Lat updated: April 2020
UPDATE: Withdraw Paypal Funds To Your Trinidad & Tobago Credit Card
Okay, this article is getting enormous attention of late and my inbox is being bombarded with queries and comments so I’m forced to update this article as it appears that many of you are searching for answers on PayPal and the resources out there are very thin. I’m also reasonably certain this has a lot to do with the Covid-19 pandemic and the local Stay-At-Home order which has many people looking to working and earning money from home.
For the record, my experience has been that accepting funds into your PayPal account has been spotty. It’s been working for some people and not for others. That’s one.
Two, if you are able to get funds into your PayPal account, and one reader indicated that she’s been getting regular receipts from Rakuten, some are able to withdraw their Paypal funds from to their Visa card. Here is the report from this reader:
“Just informing you that i receive us funds to my credit card at republic bank which is 2 sided (has a us balance). i have a Rakuten account which is get cash back from and they forward the money to PayPal who then transfers to my credit card. the credit however is processed as a refund…”
Another specific example is from this month (April 2020): A reader commented:
“I just did a withdrawal on Monday with my JMMB Visa card. The money went from PayPal and showed in my JMMB account within 3 hours”.
However, another reader reported the opposite also within the last few days (April 2020):
“I had a JMMB Visa Debit that I was withdrawing to for the past year when my transaction was declined. When I went to the link “PayPal Worldwide Offerings” , they said only US dollars”
So please understand that users are having different experiences. The issue isn’t related to the type of card (Visa or Mastercard) , or to a specific bank.
I have a PayPal account that I set up from right here in Trinidad. I used my Visa credit card obtained from RBC Royal Bank (then RBTT) to link the PayPal account to and that’s fine. I use this PayPal to purchase domains, themes, plug-ins and other website related stuff for my clients’ sites and it works well no problems.
However, getting paid through this PayPal account has been giving problems. The most recent experience was again this month (April 2020) where I tried to get funds and received this message:
“Sorry, this payment can’t be completed due to regulations”.
Further investigation on this error led me to this PayPal article that mentioned a few countries including Trinidad & Tobago. See HERE. However, I didn’t see any restriction to receiving money on that page.
Error message when trying to send funds to TT PayPal
And that’s where I left it. Sorry but I have no more answers at this point. But if my readers can message me on what they are doing, I’ll try to investigate and update this article for everyone.
UPDATE 2020 I really want to update this article soon.
2020 UPDATE: This is my fourth most popular article which and is very much alive in 2020 even though I wrote it in seven years ago. It’s been read just over 19,000 times!
Even with the availability of WIPAY in Trinidad & Tobago now (my number one article with over 18K reads), our local version of PayPal (read the article Move Over PayPal, We Have a Trini Version Now), PayPal still remains fixed on the minds of many. Six out of the first ten queries that drove traffic to Forward Multimedia in 2019 are PayPal keywords, the number one being ‘paypal trinidad’.
One reason for the interest is the foreign exchange dilemma in T&T and the need to earn USD as it’s near impossible to buy USD from local banks. WIPAY used to be out of the question, but it’s been offering USD denominated accounts for some time now. However, only credits cards issued outside of Trinidad & Tobago are processed in USD which you’ll get to transfer to your USD bank account here.
You still can’t keep USD earned in your PayPal account even if you are successful in transferring to your linked local credit card, as credit card accounts here are denominated in TTD, So if you transfer $100 USD you’ll receive the TTD equivalent.
Help me update this article for 2020...
This article is no longer applies to E-Commerce in Trinidad & Tobago so there is no need to update, I only want to do it for those of are seeking answers for their own purposes. So let’s do a quid pro quo after it’s helped thousands for free all these years, and I promise to update with a full rewrite.
Do I use a US address or Trinidad address on my paypal when I use my credit card?
