Now that PayPal has suspended electronic fund transfers to bank accounts, you must be pretty worried over finding an alternative solution to rescue your funds from PayPal account, right?
Well, hug it or hate it, PayPal has been the most trusted platform for online transactions despite its notorious higher fees, lousy customer service quality or unreasonable actions at times.
However, under the current situation, it is only safe to withdraw your PayPal funds via PayPal check, i.e if you are gutsy enough to allow PayPal to send your check with the help of Indian Postal Department via general post. I know it hurts to lose your check at times, but fortunately, I am NOT one of those who have lost their checks.
In any case, your PayPal funds are safe in the unfortunate event of your check being lost in transit. Blame it on the Indian Post Department and not PayPal, if that happened to you (but I seriously hope it doesn’t happen to you). If your check happened to be lost in transit, PayPal would reverse the transaction initiated by you. Well, you may lose precious time in the process though. I know at times, that’s probably the hardest part to cope with.
Despite what they claim as the ideal time for a PayPal check to reach the recipient, it usually takes roughly between 15-20 days. You should have the patience to wait and count on Indian Postal Services. It is very difficult to understand though why PayPal prefers to send your checks via genera post. But as I said you can’t reason with PayPal 🙂
Hate them, love them, but dude, you can’t ignore them!
The bottom-line is it takes a lot of patience (sometimes it can really be a testing time) until you receive your PayPal check and cash the same at your local bank.
Too Desperate to Wait for A PayPal Check? Then you can probably try the following services until PayPal restore their service to normal:
Online Remittance: I am not sure if other Indian banks offer this service too, but ICICI Bank makes it easy for your client to pay you via its Online Remittance service. Even your client doesn’t have to worry about going physically to bank to send you your funds. They can do it online. Kindly, visit their website or contact your nearest ICICI Bank.
Western Union Money Transfer: This one is probably the quickest way to get your money online. However, their charges might appear higher to you. You can visit their website to find more about their service fees and compare them with PayPal fees. If your client is kind enough to visit one of his local stores where WUMT service is available, you can get the funds real quick.
Xoom: It is basically a money sending service, pretty much like Western Union service. All you have to do is request your client to use your bank details to initiate a money transfer. The transaction will be verified by the Xoom department before it is executed. You money should reach your bank account real fast. However, in Feb, 2010, during the PayPal crisis, Xoom was not entertaining any payment to India. Not sure if they are doing the same this time too.
2Checkout: Their customer service is much better than PayPal’s, but they levy charges on every move you make. Unlike PayPal, they have registration fees. So most likely, they will deduct some fees from the money your client sends to your 2CO account. They also have a caution money fees which they allocate to protect their interests against any potential default on your part in future. Take heart – this amount is refundable. Moreover, you can transfer your funds from PayPal to your 2CO account.
They also offer you an ATM card (they call it Payoneer Card) and you can use it at any ATM counter within and outside India. Great, right? But they levy a fee on each transaction! Now, that’s a rip-off, right?
These are my own experiences with cross-border money transfer services. Do feel free to share you experiences in the comment sections. I will be glad to answer your questions and learn more from your experiences too.