Updates: You can now have a Paypal Philippines account. Just sign up here. You can withdraw an amount not exceeding $500 per month to any debit, credit card or directly into your Philippine bank accounts. You will just need the bank codes and savings account number.
Maybe you’ve already heard of the plan and the efforts to make Paypal available in the Philippines.
Though I think we’re still far from getting that much coveted nod from eBay (owner of Paypal), I think it’s good to know that there IS a way to get paid by people who has Paypal. If you haven’t heard of it yet, spell X-o-o-m.
I know, it’s not the real deal, but it’s close enough. So how do you receive payments from Paypal users?
- Sign up for a Xoom account.
- Enter your personal bank account. See complete list of supported banks here.
- Create a Payment Button by indicating an item name/number along with the list price and the shipping fee.
- Paste the button on your website or a send the link to your client via email.
- Client receives the “request for payment”, creates a Xoom account or logs in and processes the payment using his Paypal account, credit card or eCheck.
- You get a confirmation email with the tracking number and receive the payment directly into your bank account in a matter of hours.
That’s it! Xoom payment limitation is from $25 to $2,500 per transaction. If you don’t have a bank account, you can opt to pick up the cash in the bank within minutes (list includes Equitable PCI Banks and Cebuana Lhuillier) or have it delivered into your doorstep. I was even able to get my remittance delivered at 9:00 in the evening before — good for people who are away during the day or at their offices working.
You can choose to receive the money in peso or dollar denominations. Is it expensive? Depends on what you’re comparing it to. If you send $50, there’s the $3.50 fee (7% transaction fee). If you send $1,000, the fee is just $8 (or 0.8% transaction fee). These fees apply if you want to receive in Philippine peso but it’s a little more if you opted for US dollars.
The catch? Their peso-dollar exchange rate ain’t that good. Today, it’s just US$ 1.00 = PHP 50.8687. Still if you factor that in, it’s still cheap.
Some guy contacted me the other day wanted to advertise on my site so I asked him for $45 for 3 month’s for a single link to his website. I sent him a payment request via Xoom and I had the money in just over 3 hours. See the tracking code for preview.
I know it’s not the real deal. We still ought to have our very own legit Paypal account somehow. But I’ve been using Xoom for 3 years and it works.
I think one way of convincing eBay to add the Philippines in it’s list of supported countries is by using 3rd-party services like Xoom. If eBay notices that there are tons of transactions going into the Philippines from people currently using Paypal, they may think that we’re not a high-risk country anymore.
[tags]paypal philippines, xoom[/tags]
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i used xoom to send money to someone in the philippines and it sucked. i tried all options (deposit, delivery and pick-up) but they would always cancel the transaction, “due to violation of TOS” daw. i tried contacting the customer service, but i just got a very vague reply.
I’ve used Xoom a dozen times. Works well. But of course the senders had to sign up for their own Xoom accounts on top of their paypal/credit card/e-check accounts.
I’m not so happy with the $25 minimum because sometimes I’d like to be able to set up buttons for amounts lower than that. For instance, if you’re familiar with the TWiT “donate” button, you can send them a minimum of $2 via PayPal (and I think they get about $2,000 per month off these donations–but of course, they’re a popular podcast).
If Xoom did away with the sign-up requirement and the payment minimum, then the’d be ok.
Xoom works very well without any problems. It’s my preferred service, actually it’s the only one I use for online transactions. Unless we get Paypal anytime soon, which is highly unlikely.
hi yugs. two points.. 1. I’d recently gotten paid via xoom to my equitable account and it went through without a hitch. 2. has paypal / ebay ever really mentioned the exact reasons why they do not service the Philippines? Thanks
Also be advised of a fact that Xoom doesn’t advertise … it is not available in all US states. I just checked this morning and here is their reply:
————————-
We currently do not offer any money transfer service from Colorado, Virginia, Washington or Wyoming.
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I know these states don’t count as “major” to most people, but if you happen to live in one of them, as i do, it makes Xoom pretty darn uselss for sending money to the Philippines. I bought some graphics works from a fellow in Binodo for $45 USD and wound up paying Western Union $19 to send it to him … a huge, huge impediment to doing business.
Perhaps those four states have tighter regulations?
can we send money to a paypal account holder in
Richmond, VA?
Vince, now you can use PayPal to send to people in the US. But, to receive, you will still need Xoom and its alternatives.
isn’t xoom affiliated with paypal? i thought i read that somewhere? has anyone used ikobo?
Xoom Sucks. I tried to send money from my friends paypal to my Philippine xoom account. I used xoom because I was in a hurry but they cancelled my transaction. I did it twice and they cancelled it twice for unknown reason. Next time use other services like remithome or ikobo.
i want to send money to my friend in philippines. anybody mind to reply which service i should use to do the transaction at low cost and faster?
Regards
Ish
Ish,
Since you don’t say where you are sending the money _from_ it makes it a little hard to narrow the advice down.
Assuming you are in the US, then in order of personally known reliability my votes are:
http://www.remithome.com (this is the one I live off myself, moving money for me every month from US to Philippines)
http://www.xoom.com (a number of family members use this to send from the US but they are not licensed for use in all the States. Also, if you use a credit card with them, be very careful about fees. their transaction will show as a “cash advance” netting you big time fees on your card.)
http://www.myayala.com/ (used this one many times, they are reliable and quick and they charge against a credit card as merchandise, not a cash advance loan.)
http://www.ikobo.com/ (these guys are sponsors here at Yugatech. their fees are higher than the guys I use but they have a neat feature, they send a special debit card to the Philippine recipient so they can get cash with the card).
XOOM.com is th worst service ever to send money anywhere.
