Sending money to South Africa

[AussieDoug]

I'd like to send regular payments to a needy school in South Africa that I visited when I was there recently.  They have a Standard Bank account and when I read in an onboard magazine that PayPal was in South Africa, I thought this would be the best way to acheive the transfers.

The information I can find on your site is a little confusing as it is contradictory and also (seemingly) inaccurate.

On this page (https://www.paypal.com/worldwide/) it says that receivers can only withdraw to a US bank account (India is the only one who can withdraw to a local bank).

On this page (https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-country-functionality-outside&dispatch=5885d80...) it says that the receivers can withdraw the payment "To Your Bank Account" - no mention of what bank, etc.

On this page (https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-withdrawal-fees-outside&dispatch=5885d80a13c0d...) it says that the currency is USD and a fee applies (but not what fee..)

The response from Paypal_Barry here (https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Sending-and-receiving-money/Sending-money-to-family-in-South-Afr...) explains the process, but I have also read on this post (https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Sending-and-receiving-money/Paypal-in-the-wrong/m-p/286162/highl...) that the receiver must have a FNB account and that FNB charge 1.5% to withdraw their cash.

So my questions are:

1/ Does the receiver need an FNB account?

2/ What fee does the receiver have to pay?

3/ Does my payment go through 2 exchanges (GBP --> USD and then USD --> ZAR)?

4/ What is the exchange rate you use (I know you put a 2.5% exchange rate spread on the wholesale rate, but is that applied twice or once according to question 3)?  Who converts the payment into ZAR - Paypal or the receiving bank? I'd like to know exactly what they'll receive before I send it.

5/ I tried a sample payment to see what would happen and since I only have a South African Mobile number for the receiver I used that.  I put in +27... for the number and it was changed to 027... Is that correct - it is not how it would be dialed from any country.  How do I enter a South African mobile number to receive their cash?

Thanks,

Doug

[PayPal_Siobhán]

Hi there AussieDoug,

When a payment is received to a South African PayPal account it can be withdrawn to a local bank account only which means any South African bank account.

How will you be sending the funds? If you are making a Personal Payment from your PayPal balance or Bank account then it is free to send this payment, the recipient however will pay a cross border fee to receive this payment from outside of South Africa. This completely depends on their account and can range from 3.9% + $0.30 USD.

In relation to currency conversion, again this would depend on how you plan on sending the funds, If you send money in a currency that is not your primary currency, we follow these practices:

1. If you have a balance in the requested currency, we will fund your transaction from your balance.
2. If you have a balance in a different currency, we will perform a currency conversion and use it to fund your transaction.
3. If you do not have any available balance(s), we will fund your transaction with your default payment method.

When your transaction involves a currency conversion, we provide you with a choice of whether we perform the currency conversion (at our exchange rate), or your credit card company performs the currency conversion (at their exchange rate).

•  If PayPal performs your currency conversion, we disclose the conversion rate to you at the time of the transaction
•  If you choose to use your credit card company’s currency conversion procedures, we will not be able to display the conversion rate.

Your card issuer will determine the exchange rate to apply to the transaction, and you will not be informed of the exchange rate or any additional fees applied until you are billed by your card issuer

Finally, to send a payment you will need to use the email address of the recipient.

Hope this helps!

Siobhan

[Roland2121]

IT is possible to put funds into my paypay account so that I may purchase using the online store? I am from South Africa and do not have a FnB account.