PayPal re-registration now requires Thai national ID card

[Arkady]

I just received an email from PayPal advising me that, despite having already agreed to their terms for re-registering my international account with PayPal Thailand, I now have to agree to a completely new set of agreements and register with Thailand's national ID verification system, NDID through a Thai bank, by 30 November to continue using my account.

 

One thing that caught my eye in the Q & A linked to the email was this.

 

14) I am not a Thai national and cannot enroll in NDID. Will I be able to use a PayPal personal account in Thailand?

PayPal is using the NDID platform as a sole means of verifying the identity of customers seeking to use PayPal Thailand personal accounts (including existing account holders whose accounts will be transferred to PayPal Thailand). For the time being, a Thai national ID is required to enroll in NDID (other forms of identification which do not have a 13-digit Thai national ID number, such as a non-Thai passport, work permit, non-Thai Identification card (pink ID), or Thai Permanent Resident Permit cannot be accepted).

So PayPal has now decided to ditch completely all customers residing in Thailand who are not Thai citizens, including permanent residents and expats with work permits.

If you are still reading, there are also a number of new restrictions for Thai citizens, e.g. no more payments between friends and family. It is not clear to me what the implications of having to register through a Thai bank may be, since my account has never been linked to any bank account.

 

Personally I have stopped using PayPal for anything where an alternative exists already. There are just a few sellers in the US that only accept PayPal and I have never used it for receiving money.  Even though I do have a Thai ID card, I think this is complete BS and no longer wish to have anything to do with PayPal.

 

 

 

 

 

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

My guess is that the Thai government is forcing this, perhaps indirectly. I can't imagine Paypal coming up with something like this on their own.

 

It is probably being done to force the informal economy to use banks for payment processing since the government already can closely monitor banking transactions. Perhaps current laws aren't sufficient to allow regulators or other government departments to monitor transactions that don't involve a Thai bank. Putting a bank in the loop may give such oversight.

 

Could also be outsourcing KYC to entities with more resources and credibility with the government.

Edited October 12, 2022 by Etaoin Shrdlu

[phetphet]

It's all supposed to be about money laundering. 

[Liverpool Lou]

Government restrictions, not PayPal's.  Anyone with a PayPal Thailand account who cannot produce a Thai ID card number for PP's records can wave goodbye to their account.   

 

No point in whinging about it any longer, this has been on the cards for a long time and is not being forced on any PP customers unannounced.

[monkfish]

Surprised that an International company like Paypal would support such discrimination and don't even see what they want in Thailand as Thai's won't be using their services which such high commission rates unless they start taking 0%. What about those Digital Nomads they were bosting about not so long ago? Most get paid through Paypal.

[monkfish]

27 minutes ago, phetphet said:

It's all supposed to be about money laundering. 

Money laundering is always used as an excuse.
So are only foreigners laundering money?

[phetphet]

1 minute ago, monkfish said:

Money laundering is always used as an excuse.
So are only foreigners laundering money?

That's why I wrote "supposed to be".

 

Same the BTS Rabbit Cards requiring passport ID to prevent money laundering. How much can you launder through that?

 

It's all information gathering.

 

 

 

[monkfish]

I think probably they are doing this to intentionally prevent Digital Nomads coming to Thailand.
Still just over the borders there are no such restrictions.

[connda]

Since rolling out the "We'll dock you $2500 for every instance of what we say is disinformation" and then walking it back, imho Paypal is losing it's luster. 
Honestly, with the ability of being able to pay vendors via bank transfer and the ability to make personal inter-bank transfers here in Thailand, Paypal is really of no use to me here in Thailand.

[connda]

14 minutes ago, monkfish said:

Money laundering is always used as an excuse.
So are only foreigners laundering money?

No. Big banks launder money for big players like cartels and corrupt governments.
The emphasis on making small fry like us jump through a 100 hoops to move minuscule amounts of money around is simply camouflage for the Big Boys laundering hundreds of millions and billions. 

[Chris.B]

51 minutes ago, phetphet said:

It's all supposed to be about money laundering. 

It is not, it is about Control.  ☹️

 

[connda]

You're a Thai citizen I believe so it should not be a problem? 
It would only be a problem for us long-term 'visitors' married to Thai women for 10 or 20 years,  and retirees visiting their condos for the last decade or so.  ????
But I'm assuming those above who have Thai PP account appreciate the heads-up.

[connda]

1 minute ago, Chris.B said:

It is not, it is about Control.  ☹️

 

Yep. 

[monkfish]

1 hour ago, Etaoin Shrdlu said:

My guess is that the Thai government is forcing this, perhaps indirectly. I can't imagine Paypal coming up with something like this on their own.

 

It is probably being done to force the informal economy to use banks for payment processing since the government already can closely monitor banking transactions. Perhaps current laws aren't sufficient to allow regulators or other government departments to monitor transactions that don't involve a Thai bank. Putting a bank in the loop may give such oversight.

 

Could also be outsourcing KYC to entities with more resources and credibility with the government.

Think they are also keen to collect Tax from Freelancers and with Big Brother watching many might be forced to Payup by Paypal. They already write in their terms of service they can demand peoples Tax ID's or else freeze their accounts.

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by monkfish

[connda]

1 hour ago, Arkady said:

Personally I have stopped using PayPal for anything where an alternative exists already. There are just a few sellers in the US that only accept PayPal and I have never used it for receiving money.  Even though I do have a Thai ID card, I think this is complete BS and no longer wish to have anything to do with PayPal.

