PayPal will be coming to Bangladesh very soon.
Salman F Rahman, private investment and industry adviser of the Prime Minister spoke to reporters about this on his visit to the Walton factory.
After a lot of speculation, and several unsuccessful attempts, the popular online payment platform PayPal is believed to launch in Bangladesh in December by the close of this year.
At an event hosted in conjunction with in a conference organized by ICT Division in 2017, it was announced that PayPal was to be officially launched on the 19th of October the same year.
But, PayPal has subsequently disputed this claim on its website forum posting the following an answer: “PayPal is not currently available in Bangladesh and we don’t have news to share right now regarding future plans. However, Xoom, a PayPal service, has been live in Bangladesh since November 2015. Through Xoom, people in the US can send money to loved ones by depositing money to leading banks in the country”
The ICT ministry introduced Xoom which is an online system for money transfers that was bought by PayPal and is already in operation in Bangladesh since November 15, in partnership and with Social Islami Bank.
Even though PayPal is a payment via digital system with certain benefits, Xoom is a money transfer system similar to Western Union which involves bank transfers, and is more expensive.
Bangladeshi freelancers are the largest percentage of freelancers in the world, were not enthusiastic in the sense that Xoom was not able to satisfy their needs which is something PayPal is likely to have.
“Although Xoom was dubbed a alternative to PayPal however, this was not really the case, as the user is not able to use his PayPal balance to make a payment for the Xoom transaction. It is only possible to make use of PayPal’s login credentials, and, consequently your bank account debit or credit card linked to it, for transactions made through Xoom. This implies that Xoom will make use of the information of credit or debit card holders that my foreign clients don’t want to use and therefore would prefer PayPal,” explained Brohi Khondoker freelancer.
“Some jobs require the payment of in advance due to the nature of work we outsource to us, something that Xoom is not able to permit. Furthermore, Paypal is believed to be secure for freelancers and customers My clients don’t need to create an account with Xoom,” explained another freelancer.
Based on the ICT Division, there are 650,000 freelancers living in Bangladesh out of which 500,000 are currently employed.
Bangladesh is also ranked 8th in The 2019 Global Gig-Economy Index published by Payoneer.
Freelancers working in the country are earning Tk850 millions annually, as per the official figures, which rely on marketplaces like Fiverr, Upwork, etc. with the highest number of clients coming from the US that mainly prefer Paypal.
How to open a PayPal Accounts from Bangladesh and Use it Safely
There are 2 types of PayPal accounts: Individual and Business.
Here’s how to sign up for a PayPal account:
- Click Sign up for a PayPal account.
- Select the type of account you would like to create, and click Get Started.
- Enter the required information and click Continue.
- Follow the instructions to complete your account sign-up.
Once your account is ready, you can add a credit or debit card and start sending payments right away. Learn more on how PayPal works.
If you’re a seller, learn more about how to start receiving PayPal payments.
Still unsure of how to open a PayPal account? Here’s a video to help.