# General Business Category > Technology Forum >  Paypal in South Africa

## Chatmaster

Well I am sure all of you are aware of the launch of Paypal in South Africa yesterday. If you have a qualifying account with FNB you can accept payment through Paypal. Needless to say, this changes many things in SA and online business as Paypal has a large active user number of 81 million account holders.

If you want to know more read the FNB page here. https://www.fnb.co.za/online-banking/pay-pal.html

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deetee (28-Mar-10), Pap_sak (26-Mar-10), tec0 (28-Mar-10), wynn (26-Mar-10)

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## IanF

This could open up possibilities, I will look further. :Wink:

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## Dave A

You probably better read the fine print. 

Given some of the requirements, the foreign draft fee costs could add up.

I suggest if you have an existing PayPal account which you've been using just to pay bills and you need a PayPal wallet to *receive* payments, you probably should set this up as a seperate, additional account to your existing one. You're not allowed to offset expenses against income when it comes to repatriation, which means you'll get pillaged with foreign draft fees moving money both ways if you just have the one account.

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Chatmaster (28-Mar-10), tonyflanigan (26-Mar-10)

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## Martinco

I looked into this as well.............If you deal with Paypal direct then it is not practical to do a local sale in Rands. The reason being is that they do not deal in ZAR and therefore your customer will have to convert to say USD and you will receive the payment in USD to be converted to ZAR again. So, my opinion is that the conversion rate will kill the deal.
 For overseas payments it is fine but for receiving payment not so great, never mind the charges.
If you go the FNB route you will see that ALL Paypal transactions will be reported to SARS.
There is another possibility www.payfast.co.za  who deals in ZAR but how good/bad they are I do not know.

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## Peter Princeton

Martinco...

payfast does seem to be the logical local option.  after all, why take money out of the country, and pay to bring it back again ?

however...

being able to accept paypal payments will open many doors....

i remember when i just started out, i used to freak out every time i ran into something that paid out via paypal...

and many people refused to do business with me cause i could not accept paypal...

i tried to sell some stuff of my own....

but all i could use was alertpay...

and since they deal with a lot of rubbish (paid to click sites, HYIP, etc), there is lie ZERO buyer confidence...

so i am looking forward to using paypal

it can only be an improvement.

peter

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## Pap_sak

Just posted this on hellopeter:

Wanted to get a linked PayPal account according to FNB's website:

Qualifying FNB accounts include most *FNB savings, cheque and transmission accounts*. When completing a FNB Top Up or Withdraw with PayPal transaction, a list of all your qualifying FNB accounts that can be used for this service will be displayed. Remember that they will have to be linked to your FNB Online Banking profile in order for them to be displayed. A credit card account is not a qualifying account for this service.

Note: FNB Top Up and Withdraw with PayPal is only available to personal and business users with qualifying FNB accounts and access to FNB Online Banking. The service is not available to Online Banking Enterprise™ users. All FNB Top Up and Withdraw with PayPal transactions are subject to Terms and Conditions.

I have a business cheque account - you would think i would qualify from your website. But, after being kept on the phone for 15 minutes I was eventually told this account does not qualify. i pay around R800 - R1300 p/m month on service fees, and now have had enough....you are a USELESS bank you've already lost out on commissions on three Merchant terminals will now move the rest.

Finally this has pushed me over the edge (this plus I had an FNB guy promise to phone me back on monday....yeah right). Have asked capitec to start paying all merchant terminal sales into my account there, so the big switch has begun.

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## Dave A

> I have a business cheque account - you would think i would qualify from your website. But, after being kept on the phone for 15 minutes I was eventually told this account does not qualify.


So businesses are still not allowed to have Paypal merchant accounts!

I wonder what *individuals* need a Paypal merchant account for then?  :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):

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## Pap_sak

> So businesses are still not allowed to have Paypal merchant accounts!
> 
> I wonder what *individuals* need a Paypal merchant account for then?


Well according to their website




> Note: FNB Top Up and Withdraw with PayPal is only available to personal and business users with qualifying FNB accounts and access to FNB Online Banking


It's ok FNB, charge more to business for the SAME service - then take AWAY certain services.