I send money 5-7 times a month and Xoom.com has been an absolute nightmare. They sit on your money for days and kep giving vague answers.
Calls made to their US customer service number end up in the Philippines with the customer respresentatives having no idea at all.
Absolutely ridiculous that the money was taken out from my bank account 8 days back and is not available for pick up.
Throw your money in the sea…..it might get to the recipient before it will get there through Xoom.
All in all….its an extremely disappointing experience with Xoom. I would never ever use Xoom again to send money anywhere. Hope this review will be useful to others.
I do have a problem attaching my bank account to my xoom account, I have a dollar account here in the philippines, but the currency button on xoom doesn’t seem to work, it just stays on phillipine pesos, the dollar currency isn’t clickable at all,I’ve already emailed them but they’re still not replying, tips from xoom users will be appreciated. thank you
Thanks Yuga.Now i’ll try XooM to get my revenues..
Hi Abe,
Just would like to clarify. Does the money sender need to have a Paypal account in order to send money thru xoom? Otherwise, hindi na sya makakapagpadala ng money? If yes, then kelangan may paypal account and xoom account yung sender? Tama po ba?
Kelangan din bang may paypal account yung money recipient para makuha nya yung money?
Thanks!
Hi Melynn,
The sender can either use a Credit Card or a Paypal account to send money.
The recipient can opt to pick up the money at any of the banks, have it delivered in their home (no need to have Paypal or Xoom here) or if they have a Xoom account, can directly deposit the money to their local bank.
Paypal Allow Philippines & Indonesia to recieve funds
Dear (Juan de La Cruz)
New Withdrawal & Receiving features are
now available! Withdraw Funds to Your Debit or Credit Card We’re pleased to announce the launch of a new
withdrawal feature, allowing you to transfer funds
from your PayPal account to your Visa branded
debit card or credit card1. Learn how to get
convenient access to your funds now.
Receive Money in Indonesia & the Philippines
In addition to the existing sending money capabilities and
the new withdrawal features, registered members in the
Philippines and Indonesia can now receive funds from
190 markets and 17 currencies.
Important: You’ll need to be a verified member to use the new withdrawal feature
I would just like to relate to you all an experience that I had w/ xoom that was so scary I haven’t done any transactions from them ever since. I made an online money transfer from them on the suggestion from cousin. But on my first time calling them, I was not satisfied by the way they handled my transaction. They promised me that the transfer will be sent on the same day but it took almost a week before it was received by my beneficiary. Never tried xoom again.
Now, I’m using a fast-growing money transfer online called JITPay.com.. This is way much better. they have the highest rates online, the same business day transfer and they have many locations in the Phil where the recipient can get their money. And did I mention that they have the best customer service ever…so efficient and reliable. They make sure that your transaction is secured and safe, they answer questions accurately and do everything so that the transactions will be prioritize. I never have a problem w/ sending money now with JITPay.com….just try and see the difference….
I have a problem with xoom. I try to send money using my paypal account via cash pick-up but it always spits the money back out to paypal. I asked customer care but all they had to say was that I was in violation of their “TOS”. I’ve checked the TOS and I’ve got no idea what they’re talking about. Has anyone had this same problem? How do I fix it?
I am thinking on cashing out my paypal fund, and thinking about xoom. Im from philippines,is it possible to send money thru xoom via paypal when Im already here in the philippines?
WESTERN UNION is better! it took ages before u can get the money if u use xoom.nothing beats WESTERN UNIOIN!
i have used xoom money in minutes, what a joke!! After i linked my bank account they did not indicate it would take 4 days to veryify my account so i sent money to my wife in the philippines, Behold now it said 4-6 business days to veryify my account, Wow i look at my online banking and there they took the money out of my account, So i called there WONDERFUL CUSTOMER SERVICE and Cancelled my Transaction, now i am being told to wait 2 weeks before i can get my money back. I would suggest no one use this Crappy service and horrible policies that are to take your money and give you a hard time to get it back, Please people alot better alternatives, i now use Moneygram at walmart.
Thanks
i have a problem with xoom.. i have sent a payment via paypal pick up for my self,only to withdraw all my money in paypal without verifying it(because i dont have a credit card either). i am the sender and also the recipient. it was succesfull on sending it but when i tracked it this morning.. it was cancelled and i dont know why.. and one more thing is my money in paypal was not refunded.. Please kindly help me Sir Yuga..
Curse you Paypal and Xoom!!!!!
to anyone there whos willing to give me some advice please email me at lablee_cute@yahoo.com tnX!
I have the same problem with Lovehatetragedy.I also sent the money to myself only to find out that my request is cancelled with no further details.I was shocked because I’ve trusted the site due to some nice information. I really wanted to refund my paypal earnings.
Ok, i have my different story here, with unsuccessful transaction by sending money using xoom from my paypal account.
i send 300$ from my Paypal account to Xoom. but few hours Xoom cancelled it but it is already deducted to my paypal balance.
the problem i am facing right now is, will Xoom refund my money worth 300$? though i their customer service reply “Thank you for contacting Xoom Customer Support regarding your recently cancelled money transfer transaction. Based upon transaction records, the transfer was cancelled under verification process. Thus, the funds were not withdrawn from account. The funds may be on temporary hold due to authorization debit and the same should be refunded back to you within 3-4 business days. You can contact your original fund issuing source for the same.”
thanks for any open suggestions and help.
imarkdesigns@gmail.com > please do keep in touch if there’s anyone here know the better solution. thanks
I`ve been using Xoom for the last year, once a month, to send money to my wifes relatives in philippines. Has has never taken more than one hour from order is placed until its ready for pickup. Average time is 15 minutes.
For mus, xoom works great.