Comprehensive steps of PayPal to Equity Bank Withdrawal

Many people have been asking me how I get money from faraway lands like India and Australia. Therefore, today I decided to write a comprehensive tutorial touching on the same. I hope that this will guide any newbie out there willing to venture into the unpredictable world of freelancing on the internet. In addition, may be you want to do as a part time job to test the ‘sweet’ waters and be your own boss (somehow). 

 

 Opening a bank account

First, you open a bank account ordinarily with you details. These details include your legal names as they appear on your national ID and the address of your residence. If you do not have an address, look for any post office number within your area. Omit the words ‘’P. O. Box’’ and just write the numbers. That is what I used and it worked.

Not just any account qualifies for PayPal cash; you need to specify that it is a transactional account. The other thing is to pay for a VISA card, which expires in about three years. Therefore, you will need to replace the card when it expires. Equity Bank charges around KES 600 for the card, but that is not the end of the story. Remember you have two accounts to deal with. One online (PayPal) and the other can also be online or offline – your bank account.

Opening a Kenyan PayPal account

On that note, PayPal charges around KES 300 for verification. They have to verify your identity because they are in another continent and, therefore cannot see you face-to-face. This process usually takes two weeks at the time of writing this tutorial. May be these days they are quicker. This adds up to KES 900 sitting in your newly opened bank account. We have not opened a PayPal one yet. Thus, following this tutorial, head over to PayPal and fill your details; these details including your email address and physical address have to be the same as the ones used when dealing with Equity Bank.

Linking PayPal to Equity Bank

Now that you have opened both accounts successfully, ask the bank for a bank statement after about a week. In this statement, there is a four-digit code from PayPal due to the verification charges. Search for it and then enter it in you PayPal account, on the page that asks for the verification code. At that point, you are ready to smile all the way to the bank and withdraw your earnings. If there is a dollar balance in your PayPal account that someone in another country sent you or earnings from freelancing. The local withdrawal has to be in USD. Moreover, you have to register on the self service portal of Equity bank, you can do so here.

Conclusions

The withdrawal process in equity bank used to be eight days when the South Africans were acting as intermediaries. Equity Bank eliminated them and now it is just three days, or 72 hours from the time of hitting the ‘Withdraw’ button on the Equity Bank website. The website is also known as the portal for those who don't know the terms. Overall, it is better to use only ONE device for banking, if it's the laptop then let it be only the laptop. Otherwise the Equity Bank system will think you are a fraudster and cause unnecessary errors.

Although there are other people who pose as agents of PayPal, they charge a lot of money in addition to low rates compared to Equity Bank. Therefore, I prefer the local bank simply because these ‘agents’ are exploitative in nature and you may not get the anticipated full amount.

 

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