Using Paypal.com In Thailand

[jbeck]

I opened a Thai paypal account. But...

So, first off paypal would not allow me to use my SIAM BANK debit/atm card to 'activate' my account.

So I can't use it.

Without attaching a card, apparently just having a ban account isn't good enough.

Has anyone ACTUALLY opened/used a Thai paypal account and how did you do this? (no guessing allowed)

I am not interested in creating/using a non-thailand (i.e. home country) paypal account.

thanks so much for your help.

[garyh]

Try using your credit card

[jbeck]

Try using your credit card

Is that what you did, and it works? Do you have a thai credit card? I was only offered an atm or debit card from Siam Bank.

Thanks.

[Bartman]

All depends on the purpose of the account...

If you are receiving money to transfer to your Thai bank account then PayPal decide the exchange rate into Baht, which is a bad rate. Best to have a paypal account in a real country that is the same currency as your payments so there is no conversion required.

I have a Thai Paypal account which I used when selling on ebay. Set it up with a Kbank Debit card (web card) with no problems. But got screwed on the exchange rate as Paypal do not allow you to receive payments in Thai Baht.

Why do you need a Thai Paypal account?

[quiksilva]

I frequently use paypal together with my Thai HSBC credit card, however I only use it to purchase. On the rare occasion that i receive payment for something or other via paypal I just use those credits for future online purchases

[jbeck]

I frequently use paypal together with my Thai HSBC credit card, however I only use it to purchase. On the rare occasion that i receive payment for something or other via paypal I just use those credits for future online purchases

Hmmm. I know exactly what paypal is - maybe I should have pointed that out?

I was wondering why my card was not 'good enough' to activate the account.

And whether other people have had a similar problem, and how they solved it.

thanks.

[ManilaLover]

I opened a PayPal account with a B1st VISA debitcard from Bangkok Bank, but first you must legitimize the card by calling a special phone number, ask the back how to do this, the same what you do when using the card for online payments.

[Forethat]

I linked a Kasikornbank VISA web shopping card to my Paypal. This card is pure electronic, nu plastic.

Very smooth. No problems. The good thing was the process of applying for and settting up the card was completely electronic and was completed in 1 min AND it is FREE! Account with Kasikorn Bank required.

http://www.kasikornbank.com/EN/Personal/Ca...ebShopping.aspx

Edited February 27, 2010 by Forethat

[loubrockbank]

I linked a Kasikornbank VISA web shopping card to my Paypal. This card is pure electronic, nu plastic.

Very smooth. No problems. The good thing was the process of applying for and settting up the card was completely electronic and was completed in 1 min AND it is FREE! Account with Kasikorn Bank required.

http://www.kasikornbank.com/EN/Personal/Ca...ebShopping.aspx

We've done this and as you say it worked a treat with Kasikorn. A friend has a Siam and a Ayutthaya bank and cannot set one up though.

The Kasikorn virtual card is a VISA debit and seems good enough.

One thing that I can't quite find on PayPal is the exchange rate they use. Their T&C's state they use over 1000 inter-bank exchange rates which aren't available to the public. However, I'd quite like to know the rate I'd get before withdrawing any money. Obviously I'd just leave it in there until it got better.

For example, I got paid in £ and on Jan 1st withdrew at a rate of 52.6 to the £. Ten days later, almost the same amount worked out as 50.2. Anyone know how to find the rate they will use? Or is it just another cheeky way of making more money which PayPal use to their advantage?

[anon345535]

I linked a Kasikornbank VISA web shopping card to my Paypal. This card is pure electronic, nu plastic.

Very smooth. No problems. The good thing was the process of applying for and settting up the card was completely electronic and was completed in 1 min AND it is FREE! Account with Kasikorn Bank required.

http://www.kasikornbank.com/EN/Personal/Ca...ebShopping.aspx

i opened a kasikorn bank account. within 3 days i had a verified paypal account which was usable. took about an hour of my time, including the opening of the account. the delays were caused by waiting for passwords to be generated etc.

[barryofthailand]

I have a pay pal account linked with my Visa card in the U.S. The only problem is that pay pal charges a conversion charge, even when purchasing something from the U.S. Useless in my opinion.

Barry

[Forethat]

I linked a Kasikornbank VISA web shopping card to my Paypal. This card is pure electronic, nu plastic.

Very smooth. No problems. The good thing was the process of applying for and settting up the card was completely electronic and was completed in 1 min AND it is FREE! Account with Kasikorn Bank required.

http://www.kasikornbank.com/EN/Personal/Ca...ebShopping.aspx

i opened a kasikorn bank account. within 3 days i had a verified paypal account which was usable. took about an hour of my time, including the opening of the account. the delays were caused by waiting for passwords to be generated etc.

Yup, works great! What is even better is that you can control the level of credit available to this card, so that if someone should hijack the number there's only a certain number of THB available on the card.

I should also point out that I tried to link a Thai AMEX to Paypal, but gave up after two weeks, two hundred phone calls, countless emails and faxes. Do NOT attempt to link a Thai AMEX to Paypal, this is a waste of time...

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi.

I have been using Paypal/E-Bay for some time now. At first i had the same problem, my UOB Visa Electron card was not accepted by Paypal, the bank then verified with me that their Visa Electron cards are not actually verified by Visa or some such and hence can't be used for any sort of online activities (tried that, too, and didn't work as "promised" by the bank).

A Bangkok Bank Visa Electron card (Be 1st) however works fine. After linking it to the Paypal account it has to be verified which is a pain in the butt, Paypal will deduct an amount equal t one USD and that generates an ID number which shows up on your card statement. In my case however i do not receive such statements, so i had to call the bank, hang on the line for almost an hour until they found someone able to speak English who could give me that ID number which i had to submit to Paypal for the verification...So now i have both my UOB bank account and the Bangkok Bank debit card linked - the latter to make payments, the former to receive payments (i use that Bangkok Bank account solely for Paypal).

Transferring received money from Paypal into the linked Thai bank account takes about 5 working days by the way.

Best regards....

Thanh

[sticklee]

Upon moving to Thailand I changed addresses on my Ebay and Paypal accounts to my new Thai address. The Paypal change of information area does not seem to recognize international addresses outside USA/Canada nor will it accept a Thai phone number. I retain my primary banking and Paypal account at my bank in Canada. Now Paypal wil not grant account access because they think my account has been hacked into. Anyone experience this issue?

[sbk]

Kasikorn bank, e-debit card. I set it up in about 30 minutes. It took a bit longer than that for the charge to show up on my balance so that I could verify the account but it works just fine.

Make sure you use a different email address then the one you are using if you have a paypal account in your home country (and be sure to use the thailand paypal site!)