Paypal To Transfer Money Internationally

[nikster]

Hi All,

I had to open a Thai PayPal account because of an online store which would only send to the PayPal shipping address. In order to have a shipping address in Thailand, one has to have a Thai PayPal account. So I just used my secondary email to set up an account here. To my surprise, it worked using a BKK bank debit card for funding.

I have now hooked up that account to my Thai bank acccount, and my U.S. account to my U.S. bank account. Sending money is free for personal accounts.

Is that really a free way to send money internationally? Or is there some catch?

I just tried with $50 - let's see what happens.

[sniffdog]

Click on the sending money tab, look at your sending limit and that will give you the answer.

My Thai account is linked to my Thai bank account. I have not added a card (My Hip Debit Card doesn't qualify because it's

not linked to a name).

My sending limit is US$70.67 (probably your first amount is US$100). If you're sending limit is 0.00, you're out of luck and you have to

add a valid debit or credit card.

Edited July 12, 2007 by sniffdog

[Benji]

It will work as long as you don't reach your limits (as said above), just remember even though the sender doesn't get charged the receiver does

There was a way to receive money via masspay (a paypal addon) and not get charged but I think they may have closed this loophole now

[monty]

Biggest problem when transferring funds to Thailand is that they use the offshore rate. Which currently is 33 something Baht to the Dollar! Way less then what you'd get when sending dollar to Thailand.

For amounts under a certain limit you'll pay an additional 50 Baht fee...

When your account is verified I don not think there is a limit on how much you can send, not on my account anyway.

I wouldn't trust paypal with any substantial amounts though!

[nikster]

Biggest problem when transferring funds to Thailand is that they use the offshore rate. Which currently is 33 something Baht to the Dollar! Way less then what you'd get when sending dollar to Thailand.

For amounts under a certain limit you'll pay an additional 50 Baht fee...

When your account is verified I don not think there is a limit on how much you can send, not on my account anyway.

I wouldn't trust paypal with any substantial amounts though!

Yeah - I have a verified account in the U.S. and there's no limit. No fees for personal account either, I just transferred $2000 to a friend. He transferred it to his bank account and all was fine.

I kind of don't think they would use the offshore rate - do you know this for a fact? I made sure that my test transaction (for $50) is in USD so what should happen is that $50 in USD arrive in the Thai PayPal account. Transferring that to my bank account will get it converted to THB but I would think that the bank is doing that.

Clearly, there's all sorts of opportunities for fees being applied here and there - will see.

Keep in mind that PayPal will make a shitload of $ on the float alone in any case because each transaction takes 3 - 4 days to "clear". If PayPal just added an additional day to the clearing time that the banks impose, they would sit on top of trillions of $ every day and cash in the interest.

[OlRedEyes]

PayPal works well, but the exchange rate stinks. There have been quite a lot of noise about them freezing accounts, but I've never had any problem in 3 years.

[monty]

Nikster,

read following thread:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...t=0&start=0

There several people reported their experience when transferring the dollars from their Thai paypal accounts into their Thai Banks.

Exchange rate between 31 and 32 Baht to the dollar, which indicates thay take the offshore rate, along with a 2.5% commission. Add to that another 50 Baht when transferring less then 5000 Baht.

Since they clearly state that last mentioned fee, and mention all amounts in Baht and not US$, it stands to reason that indeed paypal will buy the Baht and send them on to your Thai bank!

[nikster]

Nikster,

read following thread:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...t=0&start=0

There several people reported their experience when transferring the dollars from their Thai paypal accounts into their Thai Banks.

Exchange rate between 31 and 32 Baht to the dollar, which indicates thay take the offshore rate, along with a 2.5% commission. Add to that another 50 Baht when transferring less then 5000 Baht.

Since they clearly state that last mentioned fee, and mention all amounts in Baht and not US$, it stands to reason that indeed paypal will buy the Baht and send them on to your Thai bank!

Thanks for the link - OK then, I will report back to what happens to my $50 when it arrives here

[nikster]

So after 6 days, the $50 has arrived. It's arrived in USD, so it was _not_ automatically converted to THB or something. There was no fee for the PayPal transaction.

However, there are a couple of caveats for transferring currency via PayPal. The short conclusion is: Don't do it.

For transfer to Thai Bank account:

1 - Takes 5 - 7 business days. WFT?

2 - Fee of THB 50, waived for txn over 5000 THB

3 - Fee of 2.5% for currency exchange

4 - A rather confusing table of fees for "cross border payments". It's unclear if that applies to merchants, or in addition to the 2.5% exchange rate fee or what. It seems to be for merchants, and for merchants who are not afraid to pay through the nose for PayPal, no less. The table was linked to from my personal account fees table.

Here's what this table looks like:

Monthly Sales Price Per Transaction*

$0.00 USD - $3,000.00 USD 3.9% + $0.30 USD

$3,000.01 USD - $10,000.00 USD 3.4% + $0.30 USD

$10,000.01 USD - $100,000.00 USD 3.2% + $0.30 USD

> $100,000.00 USD 2.9% + $0.30 USD

But whether or not I would have to pay the outrageous cross border payments fees, the 2.5% fee is arlready worse than me going to the ATM and getting cash from my debit card which costs 2%. And it takes 2 weeks for the whole transfer vs. 2 days for a normal wire transfer. Transferring money with PayPal is a considerably worse deal than a wire transfer, except maybe for small sums.

I will just PayPal the money back to my U.S. bank account and be done with it

[lor]

And remember, as already mentioned, Paypal love to freeze your account. You loose all the money in it. They give no valid reason and can keep it frozen forever if they wish. This has happened to me after having a paypal account for 4 years with no problems. Done a little internet research since and it appears to be the way Paypal makes money! Thousands of people have gone bankrupt because of them! Stay clear of Paypal, unless you have no other choice and then keep your balance low!

Chris

[palm]

PayPal works well, but the exchange rate stinks.

The exchange rate PayPal uses more than stinks