When you want to transfer money over the internet, there’s usually one name that comes to mind: PayPal. With the company’s troubled past, stemming from seemingly unnecessary account freezes and cagey communication with its users, a lot of folks are seeking an alternative way to send money.

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For instance, take Monday’s public kerfuffle between hobby humor site Regretsy and PayPal. After a wildly successful Christmas gift-exchange program for children, Regretsy found itself in a bit of a pickle with the global payment-processing company. PayPal had frozen the donation funds in Regretsy’s account and had requested all money be refunded.

This echoes similar events from PayPal’s past, including a Hurricane Katrina fundraiser on the website Something Awful, as well as donations made to document repository Cryptome.

PayPal responded to Wired.com’s inquiry about the situation with this comment:

We can’t comment specifically on the Regretsy.com account due to our privacy policy. However, we can confirm that the funds have been released and we are working directly with the account holder on this matter. We are also making a donation to Regretsy to help families in need this holiday season. We’re very sorry this occurred. For reference, we have clear guidelines for any business who uses PayPal to accept donations. For example, we require certain documentation to prevent misuse of the donated funds and, if the recipient claims charitable status, to determine whether they are properly registered. As a regulated payment service, we’re also required by law to follow these guidelines. We appreciate that this can be an inconvenience, but we have a responsibility to all our customers -– both donors and recipients; or buyers and sellers. In this instance, we recognized our error and moved as swiftly as possible to fix it.

If this is true, good on PayPal for releasing the funds. But if you’re not convinced, there are other ways to transfer money during the holiday season and beyond. Read on for some great PayPal alternatives.

Online Payments

If you’re paying someone on the web or through e-mail, here are some options:

ING Direct Person2Person, which comes free with a checking account, transfers money from your account to anyone else’s. It sends the recipient an e-mail with a link to a secure page on ING. They’ll then need to enter their bank account number, which can seem a little scary, but remember checks? Whenever you give someone one of those, you’re also giving them your account number. Check out the demo for more info. Amazon Payments allows you to attach a bank account to your Amazon Payments login and, like with PayPal, you can send funds to someone at their e-mail address or phone number. The recipient must create an Amazon Payments account. There’s no charge for the service. Serve is a new offering from American Express and is very similar to Amazon Payments. Link your bank account to Serve, and easily send and receive money using a web browser or smartphone app. The payments occur instantly, and you can send to someone at their e-mail address.

In Person

For in-person transactions, there are two popular options:

Square supplies a free card-reader dongle that you plug into your smartphone. Link it to your bank account, then simply swipe a credit card to collect money. It even e-mails receipts. Square charges a fee of 2.75 percent per swipe. Moblized is pretty much the same idea as Square. The company will send you a free reader. You don’t have to sign any contracts, but the fees structure is different: 2.69 percent plus 19 cents per swipe.

The above options are all U.S.-based. For international transfers, Xoom seems promising, but its fees are significantly higher than PayPal’s. You might be better off using something like Western Union.

You should always be extremely cautious of using any online service to send your money. Read any agreements you sign and consult a financial adviser if you are even remotely concerned about the security of one of these tools.

What about you? Is the Regretsy debacle enough to convince you to leave PayPal forever, or is the service just too convenient? What alternatives are you considering? Sound off in the comments.

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