myRunner: Finally a place I can withdraw my PayPal balance

Zimbabwe is just a place that poses its own unique set of challenges especially when it comes to payments. We are either barred from using certain platforms because of sanctions or our financial systems just do not have support for some of the more convenient payment platforms that exist.

Recently I had an emergency requiring me to withdraw my PayPal funds and the usual way of going about it was just asking in my circles if anyone had cash and needed PayPal. Usually, this worked without much effort but on that fateful day, nobody was able to assist.

Then one friend of mine told me about this company called myRunner saying it does offer shopping services for people wishing to buy goods from South Africa. And that they also accept PayPal as a form of payment. So I reached out. Promptly.

myRunner. What is it?

When they started off, myRunner was an online bus booking company that allowed you to also track your bus and rate the bus service making it easier to know the quality and reliability of 3rd party buses before using them. In 2018 they were nominated for the Southern Africa startup awards amongst 2 other startups.

From there they diversified into remittances allowing sending of goods and money to and from South Africa. The service was further expanded to Zambia and now has grown to have a presence in 50 countries. And they did not stop there. They also introduced PayPal deposits and withdrawals earlier this year and the process is really simple.

That PayPal balance you’ve been meaning to cash out, come through to myRunner & we will gladly assist you. Get in touch right away.

myRunner Facebook post

How do you do it?

Their services are WhatsApp based. No app or functional website really. So you reach out to them via their WhatsApp number and you make your request of how much you intend on depositing or withdrawing. In my case, it was a withdrawal.

A PayPal link was sent to me via WhatsApp with an accompanying message to visit any of their physical outlets. The closest one to me at that point was their 5th street branch opposite Roadport in Harare. Their agent requested the amount (US$30) and my ID as well as a US$5 service charge for the withdrawal. So in total, it cost me US$5 to withdraw US$30.

Once payment is made, you send them a screenshot of the proof of payment and as soon as the payment reflects on their end they proceed to hand you the cash. All in all the entire process took around 5 minutes.

Charges

myRunner has a minimum fee of US$5 if the transaction is less than US$50 and 5-10% of the transaction value for amounts greater than US$50. However, it is only this straightforward if your PayPal account is a customer account and not a merchant and also if it is a US dollar account.

For accounts that use other currencies, there may be some currency conversion charges on top of the standard transaction fees driving the cost of the transaction up. These are charges within PayPal and not myRunner. PayPal will notify you if the account you are sending money to is using a different currency to your account. It will even show you how much they will receive after factoring in all the charges and you can take a look at those charges by clicking here. If you want to try out their service you can reach out to them on WhatsApp by clicking here and for those in Harare here.

Also read:

• Three Local Start-ups To Represent Zimbabwe At This Year’s Southern Africa Start-up Awards
• You can now receive PayPal transfers directly into an EcoCash USD wallet
• PayPal confirms merchant wallets for Zim but withdrawals are still complicated