silver-linings
Member
Hello ladies and gents! I'm new here, and fairly new to this adulting thing as well, but today I'm going to tell you about my woes. I've been part of an online art and crafts community for years, just having fun sharing my work. I see a lot of people from all around the globe, even teenyboppers and young whippersnappers, use paypal as a means of payment/purchase. It's the most popular method. To build up my reputation and skills, I muster up the confidence to finally open commissions. People are actually interested, yay! I actually get a steady flow of customers! More yay! I idiotically think linking my capitec bank account to my paypal is all it would take to withdraw my earned funds. Sadly it seems that only US banks are an option...Which doesn't make sense considering the sheer amount of international Paypal users. 
So I trek through Google, I email paypal, I call capitec and I ask around for advice. A big step for a socially awkward turtle such as myself. What do I learn? Well, Paypel tells me not to worry! FNB allows non-customers to have an online banking profile through them! I can apparently link any other existing bank account to it, then withdraw my money easy as pie. I get the same answer from two other paypal consultants to! (Because, you know, it doesn't hurt to triple-check :crylaugh
A successful SA self-publishing author has a blog telling people about this too! The FNB site even has this option listed. What a time to be alive!
So, with the biggest grin on my face, I attempt creating an online profile through FNB's non-customer route. The form kept telling me there were "errors with my initials". I try six variations on two different browsers. Still a no-go. I decide to go to an FNB branch for help, resolved not to go through the process of opening another bank account. I'm told that using Paypal through FNB for non-customers is totally not possible, the notion is strange and all kinds of untrue.
I tell them about my searches and recommendations, but nope, unfortunately this is not allowed. Soo I relent. I say I'll make an account. Lo and behold, one does not simply make an FNB account to use paypal, it HAS to be a checkings account. Plot twist, I don't qualify for a checking account unless I make about R10 000 a month. As a fulltime uni student who makes a few hundred rands a month if I'm LUCKY: bye-bye part-time online freelance dreams.
Times a wasting and my paypal monies won't be there forever. There's a 30day deadline paypal has for funds to be withdrawn. Meanwhile I'm getting messages from potential customers, even for the handcrafted bags my sister makes. Meanwhile FNB still has paypal for non-customers listed on their website. How rigged is the system? How is it that I (along with many low-income, start-up entrepreneurs) can't possibly hope to qualify for this account? This seems unfair to anyone, even the housewife who hopes to freelance with the international market by doing hush-hush ghostwriting. Has anyone else had similar experiences with FNB? Does anyone here have any advice? Can someone tell me this entire situation is a joke and that Paypal isn't some unattainable privilege?
PS: FNB consultant was pretty nice, albeit perplexed. It's just the situation that irks me.
So I trek through Google, I email paypal, I call capitec and I ask around for advice. A big step for a socially awkward turtle such as myself. What do I learn? Well, Paypel tells me not to worry! FNB allows non-customers to have an online banking profile through them! I can apparently link any other existing bank account to it, then withdraw my money easy as pie. I get the same answer from two other paypal consultants to! (Because, you know, it doesn't hurt to triple-check :crylaugh
A successful SA self-publishing author has a blog telling people about this too! The FNB site even has this option listed. What a time to be alive!
So, with the biggest grin on my face, I attempt creating an online profile through FNB's non-customer route. The form kept telling me there were "errors with my initials". I try six variations on two different browsers. Still a no-go. I decide to go to an FNB branch for help, resolved not to go through the process of opening another bank account. I'm told that using Paypal through FNB for non-customers is totally not possible, the notion is strange and all kinds of untrue.
I tell them about my searches and recommendations, but nope, unfortunately this is not allowed. Soo I relent. I say I'll make an account. Lo and behold, one does not simply make an FNB account to use paypal, it HAS to be a checkings account. Plot twist, I don't qualify for a checking account unless I make about R10 000 a month. As a fulltime uni student who makes a few hundred rands a month if I'm LUCKY: bye-bye part-time online freelance dreams.
Times a wasting and my paypal monies won't be there forever. There's a 30day deadline paypal has for funds to be withdrawn. Meanwhile I'm getting messages from potential customers, even for the handcrafted bags my sister makes. Meanwhile FNB still has paypal for non-customers listed on their website. How rigged is the system? How is it that I (along with many low-income, start-up entrepreneurs) can't possibly hope to qualify for this account? This seems unfair to anyone, even the housewife who hopes to freelance with the international market by doing hush-hush ghostwriting. Has anyone else had similar experiences with FNB? Does anyone here have any advice? Can someone tell me this entire situation is a joke and that Paypal isn't some unattainable privilege?
PS: FNB consultant was pretty nice, albeit perplexed. It's just the situation that irks me.