About the only reason I use PP is for services that have reoccurring annual payments.
It provides a simple interface to cancel the annual (or periodic) subscriptions.
If they get overly woke again with their terms of service I'm going to ditch them permanently as are a lot of others world-wide.

[CharlieH]

In my opinion, Paypal is old news, they have devolved  and are not worth bothering with.

 

Crazy attitudes and ruthless money grabs! The recent action of "fining" people for misinformation was ludicrous and caused a major backlash.

 

Leave them alone ! is my advice & opinion.

[pixelaoffy]

Paypal gave in to Thailand .. The country that screws the small guy but those with millions , or billions can transfer money with no problem . More likely they are the ones pushing gov to jump on the small guys   Failed corrupt kingdom

Edited October 12, 2022 by pixelaoffy

[gearbox]

29 minutes ago, connda said:

You're a Thai citizen I believe so it should not be a problem? 
It would only be a problem for us long-term 'visitors' married to Thai women for 10 or 20 years,  and retirees visiting their condos for the last decade or so.  ????
But I'm assuming those above who have Thai PP account appreciate the heads-up.

Why it would be a problem for long term visitors? I don't need PayPal Thailand account, I have an Australian one.

 

Of course if I start working and getting paid through PayPal the Aussie taxman will hit me with taxes on my earnings. If I don't declare the earnings it will be tax avoidance.

 

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by gearbox

[Liverpool Lou]

1 hour ago, monkfish said:

Money laundering is always used as an excuse.
So are only foreigners laundering money?

PayPal haven't said that and PP didn't introduce the regulations.

[gearbox]

32 minutes ago, monkfish said:

Think they are also keen to collect Tax from Freelancers and with Big Brother watching many might be forced to pay up by Paypal.
They already write in their terms of service they can demand Tax ID's.

PayPal was used for tax avoidance on earned income. PayPal Thailand is a financial institution in Thailand and needs to comply with the regulations. In theory if someone earns money from overseas the earnings can also be paid directly in Thai bank account without being taxed in Thailand as it is foreign income. However some countries tax their citizens worldwide, and the Thai banks provide the information of these transfers to the home countries'. Looks like PayPal is also forced now to provide info for possible untaxed earnings.

[Myran]

Are people seriously so mind-numbingly stupid that they think this is PayPals decision? Do you think that they singled out Thailand and said, "Yeah, let's make it harder for people trying to use our service there, but not anywhere else"?

 

Could it be something other than PayPal, forcing them to make these requirements if they want to remain active in any form in the country?

[Thailand]

1 hour ago, monkfish said:

Surprised that an International company like Paypal would support such discrimination and don't even see what they want in Thailand as Thai's won't be using their services which such high commission rates unless they start taking 0%. What about those Digital Nomads they were bosting about not so long ago? Most get paid through Paypal.

But not in to Thailand accounts?

[Liverpool Lou]

27 minutes ago, pixelaoffy said:

The country that screws the small guy but those with millions , or billions can transfer money with no problem .

Who, in their right mind, would use PayPal to transfer "millions or billions"?

 

We can all transfer legitimate millions or billions if we need to, just not through PayPal.

[pixelaoffy]

2 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Who, in their right mind, would use PayPal to transfer "millions or billions"?

 

We can all transfer legitimate millions or billions if we need to, just not through PayPal.

I never said they would

[cmsally]

It is not just a Thai ID that you need; you have to sign up for a Digital ID ! This is part of the push to make everyone have a digital ID in Thailand. Interestingly it seems to be part of "Bank of Thailand sandbox" and this seems to be outside companies that apply to get registration to join. It's a bit difficult to get to the bottom of it but I would presume it involves selling Thai people's data.

 

Below is copied from Paypal website

"ยืนยันตัวตนของคุณกับธนาคารและลงทะเบียน แพลตฟอร์ม National Digital ID* โดยเร็ว เพื่อใช้ PayPal ได้ในปลายปีนี้**"

[pixelaoffy]

2 minutes ago, gearbox said:

I'm not familiar with the Thai PayPal, but in the Australian version you can link as many credit cards you want to your PayPal account. When you pay the funds are deducted from your credit card account, but you ctill get the PayPal protection. You don't need to keep money in the PayPal account, I don't have a single cent there probably in the last 10 years.

exactly..  We are just using it for convenience and protection. And now that 3rd world backward Kingdom doesnt want you to do that 

[monkfish]

15 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

PayPal haven't said that and PP didn't introduce the regulations.

Which regulation exactly?
PayPal will operating under laws for banks and banks accept Foreign Passport ID's but PayPal will only accept Thai ID's.

[monkfish]

16 minutes ago, Myran said:

Are people seriously so mind-numbingly stupid that they think this is PayPals decision? Do you think that they singled out Thailand and said, "Yeah, let's make it harder for people trying to use our service there, but not anywhere else"?

 

Could it be something other than PayPal, forcing them to make these requirements if they want to remain active in any form in the country?

Paypal has made the choice to only accept Thai ID's for proof of identification.

[Liverpool Lou]

7 minutes ago, gearbox said:

I'm not familiar with the Thai PayPal, but in the Australian version you can link as many credit cards you want to your PayPal account. When you pay the funds are deducted from your credit card account, but you ctill get the PayPal protection. You don't need to keep money in the PayPal account, I don't have a single cent there probably in the last 10 years.

PayPal Thailand is (not for long for some) exactly the same.

[Rimmer]

A derogatory troll post has been removed also a reply