Can You Receive Money Into A Zimbabwean PayPal Account?

Every now and again, we receive a question from readers asking us if they can receive money in the Zimbabwean PayPal accounts.

The answer right now (October 2018) is that you cannot. PayPal hasn’t yet opened this functionality for their Zimbabwean subscribers.

How to Check?

In case you’re reading this article sometime well after October 2018, here’s how you can check for yourself:

1. Go to this link: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-country-functionality-outside
2. Click on the drop-down box and select Zimbabwe
3. The page will reload and show you if you can:
   • Send Money from Zimbabwe (and from which cards)
   • Receive Money to Zimbabwean PayPal accounts
   • Withdraw your money and the methods supported (USD Bank Account, Check, Local Currency Bank Account etc…)

   Right now Zimbabwe shows the following:
   
   while Mozambique where subscribers can receive money, for example, shows the following:

   

In fact, you can pretty much check any country you want. So far countries in SADC where PayPal subscribers are able to receive money are:

• Botswana
• Lesotho
• Malawi
• Mauritius
• Mozambique
• Seychelles
• South Africa

The following SADC countries can all send but can’t receive: Angola, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Seychelles.

What are the local alternatives?

There are of course great local companies that have made it possible to receive payments from the world while you’re in Zimbabwe. One such example is Paynow. You can easily set up a Paynow account and be able to receive payments from outside Zimbabwe (VISA, and Mastercard). You will just need to remember to link Paynow into an FCA bank account so that you don’t receive those funds into a Bond Note account.

What’s more? With Paynow, you can even receive payment from local customers paying with EcoCash, Telecash and ZimSwitch.

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