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By Jonathan Fairfield

Regulatory changes aimed at combating money laundering mean that the services offered by PayPal are no longer available to foreigners in Thailand and may even be out of reach for many Thais.

 

It is almost one year to the day since PayPal first announced that it was relaunching its services in Thailand.

 

The relaunch was necessary in order for the company to comply with new regulations in Thailand after the government overhauled regulation of the country’s fintech sector.

 

In order to comply with the regulations, only those with a registered business account would be able to use PayPal to send and receive money and pay for goods and services online.

 

Full story: https://www.huahintoday.com/thailand-news/paypal-no-longer-available-to-foreigners-in-thailand/

 

-- © Copyright Hua Hin Today 2022-11-11

 

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I can quite literally feel the hate.

Well done paypal for preventing me from having a few thousand Baht available online for easy use.

 

I'm sure this change will do absolutely zero to 'save the world' from the usual excuses of money laundering and preventing terrorism and make many thousands of people hate the company even more than they already do.

I never had this kind of problem with Bitcoin. It just works and doesn't care who you are or where you are.

This really pisses me off. Idiots!! 

1 hour ago, ukrules said:

I can quite literally feel the hate.

Well done paypal for preventing me from having a few thousand Baht available online for easy use.

 

I'm sure this change will do absolutely zero to 'save the world' from the usual excuses of money laundering and preventing terrorism and make many thousands of people hate the company even more than they already do.

I never had this kind of problem with Bitcoin. It just works and doesn't care who you are or where you are.

 

You do realize this has absolutely nothing to do with PayPal.

The less farang meddling in illegal activities the better.

I remember when the US government provide Bangkok Bank in New York from sending me money into my account here in Thailand the never ending battle of money laundering TIT

1 hour ago, Celsius said:

 

You do realize this has absolutely nothing to do with PayPal.

It seems not ????

1 hour ago, TooMuchTime said:

The less farang meddling in illegal activities the better.

That was sarcastic right? It is so stupid if that would be the reason. So just because a few people do something illegal, most others have to "suffer"?

It bothered me in a way, because I made good use of Paypal since it's start. But I already used it less and less over the last few years. I remember I payed my Lazada purchases with it. 

But living in Thailand had some changes which I miss: I used Ebay a lot and always used Paypal to buy and sell products. Paypal saved me a lot of money from crooks on Ebay and with the few too many issues I had, it always served me well.

I'm not angry, I'm just sad that I can't use it anymore. Why they have to make it so difficult for normal people to use it?

But because this doesn't come sudden, I already quit using it a few months ago. I tried to set it on my wife's name, but needed to get acces to her bank, which I don't have nor want to have.

So no more paypal for me. Luckily there is Google Pay, there are credit and international debet cards and for easy money transfer I use Wise. 

I don't need Paypal... they might need us more.

3 hours ago, webfact said:

In order to comply with the regulations, only those with a registered business account would be able to use PayPal to send and receive money and pay for goods and services online

So which part of this excludes foreigners from being able to use the service?

I don't hate PayPal for this. I am sure they wouldn't do this change if they could keep the business like it is. They follow the law, or else.

 

So what are the options for us? I recently logged in to my PayPal account and they tell me I have to enter my Thai ID card number. I am not Thai, so I don't have that number.

 

Are there other options for foreigners? I.e. entering the number of a Thai driver license or something like that?

 

How easy is it for other people, like the Thai gf, to open an account?

 

These days I don't use PayPal much anymore, I guess I could live without it. But obviously it doesn't hurt to have an account. What do you do?

3 hours ago, ukrules said:

I can quite literally feel the hate.

Well done paypal for preventing me from having a few thousand Baht available online for easy use.

 

I'm sure this change will do absolutely zero to 'save the world' from the usual excuses of money laundering and preventing terrorism and make many thousands of people hate the company even more than they already do.

I never had this kind of problem with Bitcoin. It just works and doesn't care who you are or where you are.

Money laundering?

 

The established "conventional" banks make money from people who use them for online purchases, particularly international ones.

 

PayPal is a competitor which threatened that income.

 

They have influence.

 

They have deployed it 

33 minutes ago, JayClay said:

So which part of this excludes foreigners from being able to use the service?

The part, where you must have firstly, a Thai ID. And secondly, a legally registered business. Unfortunate, really. So it goes. Nothing stays the same forever. Especially here. 

3 hours ago, ukrules said:

Well done paypal for preventing me from having a few thousand Baht available online for easy use.

You are misinformed. This has nothing at all to do with PayPal. It has everything to do with new demands by the Thai government. PayPal is merely abiding by them, doing as it's told by the government. Do you really think that PayPal voluntarily wants to lose customers?

