Equity, Safaricom entice PayPal customers with faster cash transfers
Paypal users are mainly merchants on eBay or freelancers mainly doing online jobs from major sites across the world. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
Equity Bank customers can now cash their PayPal accounts in three days from the earlier transaction period of eight days.
Safaricom clients will also benefit from the “Xoom” service by Paypal, which enables them to access money from their mobile phones.
Equity Bank and Safaricom, Kenya’s largest lender and telco respectively, are seeking to woo PayPal customers with the signing of new deals meant to make transfer of funds to their accounts faster and easier.
The agreement signed by Equity Bank means customers can now cash their PayPal accounts in three days from the earlier transaction period of eight days.
Paypal users are mainly merchants on eBay or freelancers mainly doing online jobs from major sites across the world.
“We have worked closely with Equity Bank to make a few changes towards a faster and simpler withdrawal service for you. The outcome is that now the money you withdraw from your PayPal account will reach your Equity Bank account in just three business days instead of eight,” says a statement sent to PayPal customers in Kenya.
Safaricom clients will also benefit from the “Xoom” service by Paypal, which enables them to access money from their mobile phones.
The Xoom service enables people living in America to send money to their kin in Kenya.
Previously, money sent to Kenya from the diaspora came via remittance companies like Moneygram, Western Union and WorldRemit services that are hard to access for people living in rural areas. The new service will enable easier and faster transfers.
PayPal acquired Xoom late last year as it moved to make financial services, “easier, safer and less expensive. Xoom has so far expanded its service to Africa by enabling people residing in the United States to send money to family and friends with an M-Pesa account in Kenya.
“Xoom, a PayPal service, recently launched in Kenya. Xoom users are now able to send money directly to anyone with an M-Pesa account in Kenya,” said Karla Enriquez, a Paypal official.
Equity Bank inked the first deal with PayPal in late 2013 as the lender sought to grow revenues from the heightened uptake of electronic commerce.
The partnership with the payments services arm of eBay then allowed traders in Kenya to buy and sell products and services at the online marketplace and receive payments through their bank accounts linked to PayPal.
Over time. Paypal services at Equity bank have grown to include withdrawal services where any local users can withdraw money paid into their Paypal accounts. It has a transaction limit of Sh1 million ($10,000).
Equity Bank is seeking to exploit PayPal’s global reach to tap into its customer base of more than 188 million users based in over 193 markets around the world.
Currently, the average cost of sending money from the UK for example is 6.6 per cent of the amount.
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