The ongoing discussion around PayPal in South Africa continues as FNB and PayPal discuss whether this is a feasible option. South Africans everywhere are praying that FNB manage to pull this off and unlock a whole new realm of online behaviour in South Africa.
Here are 8 reasons I could think of as to how us South Africans are going to benefit from being allowed to use PayPal:
- Receive payments from International users easily – For far too many years, it’s been a nightmare for South Africans to receive funds from International users.
- Immediate clearance – With PayPal, when someone makes a purchase, the money is cleared immediately.
- Free to transfer money – When making a payment via PayPal, you do not incur a transaction fee.
- Easy website integration – With PayPal, it’s incredibly easy to create a “Buy Now” button on your website for visitors to make a purchase; this opens up the potential for small web users to sell the odd thing easily.
- No need to use your credit card – One joy of having a PayPal account is that you don’t have to continually use your credit card to make purchases online.
- Most recognised payment service – All International users use PayPal to make purchases online, it’s basically seen as the standard.
- Different Accounts – You are able to choose different accounts when signing up for PayPal: Personal, Student or Online Business.
- Transaction tracking – It is very easy to monitor and track your transactions with PayPal.
Since the official statement made by FNB, we haven’t heard much on the topic, but the prediction of April is drawing near, I’m sure we’ll receive an update any day now.
I can’t wait to hear what’s going on!
Just to clarify your point (5), yes, you do still need a credit card – you just don’t have to memorize the number/expiry/cvc.
I’m willing to bet, though, that FNB will enable eft uploads, but probably only through FNB accounts (or at much higher cost from other banks).
And yes, seeing Paypal finally arrive in full capacity – very good news :)
~ Wogan
Correct Wogan, what I had in mind was that you wouldn’t have to enter it in each and every time you want to purchase something, the number of times I’ve had to get up to get my wallet, argh. Ye, it will be interesting to see what happens to people who bank at other banks, if FNB pull it off, I could honestly say that they will become the number 1 bank if they keep things tidy!
I’d like to compete for web dev jobs online, but not being able to receive payment via PayPal is a major problem.
As soon as I have a full service PayPal account, I know my ability to earn much more online is going to be unlocked.
If it happens this year in April, that will suit me just fine.
PayPal’s arrival will be a true blessing. I buy a lot of stuff online and had to get refunded for something that wasn’t delivered, so the money had to be wired into my bank account and my bank was emailing me asking what the money was for before they could clear the funds.
I’m definitely looking forward to PayPal’s arrival.
@Alessio: if a payment is reversed within PayPal, then PayPal puts the money back into your credit card – there’s no need for refunds via wire transfers.
Yup, it’s beautiful!
Hi
Another use may be to send money home or abroad. Working in Singapore at the moment and it is quite costly and time consuming process to send money back to SA. I.e. it cost money and I have to go into a branch and fill in forms etc.
With a bank account here linked to PayPal and another (FNB) bank account in SA linked to PayPal will I be able to send money to SA?
Cheers
Louis
Hi I was interested in this and wanted to know more but it seems when I click on the link ‘official statement’ then it does not take me to anything official at all, but instead another webpage on this site?
Possibly not the best name for the link?
(Coincidentally I couldn’t find links to anything official on that page either)
P.s. this is great news. Keep us posted!
Hi Mark, I clicked the link and it works perfectly for me mate..
It’s great news indeed!!!
No, the link is not broken. It’s just when you see a link saying ‘official statement’ you’d expect it to go to an official press release?
No biggie though, sure I can find something on google!
I for one, have never understood SA’s stranglehold grip on controlling the money moving in and out the country. I didn’t actually realise PayPal wasn’t supported here, but I was aware of having to implement SA specific online checkout facilities if your website has SA customers. Quite a pain. The boost to the SA online industry when this comes true is going to be phenomenal!
This will be great for me. I get quite a few cheques posted to me in dollars, and to get them deposited is quite a mission. So to have access to my funds in a PayPal account will be excellent.
Hi Folks,
I’ve created a Facebook Page so we can all collab in one area easily and round up the troops – http://www.facebook.com/pages/PayPal-South-Africa/388473619362
Come and chat :)