It is a digital world, where most of the young people are doing gigs online for clients who in turn pay for services. While getting payments from within the country and maybe East Africa is easier thanks to mobile banking, doing it beyond borders means a lot of paperwork, bank accounts and stuff. But technology has stepped in and now, there are online platforms where you can exchange money. Check out the following payment platforms:
- Paypal
This is the most popular and widely used money transfer platform digitally. Paypal was started in 1998 to provide fund transfers for Palm Pilot users but over the period it ventured into worldwide money transfer. Getting a Paypal account is quite easy, as all you need is a working email address and a debit card. Once the money is sent to your Paypal account, only you have the login details to your account hence you can withdraw or transact using that money at your own pleasure. In Kenya, you can withdraw your money from Paypal through Equity Bank, a process that will take about 3 days. You can also do a withdraw from M-Pesa. Here are the steps to do some.
- Go to your primary PayPal Account’s email address.
- Log in and click to agree to the privacy policy.
- Key in your phone number that is registered for M-Pesa and accept the terms and conditions.
- You will get a 4-digit confirmation code from Safaricom to the mobile number associated with your M-PESA account, enter this number and click to confirm.
Now you do not even have to go to the Paypal website to do your M-PESA transactions, you can do it straight from your super Mpesa App. Find more here. The New M-PESA Super App Has Amazing New Features & Here Is What You Need To Know
Apart from the bank, Payoneer also used to work, then ePay Kenya. The latter is the best as it is trustworthy, fast and sends money to your mobile banking account (Mpesa, Airtel Money) almost an hour after requesting. The only undoing is the high commissions that you will have to pay, by paying ePay and your mobile banking service provider. Also, for the first month, you can withdraw a maximum of 500 USD, which is a bit limiting.
- Skrill
Once you have money in your Skrill account, you can easily withdraw it in a number of ways. You can use a Payoneer account (will look at Payoneer later) or send the money to your bank account at a cost of Kshs 600. To use Skrill smoothly you need an updated profile on the account with your bank account details. Your local bank should provide you with SWIFT codes that you will need to set this up. You can also use Mpesa to withdraw cash from Skrill, simply by adding your phone number to the ‘Mobile Wallets’ section. If you send it to your bank account, then you can withdraw using your ATM at any time.
- Payoneer
This is the most preferred digital money transfer by most freelance sites. There are two ways you can load your Payoneer account for a withdrawal, immediate load, and Standard load. Immediater load is as the name suggests, immediate. This is fast but also costs more while the standard is cheap or even free, however, takes longer to get the money, as long as two days. Once your Payoneer account is loaded with cash, you can always withdraw it at any outlet, Barclays, KCB, CFC, and PesaPoint.
Payoneer’s Global Payment Service is also great as it can work on any of the above accounts. If you are using Paypal or Skrill, you are given an account number which you will fill in these accounts’ withdrawal pages. It has very low commissions and you can use it to buy stuff online. This method is however not available anymore, with the latest users being those who signed up for it in 2014.
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