PayPal no longer available to foreigners in Thailand

[JFHuaHin]

they used to able to verify accounts, you had to send passport and utility bill and someone in singapore would verify it.

my business PP was verified this way 7 years ago, 

 

so the decision to not allow farang verification is part of moving from singapore regulators to thailand regulators

 

the only way forward is to open a PP account in Philipines or singapore to avoid Thailand rules

[MaiChai]

Seems strange Thailand want tourists but make it hard for tourists and foreigners to get money from abroad? Hope they dont clamp down further to get money from abroad?

[Don Chance]

Bad news for tourism. Most people use Agoda or Booking with paypal.

[OneMoreFarang]

26 minutes ago, gtm2k said:

The real reason is the inability do KYC on foreigner owned accounts at scale. 

No one in their right mind would ever use PayPal for laundering money!

How do you know?

I know from business who were suddenly successful and received lots of payments per PayPal which PayPal put under consideration - not sure if that is the term they used.

I.e. maybe a shop sold things for 10k per month and suddenly for 100k and PayPal pauses this (to make sure there is no illegal activity involved).

I imagine an online business with officially thousands of customers could be a good opportunity for money laundering. But then again, I never did such thing in my life so I don't know how good or bad such a business would be suitable. 

[owl sees all]

 

Anyone tried 'Payoneer'?

 

Could it be an alternative to PayPal?

Edited November 11, 2022 by owl sees all

[Photoguy21]

So I guess no Thai would ever be involved in money laundering? Really? Maybe someone can explain why many scammers in India use Thailand to launder money through and the people they apparently use are not foreigners but Thai's.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Photoguy21

[ukrules]

1 hour ago, Jonathan Swift said:

And bitcoin is the method of choice for scammers and cybercriminals worldwide.

The most used currency for crime worldwide is and always has been the USD. Bitcoin doesn't touch it.

 

1 hour ago, Jonathan Swift said:

I've been here 10 years, I have two banks in Thailand and I use Wise for incoming transfers. I have 2 checking accounts and 2 VISA/debit cards for them. It actually sounds like the real problem is your own money management.

Yes, I've been here a while and am well versed in how things work.

 

Paypal Thailand had one use for me which you may not have considered, when using it with the Thai address you don't have to pay the 20% VAT if you're ordering something from the UK/EU.

 

This is the only reason I ever used it and I used it pretty often.

 

[BEngBKK]

I do not care.

 

I do not use pp anymore after 10000 bath dissappear from my pp account 2 years ago.

 

And it is impossible to get help from support.

 

So i took the loos and got a virtual visa credit cart from kbank instead...

 

Edited November 11, 2022 by BEngBKK

[alant]

7 hours ago, Na Fan said:

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.

what Thai company replaced Uber?

[bangon04]

8 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 Do you really think that PayPal voluntarily wants to lose customers?

so divorcing Paypal from eBay was intended to increase customers??

[Bangkok Barry]

30 minutes ago, bangon04 said:

so divorcing Paypal from eBay was intended to increase customers??

I have no idea. I never use ebay and rarely use PayPal. Did you ask them why they 'divorced'? Did you read why? Aren't they both owned by Microsoft?

Edited November 11, 2022 by Bangkok Barry

[Peterphuket]

5 hours ago, pepi2005 said:

Good riddance there of Paypal. It's a 'woke' company, ready to freeze the accounts of people who dare to speak up against governments or who are otherwise deemed not 'wanted'. It can happen overnight, to anyone. Not reliable, and expensive. Take control over your wealth, convert it into a good store of value (gold or rather Bitcoin as it's easily transferrable over the Internet, directly p2p) and keep it in your very own wallet that you have 100% control over. Creating and holding a wallet is 100% free in Bitcoin, and transactions only cost pennies when done over its Lightning Network (and only cents to single-digit dollar amounts when done on the base layer itself, even when it's millions ???? ). Take control over your money, don't let companies treat you like a toddler.

A small remark regarding Bitcoin, apart from the fact that it has fallen sharply in value in recent days but if you want to buy bitcoins you will have to do so through a bank account, so you remain traceable.

[Peterphuket]

3 hours ago, ukrules said:

The most used currency for crime worldwide is and always has been the USD. Bitcoin doesn't touch it.

 

Yes, I've been here a while and am well versed in how things work.

 

Paypal Thailand had one use for me which you may not have considered, when using it with the Thai address you don't have to pay the 20% VAT if you're ordering something from the UK/EU.

 

This is the only reason I ever used it and I used it pretty often.

 

The problem with dollars is the largest denominations are $ 100

Not easy to take 100,000 $ with you, for example Switzerland has 1000 Franc denominations, much more easy and you can trust Swiss money.

[DULEROY]

Il y a 13 heures, JayClay a dit :

Alors, quelle partie de cela exclut les étrangers de pouvoir utiliser le service ?

[acepredator]

On 11/11/2022 at 7:00 AM, Hakuna Matata said:

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.