Use the billing address of the credit card.
hello does a mastercard credit card be able to receive funds from paypal? NB is not a pre paid card is a normal credit card but its mastercard. thanks
Yes, in theory. As long as the Visa or Mastercard logo is there, then yes. In practice though, it’s hard, but go ahead and try.
Hi, my mom wants to start using paypal but is not sure if her credit card will work. Its a visa credit card from Republic Bank. She also said that it’s a TT credit card and not a US one. Does the credit card have to have US or be US, or would her regular TT credit card work? Also to verify her paypal account they will take $1US and refund the $1 after a few days right, she wants to know if that would work out.
A TT credit card is a hit and miss to work, but you can try. Most reports I get is that it doesn’t work. A US credit card will definitely work as it will be a US based account and have nothing to do with T&T.
RBC Royal Bank visa debit card can link to PayPal?
In theory as long as have the visa logo, should be able to link, doesn’t matter if debit or credit.
Hi good day Zaf,
Is it possible to open a local bank account in Trinidad whereby it can allow US payments daily (e.g getting $10 us an hour) through instant payments from paypal, that’s connected to that account?
I’ve heard of JMMB, but witnessed a lot of complaints such as the accounts provided by JMMB has a limit of only US$200 to hold within that ‘US’ account that allows such petty cash payments through paypal.
I wish to avoid going over to the united states in order to open a US account as much as possible; can you please advise? Thanks for any reply in advance!
Sorry, that’s not possible. It’s very difficult to receive payments to your PayPal account and banks are making it difficult; perhaps due to regulations here. You’re better off doing it in the US.
Thanks for the answer Zaf, I would like to ask you one more question if you don’t mind:
What about the purchasing of things internationally? Is there a bank that offers a card or ability to purchase things internationally without using a US prepaid credit card using TT dollars? (e.g I buy something from amazon using ttd currency and a TT card)
Matt locally issued credit cards are not TTD cards. As long as there is the Visa/MC logo you can use internationally without issue. Trinis buy from Amazon and ship to their Miami skybox using locally issued cards all the time.
Hey, so I recently noticed that PayPal has a “check” payout method. Do you know if that is possible in Trinidad?
If they are mailing a check (cheque) for you then it would be possible. You’ll have to deposit to your account here and bank will clear funds. You won’t keep the USD though, unless you have a USD denominated account.
Hello I have been trying to open an e business for free because I have no money to pay to do it. I have been watching tutorials they look so easy but then they are in the US and I’m in Trinidad and Tobago. Every time I get little headway the payment plans stop me, I have access to a Scotia credit card but I can’t even sign up for pay pal because they asking for province and postal codes. Please can you help me?
PayPal is a perennial headache to get working anyway but that shouldn’t stop the sign-up process as those fields like State/Province, and postal codes are not validated if you choose your country as Trinidad & Tobago. Try filling out anyway, use zeros for postal code.
Hi, I am a high school student from Trinidad and i would like to set up a paypal account as it is the only way to receive funds on a website I’m using where i get paid to write reviews. I don’t have a credit card and i am seeing that you can create a paypal account without a credit card. Is it possible to receive payments in TT without cedit card? Do need access to my mothers card to withdraw?
You can’t create a PayPal account without a credit card for a TT based account, therefore it’s impossible to receive funds without it. If you’re using your mother’s card then the account will have to be in her name and the account you’re being paid from to write reviews must also be in her name as if it was her. You’ll technically be writing her reviews.
Hey my paypal account has stop receive funds from many sources . im in the affiliate marketing industry and ive recently made a large withdrawal/payout($875.52USD) to my paypal account ive been with this business since last year ive been getting payouts with no error and receiving the mone but when i decide to receive the money now nothin is there any solution? its alot of money my account is verified already valid credit card also ive also tried purchasing A shoe off nike.com an came up with an error which ive never seen before
That’s great that it was working for you with no errors till now. What’s the error you got?
What bank cards work with Paypal?
Any bank card with the Visa or Mastercard logo.
