What is happening with PayPal Thailand?

[Ohyesuare]

5 minutes ago, Caldera said:

Is that an upcoming change, too? As of now, it works fine with Kasikorn Bank's web shopping card, which isn't even a proper debit card. I could use a credit card, but then it won't be worthwhile for me anymore, because I could just use the web shopping card which merchants directly, with very little risk. So any additional protection PayPal might offer me as a buyer has to be weighed against letting them access my actual credit cards. I think I'd pass.

Yes it is and I'd pass too.

[Adumbration]

Note, holders of PayPal personal accounts or business accounts that are not registered business in Thailand will not be able to receive payments or hold a PayPal balance in PayPal Thailand.

 

[Adumbration]

This is a kick in the nuts.  In the wake of discussions with Simon, I was contemplating trying to generate a little income by teaching on italki.  However that requires payment to Paypal.  I have a paypal account back in Australia however they lock it everytime I try to log in from here.  Paypal is an absolutely grotesque organisation, but there are so many freelancers dependent on it.

 

Simon.  Have you communicated with italki.  Surely they must be working on some alternative solution.

[expat_4_life]

41 minutes ago, Adumbration said:

This is a kick in the nuts.  In the wake of discussions with Simon, I was contemplating trying to generate a little income by teaching on italki.  However that requires payment to Paypal.  I have a paypal account back in Australia however they lock it everytime I try to log in from here.  Paypal is an absolutely grotesque organisation, but there are so many freelancers dependent on it.

 

Simon.  Have you communicated with italki.  Surely they must be working on some alternative solution.

My understanding is it's two-fold, AMLO regulations, and designed to bring freelancers/online retailers/etc (avoiding tax) using the platform under the taxable income umbrella.

 

This from the wife who works at one of the major local banks in the AMLO division.

Edited November 7, 2021 by expat_4_life

[Adumbration]

Ok.  So if you are a freelancer working in Thailand and have a Thai friend or partner I guess you could get them to register a thai sole proprietorship.  Then get them to open a personal account to link the paypal account to.  Then provide all those details to paypal.  Change the paypal email to Tutanota or Protonmail.  Then get an atm card for the persons account and then you are good to go.  Until of course the retards at Paypal lock the account (which happens every other week).  And then your friend will have to deal with them everytime to get the account unlocked.

[Gottfrid]

On 11/6/2021 at 6:59 PM, phaholyothin said:

 

This is money flowing into the country. They are insane to want to put up roadblocks to this.  I just don't get it.

insane? Maybe they want people to pay income taxes.

[Adumbration]

13 minutes ago, expat_4_life said:

My understanding is it's two-fold, AMLO regulations, and designed to bring freelancers/online retailers/etc using the platform under the taxable income umbrella.

Well it is a retarded decision.  Because it is entirely against their stated objectives of trying to attract high income digital nomads.  All those guys will be outta here before the 22 February deadline.

[Regyai]

Yet clicking the 'Learn More' link in the Relaunch advertising flash page header.....

 

 

 

Declares Existing customers can shop & accept payments

[Tropicalevo]

23 hours ago, Isan Farang said:

I have had a personal PP account here for many years and no one from PP has informed me my account will be closed on Feb 22, do you have a link to the statment from PP ?

I too have had a PP account for many years. It is connected to my Thai bank account.

I have received no details of any any changes to my main account.

 

I do have a second PP account under a different name but I do not use it.

The  only updates that I receive on that account are from scammers.

Apparently my account has been closed nine times last month. All I have to do to open it again is to click on a 'button'!

[jim hayes]

 

17 minutes ago, Regyai said:

Yet clicking the 'Learn More' link in the Relaunch advertising flash page header.....

 

 

 

Declares Existing customers can shop & accept payments

Yes existing customers can use PayPal normally at the moment but not, it seems, after February 2022.

Edited November 7, 2021 by jim hayes
double post

[Nojohndoe]

I signed up to PP many years back but in the event of  many things have never used it. I will now  try to eliminate my presence on it due to an accumulation of doubts derived from the above posts and that I have received only maessages from PP over the years indicating only compliance to changes in terms of use  etc, etc, etc.

Now my only interest is if in fact I can effect a clean wipe of it !   

[CharlieH]

I have had several notices but only in regard to "changes to legal terms" and "you dont need to do anything at this time" type references and I have had "business" and "personal" for 20 yrs.

 

I am a firm believer in "if it aint broke dont fix it" so have touched nothing and its ticking along as it always has.

Purely based on my experience to date.

[cmsally]

2 hours ago, Adumbration said:

This is a kick in the nuts.  In the wake of discussions with Simon, I was contemplating trying to generate a little income by teaching on italki.  However that requires payment to Paypal.  I have a paypal account back in Australia however they lock it everytime I try to log in from here.  Paypal is an absolutely grotesque organisation, but there are so many freelancers dependent on it.

