Wait… PayPal’s remittance service Xoom is working in Zim?

Late last year, PayPal announced that it was launching a remittance service called Xoom. The service was aimed at underbanked in Africa and the initial rollout covered Burundi, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

So at the time (December 2020) when the service was launched the only bank that was named as pick up point was ZB Bank. Curious to know more about the Xoom, we contacted the bank to see if it was indeed true that they were a pick up point and they said they weren’t.

What we learned today is that ZB is indeed a pick up point for PayPal’s Xoom but when we asked the service might not have been operational yet on ZB Bank’s side.

So what will it cost someone in the diaspora to send money to Zimbabwe via Xoom?

We cycled through all the sums and it seems that these are the static fees from US$10 and above.

Pretty pricey all things considered because Western Union is around 4%, Mukuru charges 7%, and with Senditoo you don’t pay any fees for sending money to Zimbabwe.

However, if you want to withdraw money from your PayPal account and you don’t mind the fees then this might be a way to withdraw money in that wallet. We asked ZB Bank if this was possible and they said all that matters are the recipient’s details when you make the transfer with Xoom.

Although with the limitations to PayPal accounts in Zim I doubt anyone would want to do this. If you are moving money to your PayPal its to make a payment and since we can’t recieve money in Zim PayPal accounts… Yeah… Not worth it.

You should read

Ordinary Zimbabweans Cannot Access PayPal Because Of Sanctions – Government

This Workaround Allows You To Get A Business Paypal Account In Zimbabwe: You Shouldn’t Use It

Can You Receive Money Into A Zimbabwean PayPal Account?

Zimbabwe’s incomplete PayPal experience adds to cash crisis frustrations