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I have had a fine experience with PayPal.  As a vendor I only get to see the customer's name, e-mail address, phone number, and the amount paid.  Credit card numbers and other sensitive data are not forwarded to me, which both the customer and I can appreciate.  I have wired money abroad in the past but the bank fees are high (of the order of $40 per transfer!) so I agree with Douglas on this.  Cashing checks (cheques on the other side of the pond :-)) abroad can also be a challenge.  I never tried Western Union or anything like that.

It's been a while since I established this...  If you want to receive payments via PayPal, as opposed to just sending money, then you have to set up a "merchant account" as opposed to the basic one.  It is still nominally free but PayPal will take a small cut from each transaction.  You will be asked to link your PayPal account to at least one bank account.  The accounts remain separate and you have to manually initiate transfers between your bank and PayPal accounts.  I don't know how this procedure would change for anyone outside the U.S., as far as giving PayPal the account and routing numbers, SWIFT codes or IBAN's or whatever...

Peter Hakel