Paypal Makes Bank Account Compulsory?
My friend alerted me today that he can no longer receive payments in his personal Paypal account unless he adds a US bank account. He then asked me to check by sending a test payment, and I could not receive it either.
Previously, you can still receive payments in Paypal without adding a bank account, but now it seems that they have made it compulsory.
This is really interesting, and kinda stupid at the same time.
People from countries like Malaysia and Indonesia are allowed to open a Paypal account, but they are not allowed to withdraw money from their Paypal accounts to their respective local banks. The only other option then is to add a US bank..
In the past, however, you can still choose not to withdraw from Paypal by spending the money elsewhere or paying another Paypal user. But with this new limitation, it seems like they are not even allowing you to receive payments unless you add a bank account first.
Well ok, sure we can add a US bank account. But Paypal’s terms allows for one business account and one personal account, but they don’t allow 2 accounts to use the same bank account. Therefore if you have 2 accounts, you now need 2 bank accounts as well..
I’m not sure if these changes are just to a few people or all Paypal users. Trust Paypal to do something like this.. Sometimes I really wonder if decisions are made by human beings or some software program over at Paypal headquarters.
Malaysian can refer to this guide to withdraw Paypal in Malaysia. However, I’m certain that if these changes are implemented Paypal is just going to piss off more people.
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Hmm… that sucks…
Anyway, I got my PayPal Premier Business ATM card in the mail last week, so, I’m not complaining… (except that the US cards don’t seem to come with smartchip, so you cannot use them at petrol pump).
If you really are desperate, just to go Singapore or even some European countries or USA and open a bank account there. anyway, I’m sure there are other ways to open a US bank account with small premium fees without having to leave Malaysia.
So Gobala, is the eTrade trick still work with PayPal with this new progress with PayPal?
Also, anybody still use StormPay? Whatever happens to this one, and why it isn’t as popular as PayPal ? Surprising it still survive though while many others like mpay, Citibank c2it etc went folded.
Perhaps, we should consider adopting PosPay or Maxis-Maybank solutions for local transactions… Anybody have experience with these??
Hi all,
I read through a few e-books about withdrawing money from paypal to malaysia, but some of them just doesn’t work unfortunately. And some takes a while to setup or/and require some money to setup. Lots of hassle.
I recently found a website http://www.servisku.com/ by one malaysia company in which they provide money transfer service from paypal and directly deposit the money into any malaysian bank account of your choice.
Really dont know how they do that. But very effective and fast…within 1 day. Although price is a little costly I think….but worthwhile….
I think they are new cos I didnt see them around previously……else I dont have to waste my money on all these.
Just thought it might be helpful to someone.
Just want to know does it reliable???
I’ve tried the service at servisku.com, transferring 50 USD for my first transaction. They used Maybank direct deposit into my Maybank account. Anyway, the first transaction was free.
I am happy with it. I am not trying to sell anything here. Just thought that it might helpful to others since Paypal do not provide this service…..But, someone from PaypalDev is accusing me about money laundering simply because I have a Dell email address and I work for dell.
There is Dell too in Penang, Malaysia.
Foong, thanks for telling us about http://www.servisku.com. I tried it 2 days ago. It was 11pm and I requested a 50 USD transfer to my PB account. And within 2 hours, they issued an invoice that I immediately paid. After about 30 minutes, the money had been transfered to my PB account. It was in the middle of the night and everything was done in just under 3 hours
I even got a special discount for my next transfer because I noticed an error with their system and emailed their support team 
Use it if it works, but be careful. A lot of such companies in the past have been hacked or scammed and they close down due to insufficient funds to pay out to users.
Hi GK,
I did some search on google about this, and there were similar users who emailed paypal about this.
It seems this is only a temporary technical error while they are upgrading.
Hope they solve this error soon.
This is really going to screw up a lot of people =/
Yeah, I noticed this a few days ago and I’m not pleased - I primarily use PayPal to receive payments online and I’m selling a lot of different products.
Why should I have an US bank account when I live in Iceland? It doesn’t make any sense…
If they don’t fix this ASAP I’ll be forced to move to other services to accept online payments.
