PayPal payment system in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus: reviews

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Electronic payment terminals over the past few years have become widespread throughout the world. But not all of them are as popular as the PayPal payment system. What it is, you will learn from this article.

At a Glance

PayPal payment system was organized in 1999 by a resident of Kyivian, Max Levchim, who emigrated to the United States. This is a method of making electronic payments, with which you can transfer funds to other accounts, pay for goods and services on the Internet, and withdraw money to your bank account. The system also provides a number of additional services: from replenishing a mobile phone account to creating a virtual terminal on the site. Today, it has 164 million users worldwide, which are successfully served in 200 branches and can convert electronic money into 26 different currencies.

Opening an account and linking a card

Registration in the system is free. First, the user needs to select one of three types of accounts: "Personal", "Premium" or"Business". The purpose of each is clear from the name. Through the "Personal account" individuals can pay for their purchases in online stores. "Premium" is recommended for sellers with low turnover to receive payment for goods. The "Business" account offers great opportunities for large companies. For registration, individuals need to provide their e-mail, password, citizenship, address and phone number, and legal entities - company data.

The next step is to attach a Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express credit card to your account. During this procedure, $1.95 will be deducted from the account, and three days after checking for the relevance of the cardholder and user data, the money will be returned to the account. During the operation, the system generates a special code that will need to be entered into the account profile. After three unsuccessful attempts, the card will be rejected. To re-bind the card to the account, you will have to contact the site administration. After registration, users will have access to the services of the service. The functionality of the system is different for each country.

PayPal in Russia: development prospects and challenges

PayPal payment system in Russia since September 17, 2013 began to work with rubles. Now, when paying for purchases in an online store through PayPal, Russians only need to indicate the account number and choose the option to debit funds: from a card or from a virtual account. Users can conduct transactions between accounts and withdraw Russian currency to the card of any local bank. Now it's up to Russian shops. The faster they connect this service to their sites, the more transactions will go through PayPal. Representatives of the company are already negotiating with several large Russian online stores on the implementation of the system.

But users still have problems. Perhaps the only service where the security service quickly responds to a message about an erroneous transfer is the PayPal payment system. User reviews confirm this. There are even detailed instructions on the Internet on how to attach a card for withdrawing funds. It is very important to indicate the BIC of the regional bank during the card linking procedure. The user receives further guidance to action by e-mail.

PayPal payment system is primarily an opportunity to make electronic payments. Although the site administration is taking every step to improve the security of transfers, there are still complaints about unauthorized access to the account. There are complaints that some time after the purchase, SMS from the bank begins to arrive with information about the withdrawal of funds from the card that was connected to the virtual account. In such cases, it is recommended to immediately open a dispute marked unauthorized transaction. PayPal's security team responds quickly to messages of this kind.

Belarus – a new market segment

17.06.2014 added to the listservice countries. The PayPal payment system in Belarus now allows users to make payments not only through bank cards linked to the account, but also through electronic money in the account. Legal entities will be able to use electronic money as soon as any Belarusian bank assumes obligations to repay electronic money issued by PayPal.

How to avoid becoming a victim of scammers

Not only account holders, but also scammers were delighted with this news. They sent out an e-mail message, ostensibly on behalf of the PayPal administration, demanding that they immediately update the data in the payment system. When clicking on the link from the letter and entering their data, the user automatically lost access to the account and money. In order not to fall for such tricks, you need to carefully look at the sender's address. The service's security email ends with "@paypal.com".

In the meantime, users are actively discussing the issue of how to link MTBank and BPSsberbank cards to an account in the system. There are only two options: wait until the bank activates this option, or use a Russian account. Until recently, virtual account holders from Belarus indicated Russia as their country of origin in their accounts.

What can Ukrainians expect

PayPal payment system in Ukraine has a number of limitations. The most important of them is that Ukrainians cannot withdraw money to their bank card. The fact is that the service has not yet received a license inUkraine. According to Jonathan Romley, vice president of the Avarla campaign, which helps global brands explore the Ukrainian market, the service should not rush to launch in Ukraine. And it's not just about licensing. PrivatBank controls half of the market for such services. If he does not want to cooperate with PayPal, then the service will automatically lose a huge market share. But competition is not always an obstacle to market development. For example, in Russia, Yandex. Money did not prevent PayPal from entering the market.

Opening an account and withdrawing funds for Ukrainians

You can often find advice to open an account in the system immediately in dollars, even if you need to make a purchase in a Chinese online store. If it becomes necessary to return the money to your account, you will first have to convert it into dollars, and only then withdraw it to the card through intermediaries. Residents of Ukraine are trying to solve the problem of withdrawing funds in the same way as Belarusians once did: order a Payoneer card with an account in an American bank, but issued on a Ukrainian passport, and then link this card to a PayPal account. Those who do not want to wait 3 months for a card or risk their money in this way use the services of numerous intermediaries who convert money into WMZ - the equivalent of dollars in the Webmoney payment system.

Buy on eBay - pay with PayPal

In 2002, the payment system bought the eBay auction for $1.5 billion. Most online shoppingdone through PayPal. The commission is not charged from the buyer, and the seller will pay 2.4-3.4% + $0.3 for the transaction. But users from the CIS countries often have problems. For example, if the seller did not indicate the method of delivery of goods to a specific country (Ukraine), the terminal simply will not give the buyer the opportunity to complete the transaction. Here is an example of another situation. Often, residents of the CIS countries use intermediaries to register at the auction, which provide their services for payment and delivery of goods. In order not to pay an additional commission for a money transfer, users register on the auction site with a delivery address in the United States, and try to pay for the goods from the account of a citizen of Ukraine. The system also blocks such transactions. There are two ways out: pay a commission to the intermediary so that payments go through his account, or ask the seller to issue an invoice with delivery to Ukraine and agree to any delivery cost. The second option hits the wallet much more than the first.