setting up PayPal accounts from South Africa

Recently @Jumper asked how to register a PayPal account for South AfricansM

To read about First National Bank bringing PayPal to South Africa and what alternatives are available read this post

While you can open a PayPal account from South Africa to pay for items, we cannot receive payments making life incredibly difficult for businesses who deal with an established online market well bred and entrenched in using PayPal as the only method of payment. PayPal usage means you don’t have to worry about divulging Financial Information over the internet amongst many other huge benefits.

The other alternative is to speak to your financial consultant about opening an offshore bank account in a place like Mauritius or UK which will then allow you to open a PayPal account with full use.

At a recent Tim Ferriss speech in Cape Town an attendee claimed he just flew to UK, walked straight into a bank with his South African passport and opened up a bank account on the spot opening the doors to a fully functional PayPal account he could run from South Africa.

So that’s a possibility there, but FNB bringing the service to us direct would still be tops.