 

Simon.  Have you communicated with italki.  Surely they must be working on some alternative solution.

I think Italki also pays out to Payoneer. I haven't heard any news about Payoneer being affected.

[Seeall]

On 11/6/2021 at 5:06 PM, Ohyesuare said:

If you're not a registered business in Thailand that has passed the KYB verification, you will not be able to receive payments or hold a balance in your personal account, verified or not, after February 2022. Looks like PayPal in Thailand is basically becoming useless. Thailand is pushing hard with their anti-money laundering stuff lately so this is just in line with everything else they are doing like making TrueWallet harder to use for foreigners. 

Just dont do business here then.....

[Kinnock]

On 11/6/2021 at 6:59 PM, phaholyothin said:

 

This is money flowing into the country. They are insane to want to put up roadblocks to this.  I just don't get it.

The Thai banking mafia, led by SCB, want to control all financial transactions.  Same reason there's no foreign banks in Thailand.  Anti money laundering is just an excuse.

[BusyB]

2 hours ago, Kinnock said:

The Thai banking mafia, led by SCB, want to control all financial transactions.  Same reason there's no foreign banks in Thailand.  Anti money laundering is just an excuse.

Plausible, but I also think they want to cash in on all the digital nomad income taxes ...

[fredge45]

On 11/6/2021 at 5:22 PM, simon43 said:

I get paid for my online teaching using Paypal and Payoneer.  Both link to my Thai bank account, but luckily Payoneer also links directly to my Lao bank account.  I am busying trying to sort out a way to accept WeChat payments from my Chinese students (as a foreigner, the solution is to open a Stripe account which can link to WeChat.  But Stripe only operates in certain countries.  So I first have to open a UK Ltd company, then open a Stripe business account, then add WeChat payments etc).

 

This KYC requirement is really messing up us free-spirits....

"free-spirits"???   Self-centered selfish leeches more like it.  Willing to use public services but not to pay for them...

 

Enjoy the smooth roads, street lighting etc etc just for openers.

[PREM-R]

I am not sure if this is the reality, but if a Paypal account is registed as a business would the named owner of the account need to have a work permit?  As I understand it, a work permit would only be available if the 'business' was employing 'X' number of Thais. Therefore, it would effectively make Paypal Thailand unuseable for 'the foreigner, the alien'.

I would be interested to know if the above would be, infact, the case.

[Pravda]

13 hours ago, expat_4_life said:

My understanding is it's two-fold, AMLO regulations, and designed to bring freelancers/online retailers/etc (avoiding tax) using the platform under the taxable income umbrella.

 

This from the wife who works at one of the major local banks in the AMLO division.

 

Yes, this is exactly what it is. My wife also warned me about it a year ago  when PayPal stopped new registrations in Thailand. I told her she was stupid as the reason was probably because their relationship with ebay ended. It looks like I'm the stupid one.

[userabcd]

1 hour ago, fredge45 said:

"free-spirits"???   Self-centered selfish leeches more like it.  Willing to use public services but not to pay for them...

 

Enjoy the smooth roads, street lighting etc etc just for openers.

Or the many less well off who make use of the referred services but a few elite in govt have decided to make laws provide limits and rebates that exempt many from paying income tax.

 

Everyone should pay income tax since everyone has availability to those services whether they use them or not.

 

And govt should do away with DTA's and everyone and business should pay tax in their home countries and wherever they choose to live, no exceptions for anyone since expats to some limited extent still make use of their home countries services and those where they live.

Edited November 8, 2021 by userabcd

[berrec]

17 hours ago, Adumbration said:

This is a kick in the nuts.  In the wake of discussions with Simon, I was contemplating trying to generate a little income by teaching on italki.  However that requires payment to Paypal.  I have a paypal account back in Australia however they lock it everytime I try to log in from here.  Paypal is an absolutely grotesque organisation, but there are so many freelancers dependent on it.

 

Simon.  Have you communicated with italki.  Surely they must be working on some alternative solution.

Get yourself a cheap VPN service and set your VPN location to Australia!  

 

BTW Opera browser has a free VPN feature, unfortunately currently it only binds to America, Europe and Asia.

[dddave]

On 11/7/2021 at 8:30 AM, Pravda said:

What a bunch of cr@p 

 

I have this stinking filling something will happen with wise soon.

 

????

From personal experience, I know that WesternUnion is tightening up.  Only allowing 30 transactions total per annum. When I tried to use MoneyGram to send funds twice in the same month to the same individual, they disallowed the 2nd transaction as excessive.

No problems with DeeMoney....yet.

[Ohyesuare]

41 minutes ago, berrec said:

Get yourself a cheap VPN service and set your VPN location to Australia!  

 

BTW Opera browser has a free VPN feature, unfortunately currently it only binds to America, Europe and Asia.

