replied with the same previous reply and they said that the inactivity fee is non refundable.

I withdraw the remaining part of my money and I will not use Skrill again.

Take care!

Always read the fine print…

Notwithstanding clause 9.1 above, the Merchant will be charged a monthly inactivity fee of 50.00 EUR (or equivalent), if no funds have been uploaded, withdrawn, sent or received through the Merchant Account(s) within the last six (6) months.

https://www.skrill.com/fileadmin/content/pdf/legal/merchant/ENG_Wallet_Terms_and_Conditions_-version_8.4-_Nov_2015.pdf

  1. They deducted 100.00 EUR each month not 50.00 EUR, that was 120 USD per month and I noticed that after 2 months so I lost 240 USD.

  2. Their support didn’t bother to send me a link to their hidden fees (you did, thank you) btw the link you sent is broken but the quote you mentioned was clear.

  3. I didn’t receive any warning or notification before or even after the first 100.00 EUR inactivity fees, they just pickpocket the money from the account, that’s not a fair practice.

I hope in the bright future Envato and others will start working with banks of authors bypassing intermediaries. I wouldn’t even mind paying some percentage directly to Envato to transfer the funds directly to my Bank. Sweet dreams.

1 Like
  1. There’s probably something else in the terms then… like the VAT (which I’m guessing you’re aware of) and maybe something in addition.

  2. Yeah, not sure why it’s only hyperlinking part of the URL, but if you copy and paste it all then it should work.

  3. I see what you’re saying, but you’ve agreed to the terms stating that X will happen if Y occurs… X did happen, so Y has also happened. There’s not really any requirement for them to issue a warning or notification. It would be nice, yes… but as it’s something that makes them money, they might be reluctant to do so!

But now you’ve got the info on the 50 EUR charge, plus VAT, you should be able to go back to them, quote the terms and find out what the other 50 EUR plus VAT is for.

I am using skrill (and moneybookers) for 9 years - never had any problem. NEVER. Also they send me new mastercard card (with close up payments) for free.

So in your case this is strange. And this “verification” you had to do… always make verification as first step. What do you expect? Receive money as anonymous? This is europe.

Hello all,

I registered for this account because I ended up in the same situation as yours. They deducted 50 Euro for 5 consecutive months. I understand that this might be due to the clause under section 9 as somebody has already pointed out, but I would like to ask about the following:

1.) The Merchant Terms and Conditions which Skrill referred to, as well as the one shown above, is dated on Nov_2015. However, I cannot find this version on their website. Instead, I find another version dated on Apr_2017 on their Terms and Conditions webpage, under section 4.7. The newer version (Apr_2017) does not contain any clause regarding inactivity fee or its amount. I would find it hard to justify if they are applying a clause which exists in their old Terms and Conditions only but not in the new one.

2.) Last time I made active use of Skrill for payment is on 19 Jan 2018, then they started to deduct money on 1 Aug, 28 Aug, 28 Sept, 29 Oct and 29 Nov. I would like to know how do they define a “month” as I am deducted twice in August?

hello, i have same problem 28.sep -50 euro 29.oct -50 euro , they always talk about security , and in the end, they take the money themselves without any transaction notification. without warning that they would withdraw money from the account…

remove money from your account because you will run out of it

thanks skrill

sorry for bad english