Why the uber-restricted launch of Paypal Philippines?

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief October 17, 2006 · 2 min read

Listen to article

Instagram now lets users reorder their posts on their profile iOS 27 Adds Native Baybayin Keyboard to iPhone: Here is How to Enable It AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE announced GPD MicroPC 2 with Intel Core 3 N350 announced Nintendo Direct to unveil Switch 2 games for second half of 2026

A lot of people were ecstatic with the news that Paypal has now added the Philippines on its list of supported countries. However, the inclusion was far from what we’re expecting. It’s even far from a half-baked launch.

The limited Paypal access only allows users from the Philippines to sign up for a Paypal account and add their US-accepted credit cards to top up their account. That means one can only send money and it has to come thru your credit card — that’s it.

You can’t even transfer from a bank account so if you don’t have any credit card, your Paypal account is basically useless. You can’t receive funds either so what’s the point?

The only other way I see this working now is if you’re a spender and the merchant you are paying only accepts Paypal. How about freelancers, designers, programmers and netrepreneurs? Will they be able to use their newly signed-up Paypal account and proudly paste that Verified Paypal badge on their website? Nope.

I think it will even confuse and frustrate their potential clients — with all the hooplah that Paypal is available in the Philippines only to find out that they can’t actually pay them enterprising Filipinos thru Paypal.

I guess this restrited launch only means one thing — eBay doesn’t trust the Philippines yet. They still think we’re just a bunch of fraudsters and hackers and I can’t blame them. Yeah, the risks still outweighs the benefits.

For the meantime, let’s just stick to what really works — Xoom.

React to this article:

paypal philippines

Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and is considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines.

8,007 Articles

View all posts by Abe Olandres →

46 Comments

paypal vcc seller · 13 years ago

You are in simple fact fantastic site owner. The web page loading acceleration is actually wonderful. It sort of feels you are executing just about any one of a kind strategy. Furthermore, The particular articles will be work of genius. you will have completed a magnificent activity within this topic!

JerryScott · 14 years ago

Member of selection in six Copa America Colombia, which won the 2001, Calero was one of an keys in your Pachuca became the best-performing Mexican team in the last 12 years, as being present in a very title Copa Sudamericana in 2006, three of your respective four league and CONCACAF.Miguel Angel Calero in November 2012 gave an interview towards a student of Journalism at the University of Cali.Exclusively, the former Colombian goalkeeper spoke about their stories in football and life expectancy. The interview was made about 32 hours before a idol of Mexican soccer suffered a stroke.
http://www.knowdi.de/user/profile/melindajbz/

Danes · 14 years ago

Paypal sucks. Big time. I’m a freelance writer and I’ve set up a pp acct to receive my payment from offshore clients. It’s been a month and I cant withdraw my money. Their website won’t accept local debit cards even if they have a Visa or MC logo. So I applied for a credit card. I spent my pp balance on online shopping whilst waiting for my cc to arrive, and guess what paypal did? They froze my pp acct and refunded everything I paid online! Not just that, getting a refund has charges from the merchant! So now, I cant get my money, cant pay online, and was charged bcoz they took my payment back! WTF?!!! I am so NOT USING PAYPAL EVER AGAIN to buy anything online! To anyone who’s reading this, if u don’t need a pp acct, DO NOT USE IT. Just pay with your credit card.

Elwood Cosen · 16 years ago

What I adore about blogs is that they spark an idea in my brain. When that happens, I really feel as I require to comment with the hope it might be interesting to some individuals. Because there are plenty of blogs and forums with many points of view, they question your comprehension. It is at these moments when you’ve important insignt other individuals might not have had, together using the blogger him/herself. I find myself coming back to to your writings only simply because you’ve several very good insights and also you’ve been at this a very long time, that is very inspiring and tells me you know your stuff. Maintain triggering imagination in others!

MYE · 16 years ago

All these entries are 2-4 years old. Any updates about using Paypal? I need to open a Paypal account to be able to receive payments from abroad. I hesitate to do so unless I know for sure I can withdraw funds from it i.e. transfer funds from my Paypal account to a Philippine bank. I don’t have a Mastercard or any international credit card. I do have a FCDU account with a local bank. Any info or advise will be appreciated.

Dave L · 17 years ago

You are a very smart person!

iTrade Exchange · 19 years ago

Hi to all I just wanted to announce to all of you. A very good news regarding to PayPal. You can now send and receive funds and verify your PayPal account by using VCC (Virtual Credit Card) We are selling virtual credit card to verify PayPal accounts.

very cheap VCC’s you can avail it for just $10/Php500.00

No more requirements to avail our VCCs.

For more information contact us at YM: orion_bluestripes

Nanflexal · 19 years ago

if you have a Saving / Current account in USA, you can send and recieve fund using your own paypal account.

I have my own US Checking + Debit Card + Online banking features, read this if you want to know more. http://www.xdownx.org/index.php?showtopic=17309

Diwan Sinaman · 19 years ago

Xoom sucks. I tried to transfer money from my US friend’s paypal to my Philippine zoom account. The result was they cancelled my transaction twice. It really sucks when you are in a hurry. Not to mention they have the lowest dollar to person exchange rate.

Technqx · 19 years ago

Its guaranteed that you will be verified by PayPal allowing you to receive and send money.

