We are once again dropping all fees and foreign exchange charges for anyone using Skrill Money Transfer to send money in or out of Italy. There will be no charges for transfers made within Italy either.
The decision was announced today by our CEO, Lorenzo Pellegrino, an Italian national, in a bid to support people across the country as a new set of restrictions come into effect. The restrictions are set to last until December 3, 2020 and the service will be free until then.
Skrill Money Transfer allows customers to send money from anywhere in the world directly to a bank account in over 40 countries, including Italy. The recipient doesn’t need to have a Skrill account to receive the funds.
We will also be offering our wallet and Quick Checkout solution free of charge to businesses in Italy using the service for the first time before the end of the year. Skrill lets businesses process a range of different payment options including cards, wallets, instant bank transfers, cash payments and alternative payment methods through a single integration.
We hope small businesses that have had to move online during the restrictions will benefit.
Merchants that start accepting payments via Skrill will also have the opportunity to be promoted to millions of Skrill customers around the world.
Lorenzo said: “Italians are bracing themselves for the coming weeks as restrictions begin to tighten across the country. It has never been more important to protect our loved ones and support local businesses. We’re keen to ease the pressure that both businesses and consumers are experiencing at this time and ensure that as many funds as possible are going to the right place.”
How the pandemic has changed the way we pay
Research from Skrill following the outbreak of COVID-19 has highlighted the increasing reliance on digital payment services among both businesses and consumers.
17% of Italian consumers said they started shopping online for the first time during lockdown and 47% said they were shopping online more due to not being able to access high street stores.
Following the first lockdown, 43% of Italians said they reduced their handling of cash due to health concerns and 31% stated that they turned to digital wallets as the quickest, most effective and convenient way to transfer money overseas.
Further research among Italian businesses operating online commissioned by Skrill in September 2020 showed that 70% said offering more payment methods is more important to them now than it has ever been. 76% of online Italian businesses have plans to add more payment methods into their checkout and 41% have seen a noticeable increase in the number of customers paying using digital wallets since the pandemic began.