PayPal is one of the most commonly used payment methods available across the world. PayPal started as a payment method for the eBay marketplace and evolved to be the #1 payment choice for customers and retailers around the world. In this article, we’re discussing using PayPal in Egypt and how to withdraw money.
In 2014, PayPal has been made available to be used for Egyptian residents. It’s now available to sell your products and services around the world. You can also use PayPal to send/receive money to your friends and family around the world with ease.
To be more specific, PayPal is considered to be an electronic wallet on the internet. You can sync your credibt/debiut card to your PayPal account once, then you will be able to use your PayPal account to make payments, send money, and receive transfers instantly.
What makes PayPal very unique is that it is available across many countries around the world. Alot of people and businesses are using it on a daily basis.
If you’re a freelancer on platforms like; UpWork, Freelancer, Fiverr, or any other similar platform. You are able to receive and withdraw money to your local bank account using PayPal. Most of these online marketplaces are preferring PayPal as a trusted withdrawal method for your funds.
PayPal Balance Payments
Honestly, PayPal is a great addition to the online communities in Egypt. While it’s made available for Egyptian citizens to use it, PayPal in Egypt comes with a few restrictions though!
Unfortunately, you can use your PayPal balance to make purchases online. Let’s say you have a balance of $100 USD on your PayPal account, you can only withdraw this balance to your bank account. Then, use your credit/debit card (associated with this bank) to make the payment through PayPal.
In a nutshell, PayPal won’t deduct from your balance for your online payments. It will charge your credit/debit card even if you have an active PayPal balance.
Local Bank Withdrawals
Another restriction for PayPal Egyptian users is that you’re not able to directly make withdrawals from your PayPal balance to your local bank account in Egypt.
To make it possible; you need to use a US-Based Bank account which is even harder! A great turnaround for this issue is using Payoneer.com. We will talk more about it in a few seconds below.
These are two restrictions for PayPal Egyptian users; Local bank withdrawals, and using the PayPal balance for purchases. Other than that, you’re able to use the full potential of a PayPal account with all the same benefits easily from your account’s dashboard.
The Amazing PayPal.me
Actually, this is one of the most amazing features shipped with a PayPal account today. By using PayPal.me service, you’re able to create a direct link for your customers/clients to pay you directly.
A link that looks like this: https://paypal.me/user/amount
In this link, you define your username and the amount you want to be paid and received on your PayPal account. Send this link to your clients and they will be able to do payments with a click of a button (after signing in to their PayPal accounts to make payments from).
This feature is very promising and amazing for freelancers and local service providers. It offers a lot of convenience to payers and money receivers. I think it also could be improved with more and more potential in the future for even faster payments/transactions.
VISA Card Withdrawals
Until very recently, you were able to use a VISA credit/prepaid card to withdraw your PayPal balance easily to your locally issued VISA card. And it had to be a VISA, not a Mastercard or any other type of card.
While there are users who still use this method until right today to withdraw money to their local banks, I couldn’t use it anymore. We’ve used to use a VISA credit card issued from the National Bank of Egypt. But it’s not working anymore the same way it used to work earlier.
Still, users report successful withdrawals using the following cards:
– EasyPay PrePaid Card (Issued by Post Office)
– QNB VISA Debit/Credit Card
The other available method to withdraw your balance is a US-based Bank Account. It may not be available for many users to open a US-based Bank account. But, you still can do that using Payoneer.com.
Using Payoneer with PayPal in Egypt
That’s a very successful method to withdraw your PayPal funds to a local bank in Egypt. We’ve been using the same process to make withdrawals with success. Simply, Payoneers provide you with a virtual US-Based bank account that you can use with PayPal for withdrawals.
You still will need to open a Payoneer account from this link. Once done, you’ll be given the options for multiple virtual bank accounts across the world; USD, EURO, GBP, and JPY local bank accounts.
You can simply use these virtual bank accounts to sync with any other service or marketplace you’re receiving funds from. For example, PayPal Egypt can use your Payoneer’s USD bank account to send your money to. Yes, it’s that simple.
Payoneer will provide you all the needed details for a full US-Based bank account such as; Bank name, address, routing number, account number, and account type. All you need is to enter this information on the PayPal bank withdrawal details and your account is synced for seamless withdrawals.
Conclusion
That was a very quick article about how to use your PayPal account in Egypt to withdraw your earnings to a local bank account using the Payoneer solution. Payoneer actually provides one-of-a-kind great service with awesome customer support.
Also, you can use the VISA card withdrawal method directly to your local bank account in Egypt. While this works for many other users, it stopped working for us as well as some other users too. Yet, it’s still an option for you to give it a try and find out about it.
Please feel free to contact them directly for any questions or inquiries you might have. Or feel free to leave your comment below for further assistance. Thank you for reading 🙂
How can someone in Cairo send money
This was very helpful, thank you very much !
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