I haven’t been to the US yet and I was able to get a verified PayPal Account associating my US Bank Account.

More information: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZtechnqxQQhtZ-1

STEPS:

1. Open a US Bank Account (even you’re not from the US. Use your Philippine address, that’s cool.
2. Open a US PayPal account – using any US address – don’t worry PayPal won’t verify your address – it’s the bank account that will be verified.
3. Add your newly-opened US Bank Account to your US PayPal Account.
4. PayPal will then deposit small amounts to that bank account ( that should appear on your bank transaction history within 2-3 days). You will have internet banking facilities with that account.
5. Enter to your PayPal the exact amounts they have deposited to your bank.
6. There you go. You are now a verified US PayPal account holder having the privileges of receiving and sending money online.

Yeah Paypal is now available in the Philippines but you can only use it for shopping online, you wonâ€™t be able to receive funds if youâ€™re selling on eBay. There is no definite time yet when are they going to make PayPal here fully functional (sending & receive).

Wanna share it with you guys. After long research, I got a solutions and itâ€™s guaranteed working cuz I got mine already.

Read article here:

More information: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZtechnqxQQhtZ-1

Miguel · 20 years ago

Now if only Xoom could offer a custom us****@xoom.com that senders could use transparently.

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief · 20 years ago

Hi Dave,

I’ve been using Xoom ever since they started and have not had any problems in the past 3 years. Here’s a disclaimer though — they used to advertise on one of my sites when they were starting out in the Philippines. Nevertheless, my opinion on Xoom reflects my usage activity of the service and its availability to serve non-Paypal accepted countries like the Philippines and connecting them to the rest of the Paypal users across the globe.

Will check out your recommendation though and see where it fits my remittance strategy. :)

Dave Starr · 20 years ago

Interesting post again recommending Xoom but Xoom is not usable in all the US states and from no other countries that I know of. I did find recently a very good California company licensed to work in all US states that sends money either to Philippine bark accounts or for delivery in metro areas. http://www.remithome.com
Sent all my money for rental deposit and some items I wanted added on to our new rental house, money went through in a timely manner and $10 USD or less for up to $1,000 USD per day. Hope it keeps working well.

Gloria · 20 years ago

for me at the moment moneybookers.com works really swell. ;-)

Philtradex · 20 years ago

I too was long awaiting Paypal in the Philippines. It is killing any kinda of open trade when you can not get money to the other party. I know that there are other payment systems out there but it is a real pain to have like 5 accounts to send money around the globe. Hope google figures this one out. The only possible problem with google I see is if they get to big, that will be another problem in the making. Another Dictator like Microsoft.

elmer · 20 years ago

I believe the problem could also be with the RP banking systems, it’s to complicated you’ve end up very frustrated (maybe this is what PP is experienced). In the US or EU countries the flow of transcations between businesses specifically finance institutions are more controlled, if you try to do something hunky panky and get cought then be prepare to face the “REAL” consequences. But, unfortunately in RP’s banking system the good/honest guys gets all the frustrations and missed opportunities but the bad guys get away with it (paging mr. pidal).

@6
xoom suck too, it asked/required a valid driver’ license. i entered my PA valid driver’s lic. it brings up an invalid D.L error message, what the fun!! im thinking how these guys validate dl anyway?

@3.
That’s smells like phish

Maybe this would help, send money using your phone

mlq3 · 20 years ago

i think it’s as simple as the philippines still being on international money laundering watch lists.

Kiven · 20 years ago

Xoom for teh win!

nina · 20 years ago

I’m one of the minority who’s rejoicing about this. Then again, I’m one of those spenders who buy from sellers who only accept Paypal payments.

I’m not even complaining about the $100 sending limit…at least it stops me from spending too much ;)

Sidney · 20 years ago

I might have given you this link in the past:

http://www.paypalsucks.com/

My experience with paypal is bad. I completely with The Cat, those people are ubercareful.

To tell you the story, I didn’t made any transaction for several months. This was enough for them to shut down my account. They requested so many papers (per fax ! ) to reopen my account that I gave up.
There is no communication possible with them. They work with automated emails. You can’t respond to those emails! They just don’t want to listen to you.

As long as you don’t get any problem it is a nice way to pay and receive money but once you got a problem you are at their mercy. You can’t do anything !

Yes, in my view Paypal sucks!

The Ca t · 20 years ago

imho, the pp people are just being ubercareful. they recently pay a big sum of money for a class suit action. besides, their website is easily replicated, as i am a paypal subscriber myself, once a month, i get this bogus letter asking me to update my account. they already have included the credit card requirement aside from the bank account because bank accounts can be closed but the credit card will continue to bill even if it is already closed. all the credit card company is to send the bill to the collector.

if you will not look closely, the url address you are directed to is almost similar to paypal. the notice is so urgent that you would fall for this scam.

JC John SESE Cuneta · 20 years ago

I doubt they’ll be able to do much. I learned that PayPal have more autonomity, a model which is getting popular among businesses instead of literal 100% domination.

Much more, country-branches have almost close to 0% voice with their parent company, especially in our case where we still have to pass lots of international banking criterias and what not.

It’s useless, more like an insult to me
“PayPal: Bah, give them registration and nothing else, so they will keep quiet. It’s not hurting and will not hurt our image and business anyway.”