We received a very important email today from Carolyn, our account rep at PayPal with some information that we are passing along. Due to Indian regulatory restrictions, PayPal will not be able to allow electronic withdrawl after July 29th. See below for full information, and continue reading below for a helpful workaround to this issue from Payoneer.
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Hello Zoe,
Good morning.
I wanted to make sure you aware of a notification that was sent yesterday to customer’s in India. I have included the notification below.
In accordance with regulatory instructions, we would like to notify you about a change in our withdrawal functionality in India starting on August 1, 2010. At present you can request for either an electronic or cheque withdrawal of funds from your PayPal account if you are an India user.
From July 29, 2010 onwards, you will only be able to request for a cheque withdrawal of funds from your PayPal account.
While we are working hard to restore the electronic withdrawal service, in the meantime, we are bringing this matter to your attention so that you can plan your future withdrawal activities accordingly.
To request for a cheque withdrawal:
1. Log into your PayPal account, click on 'Withdraw'.
2. Click on the 'Request a cheque from PayPal' link.
3. Enter the withdrawal amount and select your mailing address, then click 'Continue'.
4. Click 'Submit' to confirm your request.
In order to help you with this change and until further notice, we will refund the $5 USD cheque withdrawal fee to you for cheque withdrawals made on July 29, 2010 onwards.
For any questions, please log into your PayPal account and click 'Contact Us' at the bottom of the page.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused from this change in our withdrawal functionality. We will provide ongoing updates to you here. We thank you for your attention and patience as we work tirelessly to resolve this situation as quickly as possible.
Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this change.
Sincerely,
Carolyn Anderson / Merchant Account Manager
direct 866-923-3778 / cell 402.960.9871
fax 303.395.2821
office hours 7:30 AM - 4:00 PM CST Monday - Friday
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However there is some positive news as well. We worked with Payoneer in an effort to help our Indian workers access their earnings as quickly and smoothly as possible.
Payoneer is presenting a special offer to all vWorker Indian providers:
Sign up for a Vworker debit MasterCard by August 31st and Payoneer will expedite your card shipment at no cost. This will allow you to have your card in hand within two weeks from card approval.
The Payoneer card offers some unique benefits:
• Accepted at all MasterCard points of sale, ATMs and online
• Access to your money within two hours
• Offers maximum flexibility and liquidity
• Funds are MC secured against unauthorized transactions and FDIC insured
• Does not require bank account, or any credit checks
To signup, go to vWorker.com, click on 'my account', 'my registration setting', 'my pay options' and choose Payoneer, and then follow the prompts. Make sure to do so as soon as possible as it takes time for the card to be mailed to you.
If you have any questions about Payoneer, you can contact them at: http://www.payoneer.com/contactUs.aspx
If you have any questionst about PayPal, you can contact them at: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/helpscr?cmd=_help&t=escalateTab
Ian Ippolito
CEO vWorker.com
Update August 5th 2010:
Great news: I received this from PayPal.
Hi Ian,
Good morning.
I have received an update regarding withdrawals to India. At this time, PayPal has been given approval by regulators to continue transfers to banks in India. We will continue to work to ensure that this functionality continues. However, as we have seen in the past, this could change at anytime depending on decisions made by the regulators. We will provide as much notice as possible if this situation arises. However, at this time, we do not have plans to remove the ability for Indian customer to transfer funds to their bank account.
I wish I could provide you with a more definitive answer, but this appears to be the best we can hope for at this time.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Carolyn Anderson / PayPal Merchant Account Manager
