Malcolm Online

When PayPal began to allow Malaysians to withdraw PayPal funds back in early October 2007, the currency withdrawn to our Visa Debit Card or Credit Card was as it is. For example, if our PayPal balance to be withdrawn was in USD, that was the same exact currency and amount withdrawn to our Visa cards after deducting USD 5 per transaction. Visa does the currency conversion from USD to Ringgit Malaysia upon deposit.

Now, compare the 2 screen shots below.

Figure 1: PayPal funds withdrawal to Visa Electron in October 2007

The screen shot above was taken during my first withdrawal in early October 2007.  In the screen shot below taken today, it stated the funds will be withdrawn in MYR (Malaysian Ringgit or Ringgit Malaysia). Notice the difference between the two?

Figure 2: PayPal Converts USD to RM First Before Transfer to Visa Electron

This means PayPal is not giving Visa any chance to earn from currency conversion! Many have complained the conversion rates offered by PayPal are lower than retail rates. But I guess we have to bear with PayPal for now.

Tags: PayPal by malcolm
12 Comments »

Help! My PayPal account has been suspended! Just kidding :)

Just awhile ago, my blog reader by the name of Yap sent the following comment asking for help.

I recently withdraw funds from my Paypal account to debit card.
Transaction went smoothly the first 2 times.
The third time has been 8 business days but i still don’t see any funds deposited into my card.

What should i do? I have email Paypal customer center several times, no reply received.

Don’t be too worried Yap. [Read more →]

Tags: PayPal by malcolm
23 Comments »

I received a question from Stary a short while ago.

I just received a payment in USD from France in my Premier Paypal acc & Paypal charged me a fee of 3.9% + USD0.30. Isn’t the usual fee 3.4% + USD0.30?

I apologize for the confusion. In my previous post on “Which PayPal Account Should I Signed Up For?“, I did not elaborate on types of transaction fees. There are 2 types of PayPal transaction fees namely domestic transaction fees and cross border transaction fees. [Read more →]

Tags: PayPal by malcolm
8 Comments »

Very often, friends and customers ask which PayPal account they should sign up for when PayPal display 3 choices of PayPal accounts. Many online sellers are concern about the transaction fees charged  by PayPal when they receive online payments. A quick answer to that is to register for Premier or Business account to enjoy lower transaction fees.

Types of PayPal Accounts
There are 3 types of PayPal accounts which you can sign up online. Each has its own transaction fees, features and functionality. They are:

a) Personal
b) Premier
c) Business

A Personal account is mainly used by individuals [Read more →]

Tags: PayPal by malcolm
16 Comments »

Around June 2008, Maybank is scheduled to enable online transactions for their Visa Debit card. I am keeping my fingers crossed after receiving the following email from Maybank.

At present, we don’t allow e-commerce transaction for Visa Debit. This facility will be introduced in the near future. We are targeting June 2008, to enable the e-commerce acceptance for Visa Debit.

Update - 12 July 2009
I have managed to register Maybank Visa Debit card for online transactions and added the card to PayPal.

Tags: Debit Cards, PayPal by malcolm
47 Comments »