In my opinion, this is a step in the right direction.

Foreigners living in Thailand can still use PayPal to send money.

They will not be able to receive money.

If you want to receive money, probably you are doing some business. You are supposed to pay the tax in Thailand.

Register your business in Thailand, pay the tax every year.

Then you can use PayPal to receive money. 

 

PayPal is using this approach in many countries, not only Thailand.

I transferred my USD and Euro already to my Thai Baht bank account and closed PayPal. I will never forget the bad exchange rate that I got from PayPal for these transactions ????. 

3 minutes ago, Songlaw said:

The part, where you must have firstly, a Thai ID. And secondly, a legally registered business. Unfortunate, really. So it goes. Nothing stays the same forever. Especially here. 

Okay. The Thai ID wasn't mentioned in the OP. If it was simply that you need a legally registered business then it wouldn't have been specifically stopping foreigners.

17 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

These days I don't use PayPal much anymore, I guess I could live without it. But obviously it doesn't hurt to have an account. What do you do?

I've used it a few times a year to order things, such as tea from Ireland and for software bought on-line. Now I'll just use a credit or debit card. It's just another example of the hammer to crack a nut attitude we see so often in Thailand. Financially, it began with having to present a passport to buy a stored value card for the BTS. Money laundering was spouted as the reason, but I doubt very much that money launderers who deal in millions used a BTS card to move money around.

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Regulatory changes aimed at combating money laundering mean that the services offered by PayPal are no longer available to foreigners in Thailand and may even be out of reach for many Thais.

However, the age-old tradition of corruption in government is undiminished and those "regulators" can rest easy, no combat coming their way.

6 minutes ago, Hakuna Matata said:

Foreigners living in Thailand can still use PayPal to send money.

They will not be able to receive money.

I doubt that. It is not what has been said in any communication I've had from PayPal, and to log into your account you now need a Thai ID card.

 

Where did you read otherwise, please?

3 hours ago, ukrules said:

I can quite literally feel the hate.

Well done paypal for preventing me from having a few thousand Baht available online for easy use.

 

I'm sure this change will do absolutely zero to 'save the world' from the usual excuses of money laundering and preventing terrorism and make many thousands of people hate the company even more than they already do.

I never had this kind of problem with Bitcoin. It just works and doesn't care who you are or where you are.

I believe it had more to do with draconian laws of Thailand than PayPal.

 

I know PayPal sure streamlined large purchases for me on Alibaba. 

2 hours ago, TheFishman1 said:

I remember when the US government provide Bangkok Bank in New York from sending me money into my account here in Thailand the never ending battle of money laundering TIT

I can remember the pensions department refusing to send my pension to the Thai bank of Asia as they said the money would never reach my account. They sent it to Thai Farmers, after 2 weeks i asked the bank about the money, they said Quote" It had an accident and went to the wrong account". Next day it was in my account. The account it went to was a bank employee.

This is the exact same thing that has happened with Uber.

 

Ban foreign companies and then create a local one to take its place and make billions.

 

Guarantee you that that will happen.

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I don't hate PayPal for this. I am sure they wouldn't do this change if they could keep the business like it is. They follow the law, or else.

 

So what are the options for us? I recently logged in to my PayPal account and they tell me I have to enter my Thai ID card number. I am not Thai, so I don't have that number.

 

Are there other options for foreigners? I.e. entering the number of a Thai driver license or something like that?

 

How easy is it for other people, like the Thai gf, to open an account?

 

These days I don't use PayPal much anymore, I guess I could live without it. But obviously it doesn't hurt to have an account. What do you do?

If you have a Pink Card or Yellow House Book entering your id number on that may be worth a try.

Does this only apply to PayPal accounts linked to Thai bank accounts? I just opened my account and I didn't see any notifications.

 

What ever it means it's just one more reason why Thailand makes it difficult for foreigners living here and people should reconsider. Boomers now retiring en masse now should be paying attention to this in particular.

31 minutes ago, Na Fan said:

Ban foreign companies and then create a local one to take its place and make billions.

Exactly what China is doing also. Peas in a pod.

What a bunch of bullsh*t.

3 hours ago, Celsius said:

 

You do realize this has absolutely nothing to do with PayPal.

idtent here needs it explained coz I have no idea what you mean?

3 hours ago, TooMuchTime said:

The less farang meddling in illegal activities the better.

Do you read the news??? Check out the number of Chinese, Thai Police, Thai ex Police and Admin officials that have been involved in illegal activities lately. Racism at it's worst!!!

4 hours ago, gp2002 said:

This really pisses me off. Idiots!! 

An idiot has a measurable amount of brains since they can still function. Arrogance beyond belief. Welcome to the 20th century Thailand.