Paypal coming to SA

This is excellent news and will make life much easier for eCommerce sites and people that would like to offer freelance services to the global market. Can't wait for them to get it up and running, hopefully we won't have to wait too long!
 
JustAsk said:
I think you can savely assume FNB will just act as some sort of franchised SA operator.
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I don't think PayPal operates like that. I think FNB will do the transaction clearance between PayPal and your FNB bank account and will provide details of larger transactions to the Receiver of Revenue so they can nail you. PayPal will still not be registered so they can freeze your PayPal account (not the FNB one), withdraw funds from your FNB account and not pay you out and you have no-one to complain to, because PayPal says they are not a bank although they handle your money and you can even invest it in their money market. They are therefore not regulated the way banks are. There may be an exception for PayPal EU but for PayPal US and PayPal Singapore - SG handles South Africa - they are not regulated.
 
What is curious is what cut will FNB take? PayPal takes a certain cut from each transaction - 5% or more. They probably also charge a deposit fee. Overseas banks don't charge you to keep money in them or they charge little. They just take some of the interest (ie lend your money out). In SA, banks charge for everything. PayPal is too big and the volume of sales in SA too small for PayPal to sacrifice a cut of that for all the extra trouble they will have to go through now with SA scammers and even ordinary customers. Obviously PayPal will take the same cut as they do in America and EU and FNB will take a second cut. What's in it for FNB otherwise?
 
The article is one of those classic "What do you think?" scenarios, where (in TV media for example) they'll show you a picture of an Asian man, and then immediately after that a car crash... dishing it up as "What do you think?" but never really tying the two stories together, which perpetuates the stereotype of Asian drivers being bad drivers.

Where I'm getting at is:

local consumers can look forward to getting access to a much wider range of Paypal services in South Africa
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Indicates that PayPal and FNB is in talks to supply the South African consumer with a wider array of services and not (the "What do you think?"):

To date local consumers could make online payments via Paypal, but could not accept funds and deposit them into a local credit card account
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piece added to the end of the article. The one has nothing to do with the other nor does it indicate we might get the ability to actually use these accounts to receive money from overseas locally. I really do not carry a taste for sensationalist articles. Especially when considering the hype and free publicity it generates for FNB when no decision or details have yet been released.

I'm going to be pessimistic and say that South Africans will still be crippled in some way shape or form by not being able to utilize PayPal for what we need most, to receive money and/or have a positive balance in the account. However hopeful I am with this, the banks including the government and especially the telecommunications companies have shafted us for so long and so hard that they usually think *any* change is "brilliant for the consumer".

I guess we'll have to wait and see if they are truly a "god send" before I judge them as such. Even if we do get these services and it's entirely open to South Africans to use PayPal for what it is there for, in all probability the transaction fees imposed on transferring money would probably be so large it's not going to make much sense in trading in it anyway.
 
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PeterCH said:
What is curious is what cut will FNB take? PayPal takes a certain cut from each transaction - 5% or more. They probably also charge a deposit fee. Overseas banks don't charge you to keep money in them or they charge little. They just take some of the interest (ie lend your money out). In SA, banks charge for everything. PayPal is too big and the volume of sales in SA too small for PayPal to sacrifice a cut of that for all the extra trouble they will have to go through now with SA scammers and even ordinary customers. Obviously PayPal will take the same cut as they do in America and EU and FNB will take a second cut. What's in it for FNB otherwise?
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Volume of sales from SA PayPal users are small because most can't use it for what we need it for. So when (if) you have the ability to use it as it's intended with no to little restrictions, as a world wide known brand for trusted payments and credit card free purchases...especially with the amount of credit card fraud in this country, wouldn't you say it would be worth it introducing it? Face it. PayPal is the big guy, everyone knows them and most people (especially if you freelance) overseas use them to make payments. You name it, someone is PayPal'ing it.

Just because a tribe in the middle of a lost amazon somewhere has never tasted Coke, doesn't mean there won't be any demand. Stupid analogy, but South Africa is BEHIND in the world. If PayPal opens up so many more business can do business internationally. Same thing can happen if our communications costs plummets, SA is perfect location for call centers. But anyway... what I'm getting at is, just because there is no demand doesn't mean there won't be.
 
AcidRaZor said:
Volume of sales from SA PayPal users are small because most can't use it for what we need it for. So when (if) you have the ability to use it as it's intended with no to little restrictions, as a world wide known brand for trusted payments and credit card free purchases...especially with the amount of credit card fraud in this country, wouldn't you say it would be worth it introducing it? Face it. PayPal is the big guy, everyone knows them and most people (especially if you freelance) overseas use them to make payments. You name it, someone is PayPal'ing it.
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Volume is small in SA for B&M sales. Look we don't have much to offer in SA. We don't manufacture much. You could sell gold - or jewellery but I find cheaper jewellery in Dubai and Asia.
We could sell wine but while our wine is cheap and good - Australian, French, Californian, South American, Bulgarian etc wine is also good and more well known and in some cases cheaper (closer).

Just because a tribe in the middle of a lost amazon somewhere has never tasted Coke, doesn't mean there won't be any demand. Stupid analogy, but South Africa is BEHIND in the world. If PayPal opens up so many more business can do business internationally. Same thing can happen if our communications costs plummets, SA is perfect location for call centers. But anyway... what I'm getting at is, just because there is no demand doesn't mean there won't be
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PayPal will not make a big profit from SA. Again we don't make much. Secondly, we have a tiny percentage of people being able to do business. PayPal is not a serious solution,
big sites like Kalahari and Take2 (not that big a site either) already process CCs. They don't seem to do much foreign business in sales overseas. PayPal is for the little guy but I can tell you
that PayPal will not accept a percentage cut to go through the trouble of dealing with 4 million people (we're 4 million middle class here) when Australia has 20+ million and USA has 200+ million internet users with money. Also FNB will want a cut. FNB won't do this for free, you know. In SA we also get charged to keep money in banks, unlike 1st world countries.

Look receiving money by PayPal is nice, just don't expect it to be a big boost to the economy. Also first sign of trouble, and PayPal will empty out your account, close it with no recourse for you.
 
PeterCH said:
Volume is small in SA for B&M sales. Look we don't have much to offer in SA. We don't manufacture much. You could sell gold - or jewellery but I find cheaper jewellery in Dubai and Asia.
We could sell wine but while our wine is cheap and good - Australian, French, Californian, South American, Bulgarian etc wine is also good and more well known and in some cases cheaper (closer).



PayPal will not make a big profit from SA. Again we don't make much. Secondly, we have a tiny percentage of people being able to do business. PayPal is not a serious solution,
big sites like Kalahari and Take2 (not that big a site either) already process CCs. They don't seem to do much foreign business in sales overseas. PayPal is for the little guy but I can tell you
that PayPal will not accept a percentage cut to go through the trouble of dealing with 4 million people (we're 4 million middle class here) when Australia has 20+ million and USA has 200+ million internet users with money. Also FNB will want a cut. FNB won't do this for free, you know. In SA we also get charged to keep money in banks, unlike 1st world countries.

Look receiving money by PayPal is nice, just don't expect it to be a big boost to the economy. Also first sign of trouble, and PayPal will empty out your account, close it with no recourse for you.
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We don't manufacture much?

Here's the pulse ---> The Pulse






























Here's PeterCH --> NO WHERE NEAR THE PULSE
 
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