Vansibel

In a previous post I discussed various options that people use to send money and remittances to their family. The primary method that is used is Western Union, though more and more people have been considering Paypal due to their extensive advertising campaigns attempting to become a popular choice for remittences.

When you send money through Paypal, Paypal reviews the transaction to determine whether or not they think that its legitimate. If its going to an old account that has been around for years, in most cases they assume its good and let it go through. However, if the recipient is a new user, they often place excessive holds on the funds, resulting in huge delays. The average delay is 180 days, because Paypal feels that 6 months is an appropriate amount of time for people to wait.

Is it an appropriate amount of time to wait? Of course not. If your relatives are expecting to receive a payment, they don’t expect to wait 6 months for it, while still paying Paypal’s ridiculous fees. Whats worse, Paypal often then makes ridiculous demands for ID and other personal information. If you fail to provide that information within a few days, they permanently freeze your account and seize your funds.

To read more about how Paypal scams their customers, I recommend reading an excellent post on a blog that we frequently read: http://prevent-id-theft.org/?p=59

So before you consider using Paypal to send funds to family or friends, be sure that you’re aware that they’ll likely never receive them!