One of the positive results in the wake of the FIFA Soccer World Cup 2010 in South Africa was the fact that, finally, we got the ‘real’ PayPal South Africa. Great start!
Sure, South Africans did have PayPal accounts as millions of other people in most developed countries around the world, however, we were restricted to making payments, meaning money out – to acquire any products, goods or services – but we could not receive nor withdraw money to any of our bank accounts, meaning no money in! This obviously cut us off from all forms of online business. Smart economists certainly calculated what this meant in terms of loss in revenue, business development and general growth over the years, not to speak of what it meant for our ranking as a nation on the international list of dynamic, emerging economies.
About one and a half years ago all this changed… or almost.
PayPal South Africa
So where are we today with PayPal South Africa? Meanwhile we are past the middle of 2012!
PayPal Withdrawals now available with all South African Banks“PayPal withdrawals now available with all South African Banks” was the headline of a relatively outdated article (Nov. 2011) my friend Hanno Coetzee from Lalakoi Publishing fished from the Internet today, according to which – as it seems – FNB has no longer exclusivity when it comes to withdrawing your PayPal funds to your South African bank account. Before it was restricted to only FNB; now it could be to any bank – ABSA, Standard Bank or Nedbank to name just a few.
This sounds like the next step in our “Long Walk to Freedom” when it comes to getting to the same level the rest of the modern world enjoys in this environment.
What has not changed is that you are still required to create a free FNB online banking account and profile to link with your PayPal account – whether you are an FNB client or not. As is stated in the document, this is based on the current reporting requirements of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), in other words to keep control of the various transactions within strict exchange control rules.
“FNB and PayPal have a similar focus on innovation, so it makes sense that we would work with FNB to make online payments even easier for merchants and consumers in South Africa,” said Oded Zehavi, head of PayPal’s business in Israel and South Africa. “With South Africa’s solid financial infrastructure and its status as one of the continent’s largest economies, we have seen great strides in eCommerce in this market.” [...]
Well, it’s about time…. and by no means an ‘innovation’; rather a question of catching up with the rest of the world!
What also remains to be seen is for how long South Africans have to withdraw any funds they receive in PayPal to their respective bank accounts within 30 days. As all transactions are a cost factor and only in favour of the banks (…first you have to withdraw to your bank account… then you need the money to pay something and the money goes back into your PayPal!!!…), I hope we catch up with modern nations on this issue as well.
The fact is that PayPal keeps perfect and very detailed records (History) of all transactions in and out that can be downloaded and printed for accounting reasons. Everything is tracked and ‘controllable’ – a perfect mirror of one’s online money movement footprint. So to the consumer this is a total waste of time and money. Lifting this requirement as soon as possible would make a lot of sense – or?