It's all good though..should be completely free of them in 2 months time

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## Dave A

But you don't have to bank with FNB to have a Paypal account - all you need is a credit card. And you can top up your Paypal account from your credit card. 

It's only when you want to accept payments into your Paypal account from a source other than your linked credit cards that the problems start. That's when you need a Paypal merchant account, and if you're using South African credit cards you can't be upgraded to a Paypal merchant account. Hence the FNB "deal" to solve the problem.

So why would you need a Paypal merchant account other than for online commerce reasons?

FNB is effectively saying you can only trade online as an individual - businesses are not allowed!
(Which seems rather hypocritical if there isn't a good reason).

So why have they gone this route? There must be a reason...  :Confused:

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## Newretailer

I don't understand why they told you that. I have a business account at FNB and have a Paypal account linked into which I can receive payments from other countries. I think Paypal may be cheaper to receive foreign funds for smaller anounts. I try and avoid exports, but do send products to Nigeria every now and again. The last time FNB charged me R125 for receiving R1815 (not through Paypal). The charge went up from R100 for a larger amount in June. I wish I could get away with increasing my prices 25% at a time!

Pap-sak, I have a Capitec merchant terminal and have all my sales paid into my Capitec account directly. I will be closing my personal Standard Bank account this week. I am so sick of the rip-off we have to endure from banks. The only way they seem to be able to make their profits look better is not through real growth, but by introducing new charges as they please and upping existing charges as they want.

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## Pap_sak

> I don't understand why they told you that. I have a business account at FNB and have a Paypal account linked into which I can receive payments from other countries. I think Paypal may be cheaper to receive foreign funds for smaller anounts. I try and avoid exports, but do send products to Nigeria every now and again. The last time FNB charged me R125 for receiving R1815 (not through Paypal). The charge went up from R100 for a larger amount in June. I wish I could get away with increasing my prices 25% at a time!
> 
> Pap-sak, I have a Capitec merchant terminal and have all my sales paid into my Capitec account directly. I will be closing my personal Standard Bank account this week. I am so sick of the rip-off we have to endure from banks. The only way they seem to be able to make their profits look better is not through real growth, but by introducing new charges as they please and upping existing charges as they want.


Had a call from FNB today. Weird, but this is what they said: I have been doing my internet banking through a private interface, I would need to do my internet banking through a business interface. Why/how are the different I do not know. I asked how much extra it's costs she did not know. And of course the lady that first tried to help me at the call center did not know. Basically FNB operates on a baffle you with BS routine.

She did ask if she could transfer me to a business consultant...it was great to be able to say, don't bother I am already in the process of changing banks.  :Big Grin:  ( It was quite nice to think that the cash I put into Capitec yesterday saved me around R130 in cash deposit fees AND made R5,50 in interest!)

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## Pap_sak

Let me just tell you about paypal and how absolutely useless they are.

I had to pay a guy for doing some work on my site he asked for paypal. After the run around with FNB i decide to just use my visa card. Easy to set up and make the payment. They take the money from my account straight away. then I get an email....

*We need your help resolving an issue with your account. To give us time to
work together on this, we've temporarily limited what you can do with your
account until the issue is resolved.

blah blah*

I then have to verify my account and my c card, which takes a couple of days as they make a small payment to you card and you have to give them a code that's on your statemant - all irritating but oh well.

At the same time they stop the payment to the guy I am trying to pay.

So I verify everything....

Payment still has not gone through and it's now the 28th. i sent an email on the on the 22nd, heard nothing back. The payment looks liked it has been reversed to me, but not showing up in my paypal account or my C Card.

i have kept contact with the guy that a did the website work, but now, of course, he wants his money.

I decide the fights with paypal, not him, so send him the money again....thinking the account verified ect ect should be fine.

*We need your help resolving an issue with your account. To give us time to
work together on this, we've temporarily limited what you can do with your
account until the issue is resolved.*

SAME BS ALL OVER AGAIN!!

and BTW they do not have an office in SA, you need to phone the states...

What a load of junk, avoid at all costs.

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## IanF

Pap sak
Thanks for the warning, I use paypal to pay for stuff I bought, and it worked. But I have not tried to register it with FNB. 
Pity FNB don't have a rep on the forum.

