It’s Anuj from the comms team here again.
Following on from my blog post on Saturday, I’ve received a number of questions about the situation in India and I thought it’d be best to simply answer the questions in a blog post.
Here are answers to the top questions I’ve received:
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.
Anuj
source :- https://www.thepaypalblog.com/
Indian users of online money transfer service PayPal face a long wait after the firm abruptly suspended personal payments because of regulatory issues.
ReplyDeleteLast month's move followed questions from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) about whether PayPal complies with laws on cross-border money transfers.
Neither PayPal, which is based in the US, nor the RBI was able to say when the issue might be resolved.
The affair has left many Indian users of PayPal frustrated.
'Fast-growing market'
PayPal says in its blog that its personal payment service for India would be suspended "for at least a few months".
The company could not give figures for the size of its business in India, which is believed to be relatively small. However, PayPal spokesman Anuj Nayar told the BBC that India was a "fast-growing market".
The problem is over the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, which came into effect in India in August 2008.
The RBI says that under this act, any money transfer scheme has to be authorised by the Indian authorities, which PayPal is not.
The RBI would not give details of its discussions with PayPal, but says it has sent the company some questions to respond to. Government sources in India have said they believe PayPal was aware of the implications the change of legislation would have for its business.
The stumbling block is whether PayPal personal payments - as opposed to commercial transactions - amount to cash remittances. PayPal says it only operates online and it is up to users to get money from their PayPal account to a bank account to encash it.
Some Indian PayPal users are small businesses for whom the system is a quick and effective way to transfer funds.
Angry posts on social networking sites have complained about money being lost because of transaction fees, and of not being able to transfer funds to local banks once the PayPal service was suspended.
PayPal has pledged to sort out these problems and some PayPal users seemed to blame Indian bureaucracy as much as anything else. "Always wonder why regulators in India are keen on blocking stuff," commented one Twitter user.
Hi. My name is Farhad Irani and I lead the PayPal business in Asia Pacific. As the leader of PayPal’s business in the region and as a fellow Indian, I want you to know that we are sparing no effort in ensuring that the present day inconvenience in not being able to process the bank withdrawal functionality in India for sellers is quickly and completely addressed. This is the single most important item for me and my management team. My sincere apologies for the inconvenience you must be facing.
ReplyDeleteI’d like to let everyone know that I’m personally committed to working closely and tirelessly with the Reserve Bank of India to get a fast resolution to this issue, so that we can continue to help the thousands of Indian businesses who use PayPal to sell their goods or services in the global marketplace. India is a very special market for me and your continued success is very precious to us.
We were hoping that our merchant customers would be able to start withdrawing their funds at their local bank by today, but it looks like this will still take some more time. I understand your frustration and want to let you know that we are doing everything we can to free your funds.
It has always been possible for sellers to request a check or withdraw funds to a credit card, and these options are still available from the Withdraw Money tab of your PayPal account. If you don’t have a credit card attached to your PayPal account now, you can add one under the Profile section of your PayPal account. Before asking for a credit card withdrawal, please check with your card issuing bank to ensure that they can process it.
It usually takes five to seven working days for you to receive a check when you request a check withdrawal and PayPal normally charges a five USD fee. We are trying our best to help sellers during this difficult time and therefore will refund the check withdrawal fee back to your PayPal account within a week. I appreciate that this is not ideal, but please bear with us.
I’d like to let you know that I’m listening to your concerns. This is my direct PayPal email address: Farhad@paypal.com. Feel free to send me an email.
Farhad
It is confirmed now that we can withdraw money via paypal check and moreover they will return back your $5 fee
ReplyDelete