What a completely idiotic post. I receive money into my PayPal account so that I can pay for goods and services that I need to pay for using PayPal. I don't have a business, in Thailand or anywhere else. How can someone only pay out of their account if they never receive any funds into their account to replenish it? Is PayPal a bottomless well that provides us with free money? I don't think so. If you pay out funds, but don't transfer any in, then your account will at some point be at zero. If so, how can you continue to pay out of it? I'd like to suggest that next time you might try thinking a little bit before submitting a ludicrous and ridiculous post like this one. 

 

[Dogmatix]

On 11/11/2022 at 6:59 AM, Bangkok Barry said:

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?

It is indeed to do with PayPal as explained in another thread. PP has to verify ID of users and chose a private sector Thai company to do it that has a wonderful system that can only deal with 13 digit Thai ID numbers. Even PRs, who also have a 13 digit Thai ID number are excluded. PP could also have opted for manual verification of ID, as done by many others but chose not to, obviously thinking the business from expats not worth the trouble.

 

Thais already have their own system of payments with no fees. You transfer bank to bank online and send the payment slip via LINE. They don’t need to pay fees to an American company to do that. I expect PP will be disappointed with the results of its decision to go onshore in Thailand and ditch its expat customers.

[jacko45k]

8 hours ago, acepredator said:

What a completely idiotic post

Despite what you waffle on about my Paypal account is sometimes negative but mostly zero.  I have had to give them access to a UK account (or Credit Card) to get this benefit. I spend on Paypal, they then do a direct debit.... I personally make no transfer. Your rant seems to be wrong. 

[Skipalongcassidy]

I said goodbye to paypal years ago... there are better options out there

[jacko45k]

50 minutes ago, Skipalongcassidy said:

I said goodbye to paypal years ago... there are better options out there

I have moved here to Thailand, but still find odd things I cannot pay for using my local cards.....

[Ginner]

On 11/11/2022 at 11:50 AM, Liverpool Lou said:

What is the "Thai Bank of Asia"?

It was a Bank which closed its doors over 20 years ago with B500,000 of my money in it!

 

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

22 minutes ago, Ginner said:

It was a Bank which closed its doors over 20 years ago with B500,000 of my money in it!

 

Bank of Asia was purchased by ABN Amro who in turn sold it on to UOB. I would certainly hope and expect that your deposit was simply carried over. I don't think Bank of Asia simply closed its doors.

[fobuff]

On 11/10/2022 at 3:37 PM, 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.

It's not PAY PAL, it's the Thai government

[Ginner]

8 hours ago, Etaoin Shrdlu said:

Bank of Asia was purchased by ABN Amro who in turn sold it on to UOB. I would certainly hope and expect that your deposit was simply carried over. I don't think Bank of Asia simply closed its doors.

Yes it did. I went home for 3 months came back and the branch was closed. No notification or information regarding what had happened. 

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

3 hours ago, Ginner said:

Yes it did. I went home for 3 months came back and the branch was closed. No notification or information regarding what had happened. 

The branch may have closed, but the liabilities of Bank of Asia would have been assumed by ABN Amro and subsequently by UOB. I think that after ten years banks send funds from dormant accounts to the Bank of Thailand, but I understand that if a depositor can prove ownership there is no time limit on reclaiming funds from the bank. You may have a valid claim against UOB. Have you looked into getting your funds from them?

[NativeBob]

Well that's sad news esp. for those who has recurring payments through PayPal for example web hosting, subscriptions etc. Although PayPal sucks at Ebay payments they still was just fine for small transactions.

Dude sold cr*p from Chatuchak for decades through PayPal and was quite happy, now I wonder what he'll use.

 

[Ginner]

4 hours ago, Etaoin Shrdlu said:

The branch may have closed, but the liabilities of Bank of Asia would have been assumed by ABN Amro and subsequently by UOB. I think that after ten years banks send funds from dormant accounts to the Bank of Thailand, but I understand that if a depositor can prove ownership there is no time limit on reclaiming funds from the bank. You may have a valid claim against UOB. Have you looked into getting your funds from them?

Yes, Nothing doing. As they said after 6 months of no activity on the account it was legally closed. I explained that I knew nothing about the situation as to the branch closing down and couldn't find any information about take over or which Bank had taken over. Even with a Thai lawyer nothing happened.

 

[Highend Expat]

On 11/11/2022 at 4:07 AM, 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.

Yes, only still in reach to Thais with money who are all happy to continue laundering money. 

[Thaijack2014]

On 11/11/2022 at 7:01 AM, Mickeymaus said:

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 ????. 

Well, for that Wise (Transferwise) is ideal and much easier to use than PayPal.

[monkfish]

Well I just signed up for the newly available Google Wallet service in Thailand and they didn't require NDID verification they used my Credit Card to confirm ID as Paypal also currently does.

 

https://aseannow.com/topic/1277989-google-pay-and-wallet-launch-in-thailand

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by monkfish

[Gknrd]

I am in the process of getting a new passport here in Thailand. The US embassy lets you mail it in and they mail it back.. So easy.  I tried to use PayPal on their site for payment and I finally gave up. I did not know they were having problems!  I like PayPal because I don't have to give out my credit card info on-line.