Scotiabank can link to PayPal account Visa and credit card
OR
Jmmb can link to PayPal account Visa and credit card
So it would work for RBC credit card? At this present time it’s working for that bank? I thought I saw an article somewhere that had stopped. It would be great if I’m wrong.
Hey Zaf, article.
Is it now possible to have the paypal payment gateway on a ecommerce website to show the currency in TTD when the customer is about to complete the transaction? Currently mine shows USD and can see i lose many sales because of it. Would be great to get it changed to TTD. Does Paypal support this?
why can’t you link you local bank to your paypal? You can use the routing number of your bank to link your account to Paypal to receive payments!
That’s not possible. It’s not only about linking payments. When you set up a bank account with PayPal there is a verification process that takes place first through the banking system that’s not possible with T&T banks. Hence the reason why only debit/credit cards can be linked as they can be verified through the Visa/MC system.
Hey I’m unable to link my visa credit card to my account nor am I able to open paypal account using local address
What’s the error you’re getting when trying to set up your account?
I have received usd to my Jmmb card and they converted the payment in TTD. I’m now trying to experiment with opening a local USD account to link to my PayPal account. Has anyone been successful doing this?
This article is so badly written. It’s not clear if this current or old. Looks like this is an old article that keeps resurfacing but for effect/clicks. PLease confirm for me if its VISA on the whole or just VISA for JMMB. thanks
At the bottom of the article it clearly says January 17, 2013 so this article is seven years old. I have no financial interest in these articles as I use only local payment methods for online stores. They’re only resurfacing because they are still the best source of information for people like yourself searching for answers which is why I kept them up. I get messages and phone calls frequently for personal situations and I do my best to provide guidance.
This is an incomplete article as I’ve stated as most of the original article was removed because the info was no longer applicable. You’ll see I made an update in January 2020, and as recent as April 10th.
To answer your question, it’s Visa on the whole as long as the card has the logo, doesn’t matter if debit or credit, and not limited to JMMB bank except that it was what the reader reported as their bank.
I’m approving this comment. Please apologize for your statement which was very rude and the first such I’ve ever received since I’ve been writing.
I just did a withdrawal on Monday with my JMMB Visa card. The money went from Paypal and showed in my JMMB account within 3 hours
That’s some good news as a most recent experience. I also received a message via my contact form on April 9, 2020 which I’ll post here as well for the benefit of my readers:
“Just informing you that i receive us funds to my credit card at republic bank which is 2 sided (has a us balance). i have a Rakuten account which is get cash back from and they forward the money to PayPal who then transfers to my credit card. the credit however is processed as a refund…”.
Again, I still advocate using our local payment methods like WiPay, but I understand that those of you who are looking to PayPal are looking to get paid from third party sites that only accept PayPal. So these two recent and positive experiences are encouraging.
Hi, really, because I have the same card and was wondering if I can use it to withdraw funds from my paypal account.
It seems that local banks have done away with PayPal being able to put money on your credit cards (the only exception is for refunds).
This has become very frustrating and PayPal had stopped the receiving feature on my account because of this.
Someone suggested that I open a US account at a local bank which I did (RBC) and was given an account with a router # which is what PayPal asks for.
It seemed all went well until PayPal tried to deposit and it essentially bounced. So I guess that was not an option.
Can anyone help with suggestions as to how to get our PayPal funds here in Trinidad if the credit card it no longer an option? Oh, and btw, PayPal said they do not work with Payoneer cards.
I don’t think it’s the banks, I’m of the opinion that T&T has been blacklisted by the international financial system. You can’t link a USD denominated account here with PayPal, only actual US banks in USA. I know of no other way to withdraw your TT PayPal funds, except to keep it for use to make online purchases, i.e. by spending it when you need it. The other possible way is to transfer it to a US PayPal account of someone you know and trust and have them withdraw the cash for you.
With that said, is it possible for a Trinidadian to open a bank account abroad?