I’ve already e-mailed them about this but they haven’t responded yet.
Definitely not a smart move by PayPal. They’re going to lose a lot of customers.
I do hope it’s just a mistake and that they will fix this. There’s just no other similar alternative to paypal when it comes to certain type of internet business, so basically if they want to do it they can, we have no choice..
It happened to me yesterday. Actually I was planning to send my application to open a US bank account next week but this problem hit me yesterday. So today I immediately go to the post office and send my application. Hopefully it’s really a glitch in their system.
Ouch! Maybe it didn’t get to me (yet).
I have two PayPal accounts and if this
issue is real, I’ll be forced to use
only one account.
Hi Guys,
Just curious has the problem been fixed ?
Nope, they still require me to add an US bank account - and they still haven’t replied to my e-mails
OK, I finally got an e-mail from them.
Looks like this was a mix-up at their end. They said “..we are aware of this issue and I sincerely regret the inconvenience it has caused you. Our technicians are working to resolve this matter.”
So it looks like I don’t need to find a new merchant service
ouch this has been dragging on for almost a week now.
Lets pray this issue gets solved soon.
looks like the problem still persist….
just hope it would be resolve soon. just doesn’t make sense for paypal to implement such measures.
Exactly, so sorry for any delays
Personally, I don’t think it’s a mistake. I think this is exactly what Paypal wants to do. Does that make life difficult for you? Maybe, but historically Paypal has been that kind of company that just doesn’t give a damn. It’s their way or the highway..
Hi, I resorted to buying a VMI card to accept unclaimed payments. But, I don’t dare to use it to withdraw money first.
Has anyone out there who has withdrawn funds using VMI card ?
This should be a relief to all of you.
It looks like PayPal has lifted their “sanction” and you can now accept payment without having to include US bank account.
I don’t know if it’s temporary but you might as well act fast and accept any payment you received.
Zamri Nanyan
No, I just checked paypal website. For certain countries like Malaysia, we still need to have local US account in order to withdraw our money.
I was finally able to select “Accept Payment But Don’t Add a Bank Account Now”. It took them about 2 weeks to fix this…
But it looks like I lost $20 because of this mess - a customer cancelled his payment (subscription) while I wasn’t able to accept payments
Yes, everything is fine now. Just manage to receive all my payment yesterday..
what a relieve…now back to business now.
cheers!!
That’s great
Thank you Paypal!
You make me sick men…Im just to start my online business and when this news come on its look overfor me…
Who make you sick? Me? Lol..
Received payment in good order without opening a US bank account. Back to normal.
Hi people,
That was an interesting read through the panic-stricken posts. You poor things!
I have M’sian clients with and w/o Paypal, and I know how bad it is.
I know this happened over 2 months ago, but allow me to say a couple of things.
Yes, Paypal can get rather high-handed. But considering how massive they are, and the sheer numbers of members they have and transactions they process every minute of every day, it’s understandable that they don’t need to bother with ‘ikan bilis’ like us.
They are actually trying to add more countries to their list, although they do take their own sweet time about it. When I first joined them a few years ago, there were only a few countries that could withdraw, and everything was in US$.
Singapore was in the same boat - can open account but cannot withdraw. But now, we even have Paypal S’pore.
When they set up shop here a few months ago, all the S’pore accounts in Paypal were “migrated” to Paypal S’pore, whatever that meant.
Now, we can even receive cheques in SG$! Cool!
I have a hunch that this big hiccup was some sort of upgrade or trial or test. Of course, someone must have screwed up, ‘cos it took them 2 weeks to fix it - 2 weeks too long.
I doubt they would do anything REALLY foolish. Not with Big G already breathing down their necks.
Who knows, this might be a hint that changes are forthcoming from Paypal. I just hope it’s soon.
Hello, Everyone,
PayPalWarning.com touted Merchant Accouts as an alternative to PayPal to circumvent its High & Mighty attitude and questionable practices. Are Merchant Accounts worthy of interest for someone like me who would like to start small and gingerly?
Thanks & best regards,
Daniel C Tan