Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Update on PayPal accounts for India users

Yet another blow to the Indian users of Paypal! Thousands of freelancers, and small companies that depend on paypal for payments from their clients abroad are in a fix again! Check out this new information from thepaypalblog!

This is the message posted by Dickson Seow of Paypal under the title: Update on PayPal accounts for India users

"In accordance with regulatory instructions, there will be a change in our withdrawal functionality in India starting on August 1, 2010. At present, you can request for either an electronic or cheque withdrawal of funds from your PayPal account. From July 29, 2010 onwards, you will only be able to request for a cheque withdrawal of funds from your PayPal account.

We sincerely apologize in advance for any inconvenience caused from this change and we are working hard to restore the electronic withdrawal service. In the meantime, we are bringing this matter to your attention so that you can plan your future withdrawal activities accordingly.

Our India users can find the cheque withdrawal process here. In order to help you deal with this change and until further notice, we will refund the US$5 cheque withdrawal fee to you for cheque withdrawals made on July 29, 2010 onwards.

If you have any questions, please contact PayPal customer support by logging into your PayPal account and clicking on ‘contact us’ at the bottom of the page.

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience caused from this change in our withdrawal functionality. We will provide ongoing updates to you here. We thank you for your attention and patience as we work tirelessly to resolve this situation as quickly as possible."

original post at: https://www.thepaypalblog.com/

It is sad that the Indian government does this again to its hard working citizens! In spite of so many advancements and vigilance measures to collect taxes, I wonder what else make them such awkward decisions that hinder the in flow of wealth in to the country.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Paypal’s answers for questions raised by Indian freelancers

Paypal account holders raised a number of questions following the suspension of withdrawals to Indian banks and money transfers to personal accounts. The following were the answers provided by paypal’s Indian representative Anju.

1. Why did you suspend local bank transfers and personal payments to and from India?

We temporarily suspended these services to respond to enquiries from the Indian regulators, specifically questions on whether personal payments constitute remittances into India.

We’re working with the regulators and our bank processing partners in India to get this resolved as quickly as we can. We realize that this is causing considerable inconvenience to our customers and I want to reassure you that this is a top priority for the leadership at PayPal

2. When will personal payments be turned back on?

The regulators recently let PayPal know about revised licensing rules that we are now actively engaged in securing. Personal payments to and from India will be suspended for at least a few months until we fully resolve the questions from the Indian regulators.

3. When will local bank withdrawals be available?

Customers should be able to withdraw their funds to a local bank within the next few days. In the meantime, we’re going to restore the money into the PayPal accounts of any customers in India who have initiated a recent withdrawal, so they know that the money is safe in their accounts. Customers will also be reimbursed for any withdrawal fee charges.

4.The PayPal reversal has left me with a negative balance. What shall I do?

If you bought something or transferred money out of your PayPal account to your bank account before we reversed the payment then you may be left with a negative balance.

If this was a payment for a purchase of goods or services, you should contact the sender and have him or her resend the payment as follows:

(a) click the Send Money tab, and

(b) select “purchase.”

If this was a personal payment, then the sender will need to find another payment method until we restore the service. We’re sorry about this.

If you can’t recover the funds from the sender, you can bring your PayPal balance current by logging in to the PayPal account and clicking the “Resolve Negative Balance” link on the Account Overview page.

5. My payment was reversed but it was not a personal payment. What happened?

Only personal payments should have been reversed. Customers who believe that their payments were reversed in error should request that the payment be sent again by following the steps above (click the Send Money tab and select “purchase.”)

If you are still having problems, please contact PayPal customer support

I hope that this helps clear up some of the confusion around the situation in India and I’d like to take the opportunity to personally apologize on behalf of PayPal for the inconvenience that this is causing our customers.


Indian freelancers are very much concerned with the progress in the talks between Paypal and RBI. It is not possible to withdraw money or convert dollars into rupees at least for a few months from now!

If you are one among the millions of Indian freelancers, watch out for various other payment solutions through with you can get paid in Indian rupees. I ll get back to you with all possible financial solutions in the next post. Meanwhile you can post your views and suggestions as comments.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Paypal stops personal payments to and from India

Hello readers,

Freelancers from India had been undergoing a mental stress throughout last week. Every time they receive a payment it got reversed in a day or two to the sender. Although it had happened once earlier, this time it was a real problem with RBI involved in it. RBI says that it is a step to curb money laundering! I wonder if there is any association for freelancers in India to represent their grievances to the Govt. of India

This is what Mr. Anju from paypal has posted in paypal’s official blog!

“Hi blog readers, it’s Anuj from the communications team here.

I’m writing to let you know that personal payments to and from India and transfers to local banks in India have been suspended while we work with our business partners and other stakeholders to address questions they have about the service.

During this time, customers can still make commercial payments to India but merchants cannot withdraw funds in Rupees to local Indian banks.

We’re trying to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and we’re really sorry for the inconvenience that this may cause our customers in India and around the world.”

I ll be posting recent updates on the in this blog. Do visit the blog to be informed and to find other ways of transferring your paypal balance into Indian rupees!