How To Use Paypal In South Africa

What is Paypal?

PayPal is an online payment system that makes paying for things online and sending and receiving money safe and secure.

When you link your bank account, credit card, or debit card to your PayPal account, you can use PayPal to make purchases online with participating stores. PayPal serves as a middleman between your bank and merchants and keeps your payment information secure.

How To Use Paypal In South Africa

Step One: Sign Up For A PayPal Account

Signing up requires you to choose from one of two profiles, Personal or Business. Personal is the way to go for online shopping, but if you’re a freelancer or similar – opt for Business. Both of these have different procedures for signing up, but following the instructions shouldn’t be difficult.

 You register with PayPal using your email address as your user ID and following that, you’ll be identified by your email address.

 When registration is done, you enter your banking and card details into your profile by first allocating a bank account and then allocating a card to that account.

Step Two: Verify Your Bank Account

To verify that you have entered the correct bank account details, PayPal will make a small transaction. This will reflect on your bank statement and is refunded soon after.

You may be able to access this right away via your online banking or you’ll have to wait for it to clear. The reference number for this transaction is then used to complete verification. 

Then, all you need to do is head over to your online banking page and link your PayPal to your bank account. Your PayPal account should now be ready to send and receive money.

Step Three: Receiving Money

When you need to receive payment from someone, all they need is the email ID you used to register your PayPal account with. It doesn’t matter where the payer is located, that’s all they need. When money has been transferred to your PayPal account you will get one of those great emails informing you that you have received however much from whichever person. 

Either you can keep your money in your PayPal account or you can transfer it to your bank/credit card account. Some countries, however, such as India, do not allow you to keep money in your PayPal account for very long.

So, money will automatically be transferred to your bank account soon after the payer makes the payment. Luckily, in SA you have about 30 days to withdraw these funds. You may get a notification from time to time urging you to withdraw; however, PayPal assures us that we can ignore these.

Step Four: Sending Money

You can transfer money to anyone who has a verified PayPal account. All you need is their email ID. You may go to your PayPal account and send the required amount to that email ID.

PayPal will withdraw that amount from your bank account, charge it to your credit card or withdraw it from your available PayPal funds.

Step Five: Fees

PayPal charges a transaction fee. Either the payer or payee has to bear this cost. The other party does not need to pay anything. PayPal automatically takes its fee and then transfers the rest of the money to the payee.

The payer and payee should negotiate in advance as to who will pay the transaction fee. If the payee is supposed to pay this fee then, let’s say for payment of R100 you will just send R100 and they will receive this amount minus the fee deduction. 

But if you’re supposed to pay the fee then you should transfer the payment amount + whatever the PayPal fee is. Make sense?

Step Six: Withdrawing Funds

You’ll have to set up your PayPal service with FNB before anything can be withdrawn. This is usually pretty easy to do online if you already have an FNB account or Online Banking Portfolio. If you don’t bank with FNB but would still like to link your current bank card, FNB makes this possible by acting as a sort of middleman.

My Broadband offers a pretty helpful article with regards to doing this, which can be viewed HERE.

 If you have any trouble doing this, the FNB staff at any branch would be willing to help you out and set it up for you. After that, withdrawing funds is pretty simple via FNB’s online banking – under MY ACCOUNT and FOREX.

What Are The Requirements to Create a PayPal Account In South Africa?

With over 70% of South African internet users shopping online, and most of them using PayPal as their primary mode of transaction, it makes creating a PayPal account is not even an option but a necessity.

There are no particular requirements to create a PayPal account, but for South African users, there are specific rules that one needs to follow.

To create a PayPal account in South Africa, here is what you need to do:

Go to the main website www.paypal.com.

Then click on the Sign-Up button on the top of the screen.

Now select what kind of account you want to create – Personal or Business.

Enter your details and credentials.

At last, accept the terms and agreements.

You have now successfully created a PayPal account.

One must remember that PayPal accounts need verification.

So you must have all the FICA documents ready like proof of identity, residence address and proof, and a recent bank account statement.

What Are The Requirements For Financial Intelligence Center Act (FICA) When Using PayPal?

The FICA was introduced on 1st July 2003 to fight financial crime. It helps prevent money laundering, and tax evasion among others.

There are about ten (10) categories of people that the FICA identifies and whose information is needed in any financial circle.

The list below outlines the various groups:

  • Individual
  • Minor
  • Non-Residential individual
  • Estate Late
  • Trust
  • Company
  • Non-Resident Company
  • Close Corporation
  • Partnership Account
  • Unincorporated entities

Which Banks Support PayPal in South Africa?

The official bank in South Africa to transact with PayPal is the First National Bank (FNB).

The FNB has however opened up access to the PayPal service so that people with accounts at any of the South African banks can link their bank accounts to their PayPal account and send or receive money.

Anyone who has registered with FNB PayPal banking services can access and link PayPal with any South African bank account.

Major banks like ABSA, Nedbank, as well as Standard Bank all can be linked to PayPal in South Africa.

How To Link Your Credit Card With PayPal Account In South Africa?

To add a Credit Card to your PayPal account, follow these steps:

  • Open your PayPal account home page.
  • Click on “Wallet” at the top of your page.
  • Then, click on “Link a payment method” and select “Credit Card”.
  • Now fill in the details and follow the instructions to confirm and verify the card.

What Can You Do With PayPal In South Africa?

For those South Africans and even anyone who owns a PayPal account, these are some of the things you can use your PayPal account for:

  • Sellers can receive payments from customers in over 190 countries and regions around the globe.
  • Use your PayPal account to make or receive international payments for goods and services online.
  • Securely pay for items and send money without sharing your credit card details.
  • You need to check out quickly and safely at your favorite online stores.
  • Shop online: PayPal is supported by merchants in over 67 countries and regions all over the world.

Like I said earlier sending money or making payments online can be done in several ways in South Africa and not only through PayPal.

Most eCommerce shops accept payments through Xoom, Venmo, and other means of money transfers.

How To Withdraw Money From a PayPal Account?

To withdraw money from your PayPal account, follow these steps:

  1. Open your PayPal account main page.
  2. On the left side of the screen, click on PayPal Balance, and then select Withdraw Money.
  3. Enter the amount you want to withdraw and also select the withdrawal method.
  4. Review the details and then click on Withdraw.

After following the steps above, you will be able to easily withdraw money from your PayPal account in South Africa.

You can use the method described above to withdraw money from both your personal PayPal and business PayPal accounts.