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## Newretailer

Pap-sak, I would send them somewhere too after all of that :Smile: 

I registered with them before I really needed them and also had to go through the credit card procedure. They do that to try and weed out invalid credit cards, but it is a pain. This process is not linked to FNB, but the credit card you are trying to use. Once it has been verified as you described above, it is a painless process. I sometimes buy stuff from other countries and many companies will only deal with Africa via Paypal. 

FNB comes into the picture of you have a Paypal account and people want to pay you. You can either use your credit balance for other purchases or if you want to withdraw the money, something like the FNB Paypal account comes into play. All it does is to allow you to go into your Paypal account and transfer a specified amount to your FNB account. I never leave money in my Paypal account as their accounts are known to be hacked on occasion.

I remember I also initially gave up, but then decided to finish the process for credit card approval. This was a couple of years ago and I am glad I did as it has comes in very handy.

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## Pap_sak

well, the first payment has been refunded this morning. They took money out on the 15th returned it on the 29th. This after I verified myself on around the 18th. I then asked then (on their online form) to still make the payment. Now when I log in, they want me to change my password every time. I will try call them later, had to put money on my skype yesterday as they only have an american telephone number, not a skype one. Nice hey....

Paypal should be great for this country as it's very easy to set up on most eCommerce websites and great for those that do not have a credit card - but would you want your potential customers to go through this?

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## Pap_sak

> Pap sak
> Thanks for the warning, I use paypal to pay for stuff I bought, and it worked. But I have not tried to register it with FNB. 
> Pity FNB don't have a rep on the forum.


well I am not going through FNB so not really their fault and these days you can use any bank account...

http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytim...-african-banks

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## Pap_sak

let me carry on banging my head...




> 1-402-517-4519
> (a U.S. telephone number)
> 
> 
> Monday through Friday 9AM to 530PM local South African time


So it's 09H55 and guess what, I get a message saying lines are not open at the moment - they only open from 9am - 530 pm....what a useless company....

seems they open from 10, but the department that can help me only opens at 14h00, they said they will phone me back...

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## Newretailer

> but would you want your potential customers to go through this?


Heck no!

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## Dave A

As I recall, the verified card issue only crops up for payments over $100. Under that it's all sweet.

If you have to make a Paypal payment that's a little over, make a couple of payments under $100 into your Paypal card a few days apart to accumulate the higher balance until you've gone through the verification process.

I know it's a PITA, but it's there for our protection - and if there's a less painful way to verify, I'm sure Paypal would be pleased to hear it  :Wink:

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## Pap_sak

Dave - nope it was for $42

Anyway, it looks like things have been sorted out after a few phone calls. The first time I got through I was told the department that could help me only opens up 4 hours later - but they would phone me back.....of course they did not. So I phoned back later and got it all sorted. Took about 25 minutes of calls but used skype so wasn't too bad.

The american operators are extremely polite and friendly(very impressed with their phone manner) but not very efficient.

Will not use paypal again, as I said, I can understand the first time, but the second? Why not a third...and then you got the hassle of sorting out the problem in the states. And it's not just me....

http://www.paypalsucks.com/

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## Dave A

> Dave - nope it was for $42


Maybe they dropped the threshold - I set up my Paypal account and went through this about 2005, and a lot has happened since then.

I know there was a phase where I was genuinely concerned about having a Paypal account at all - probably about 3 or so years ago - when there were lots of problems with fraudulant use of Paypal accounts/unverified credit card accounts. I know Paypal really was forced to tighten up on how they did things as a result.

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## Dave A

Just been reading the home page of that Paypalsucks website you linked to. Kinda reminded me about the indignation against retraints of trade here.




> There seems to be something in the SA mentality - control & domination - that introduce these clauses into agreements, in the first place. Their basis is clearly unethical, except in a narrow range of circumstances. 
> 
> From my extensive travels abroad, I find this kind of activity to be offensive, to say the very least. I have not seen it to be the norm in other countries. Generally the societal norms & ethics prevail.


Did you know that Paypal was started by an (ex) South African?  :Devil2:

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