It's very easy to get locked out of your PayPal just using it legitimately and normally, using a VPN is an almost guaranteed way to get it locked.

[Liverpool Lou]

On 11/6/2021 at 5:06 PM, Ohyesuare said:

If you're not a registered business in Thailand that has passed the KYB verification, you will not be able to receive payments or hold a balance in your personal account, verified or not, after February 2022. Looks like PayPal in Thailand is basically becoming useless. Thailand is pushing hard with their anti-money laundering stuff lately so this is just in line with everything else they are doing like making TrueWallet harder to use for foreigners. 

Nonsense as far as personal accounts opened before March 21 are concerned.   This is the message I received last night from PayPal in response to my question to them querying the validity of my personal account (opened in Thailand and linked to Thai banks) after February 22 and whether my account needed to be verified in any way...

 

"Hi ______, this is Franz from PayPal messaging. I hope you are safe and well.

 

Confirming that your account has no changes need to make.

 

You can still enjoy your PayPal account as you normally use it.

 

We appreciate the time and your effort dealing with this concern.

 

Thank you for contacting PayPal and for being a valued customer".

Edited November 8, 2021 by Liverpool Lou

[Ohyesuare]

23 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Nonsense as far as personal accounts opened before March 21 are concerned.   This is the message I received last night from PayPal in response to my question to them querying the validity of my personal account (opened in Thailand and linked to Thai banks) after February 22 and whether my account needed to be verified in any way...

 

"Hi ______, this is Franz from PayPal messaging. I hope you are safe and well.

 

Confirming that your account has no changes need to make.

 

You can still enjoy your PayPal account as you normally use it.

 

We appreciate the time and your effort dealing with this concern.

 

Thank you for contacting PayPal and for being a valued customer".

Well touche, Franz sounds like quite the expert on the matter. He is correct that if you already meet the ID requirements then there are no "changes need to make" and your account will automatically transition to PayPal Thailand in March 2022. In regards to as you normally use it though, almost everyone on this thread seem to agree with me that even already verified personal accounts will not be able to hold a balance or receive payments once it is transitioned to the "New PayPal Thailand". This is in line with all the other "anti money laundering" steps Thailand has and is taking recently. 

 

I don't know why you keep engaging with me though, it's obvious that neither of us will be able convince the other. And trust me, I find the current PayPal Thailand very convenient for me the way it is and I'd love for you to be correct but unfortunately, that just doesn't seem to be the case. I guess we will find out for sure next year though ????

 

[Adumbration]

5 hours ago, PREM-R said:

I am not sure if this is the reality, but if a Paypal account is registed as a business would the named owner of the account need to have a work permit?  As I understand it, a work permit would only be available if the 'business' was employing 'X' number of Thais. Therefore, it would effectively make Paypal Thailand unuseable for 'the foreigner, the alien'.

I would be interested to know if the above would be, infact, the case.

Irrelevant.  You need to register to get at Thai business registration number.  A foreigner cannot do that without work permit.  I think that those on marriage visa can however.

[Adumbration]

2 hours ago, berrec said:

Get yourself a cheap VPN service and set your VPN location to Australia!  

 

BTW Opera browser has a free VPN feature, unfortunately currently it only binds to America, Europe and Asia.

Not a working solution.  My paypal accounts are regularly locked down and you have to access them via confirming identity via SMS.

[Liverpool Lou]

8 minutes ago, Ohyesuare said:

I'd love for you to be correct but unfortunately, that just doesn't seem to be the case.

Yes, it does seem to be the case, did you not read what PayPal specifically confirmed to me?  How can the opinions of Thaivisa posters who have nothing to do with PayPal be correct and PayPal incorrect?

 

By the way, you asked why I engage with you on this subject (while it seems that your engaging with me is not to be queried?).   This is a forum, we are both part of this thread and there are some inaccurate assertions being made by posters who seem to be guessing.  If you don't want engagement, don't post on forums!

[Tropicalevo]

1 hour ago, Ohyesuare said:

It's very easy to get locked out of your PayPal just using it legitimately and normally, using a VPN is an almost guaranteed way to get it locked.

I have never had that problem with PayPal.

I use a (Thai) VPN all of the time via ExpressVPN.

[Pravda]

3 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Yes, it does seem to be the case, did you not read what PayPal specifically confirmed to me?  How can the opinions of Thaivisa posters who have nothing to do with PayPal be correct and PayPal incorrect?

 

By the way, you asked why I engage with you on this subject (while it seems that your engaging with me is not to be queried?).   This is a forum, we are both part of this thread and there are some inaccurate assertions being made by posters who seem to be guessing.  If you don't want engagement, don't post on forums!

 

I have been using PayPal and amazon payments for over 20 years. When contacting customer service they have as much credibility as clueless aseannow posters.