Every now and again, we receive a question from readers asking us if they can receive money in the Zimbabwean PayPal accounts.
The answer right now (October 2018) is that you cannot. PayPal hasn’t yet opened this functionality for their Zimbabwean subscribers.
How to Check?
In case you’re reading this article sometime well after October 2018, here’s how you can check for yourself:
- Go to this link: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-country-functionality-outside
- Click on the drop-down box and select Zimbabwe
- The page will reload and show you if you can:
- Send Money from Zimbabwe (and from which cards)
- Receive Money to Zimbabwean PayPal accounts
- Withdraw your money and the methods supported (USD Bank Account, Check, Local Currency Bank Account etc…)
Right now Zimbabwe shows the following:
while Mozambique where subscribers can receive money, for example, shows the following:
In fact, you can pretty much check any country you want. So far countries in SADC where PayPal subscribers are able to receive money are:
- Botswana
- Lesotho
- Malawi
- Mauritius
- Mozambique
- Seychelles
- South Africa
The following SADC countries can all send but cannot receive payments: Angola, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Swaziland and Tanzania.
What are the local alternatives?
There are of course great local companies that have made it possible to receive payments from the world while you’re in Zimbabwe. One such example is Paynow. You can easily set up a Paynow account and be able to receive payments from outside Zimbabwe (VISA, and Mastercard). You will just need to remember to link Paynow into an FCA bank account so that you don’t receive those funds into a Bond Note account.
What’s more? With Paynow, you can even receive payment from local customers paying with EcoCash, Telecash and ZimSwitch.
9 comments
Exactly my situation right now, have monies stuck in paypal only way to withdraw is through SA fnb account only which partnered with paypal.
l wonder how netone and Telecel feels about this ,knowing that they have Nettcash and Telecash respectively….
Quite informative though not many Zimbos have FCA Bank accounts ,and as of now its a challenge to have one ?
Please double check with Paynow on whether having a FCA account works now. I have a Shopify site and was told by RBZ (about a month ago) that I cannot get my export incentive or use my forex that I receive in payment because it goes through too many hands. So in fact exporting using Paynow will not help your company with it’s Forex needs.
Use 2checkout and Payoneer
Hey team what would be the best payment solution to integrate for accepting payments from way across the whole of southern africa. Does M-Pesa work in Zim, Zambia, Moza and SA?
No Mpesa does not work in the countries you mentioned.
Use payoneer guys kupedza nyaya iyi. And get a payoneer debit card for trabsacting if need be. Payoneer can also be linked to FCA bank accounts. I have an australian bank account because i was overseas some time back december 2016 when i returned to zim i kept it. So anyone who wants to pay me from overseas i try and use Payoneer, Or Stripe, Or Skrill lol and then withdraw funds to my Aus account, Card or other FCA zim account. But sadly i only bring it to Zimbabwe if i want to use it right away or pay someone or for something in forex lol Zim system is unreliable. You can be told you can have access to that money.
The Seychelles? You put it on both lists, which list does it really belong?