Theoretically it’s possible. There are two main elements: (1) you need to have a physical US address and (2) there’s a requirement for a form called W-8BEN Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding and Reporting (Individuals), which will need to be filled at the bank you’re applying to. Some banks may ask for a reference from a T&T bank.
Good day sir,
I know you get load of questions about this daily as we interested members of Trinidad struggle to not only understand the procedure necessary but also try feverishly to receive online payments from lets say eBay / amazon and sites alike. I am interested in setting up a USA account and would really appreciate some guidance and assistance. Can you email me some contact information so this can be a possibility? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
Hello. You may message me at contact@forwardmultimedia.com. I’ll assist if I can.
Oh waw, I did not know that. Does this mean that a relative’s address would suffice?or would I need to show proof that I actually live there (e.g. visa documents perhaps.) Really interested in the stock market but TT brokerage system kills you with fees and it feels too bureaucratic. ..not to mention local stocks don’t seem all that profitable to invest in.
No proof is needed except a valid US bank account where all verification would have been done to issue the account, and the bank account requires a US address.
Hi Zaf,
Is it possible to transfer money from your PayPal account to a WiPay account?
Hi Tristan,
The answer is no. PayPal connects only to a US bank account/debit,credit card or your local credit card (must have Visa or Mastercard logo). That’s the only way. However, you can receive funds to your WiPay account by sending requests that the receiver pays with a credit card.
Hi is it possible to withdraw / pay some one from a credit card linked to a RBC OR Scotia Bank account? Is there a limit to what you can withdraw or is it only based on your credit card limit? Thanks for your time
As long as you RBC or Scotia credit card is linked to PayPal, yes you can pay someone with it via PayPal. Your credit credit limit determines how much you can withdraw as far as I’m aware.
Hey Zaf,
I have a question regarding your paypal account.
I noticed via the screenshots you shared that you have the option to link a US Bank account.
Would I be correct in assuming that you CAN link a US Bank Account AND a TT Credit Card on the Same TT Paypal Account? Despite being physically located in TT?
In theory yes, you can link a US bank account and a TT credit card. You will be able to withdraw funds to either one. It doesn’t matter if you are physically located in TT. Anyone can have bank accounts in other countries, there is no law against it.
Hi, I’m setting up a website and I would like to use PayPal as the payment option but when I try using my currency on the site as TTD there’s an error but when I change it to USD it’s working. I’d like to know if there’s something I need to do with my paypal itself or if it’s just not available to accept TTD currency on PayPal
Yes that will happen. To use PayPal as a payment method the base currency will have to be in USD. Se your base currency and prices in USD and add a currency switcher to view in TTD and other currencies.
Hi Zaf, is this still the case? I am seeing a lot of drop off on our website when the USD currency is presented on the screen. Having it displayed to the customer as TTD would help me convert. Is this possible to show it to a customer in TTD?
James yes a currency switcher is just for display purposes, the transaction will process in the value of the base USD currency. With local payment gateways available, I really don’t see the need to use PayPal, unless it’s providing a particular service you need not obtainable with what we have.
I tried to link my RBL credit card to my pay pal account and i am getting an error message stating ‘THIS CARD IS NOT ACCEPTED. PLEASE USE A DIFFERENT CARD’ can you assist with this problem.
What card are you using, Visa or Mastercard?
Hello ,
Do you link your personal account or business account?
It’s any credit card, doesn’t matter the bank account type.
i am wondering, has anyone been able to withdraw funds from trinidad using the VTM republic bank card?
PayPal is throwing errors to withdraw or receive money into a locally linked PayPal account.
Hi Zaf, can Trinidad & Tobago citizens use Payoneer to withdraw funds to their locally issued prepaid MasterCard?
Sorry for late reply, Not familiar with Payoneer.
Hi Zaf, what’s the easiest way to obtain a US bank account that links with PayPal to facilitate withdrawing funds on a regular basis (preferably not having to visit USA)? Can a US$ account opened at a T&T bank (FCB, RBL, RBC, Scotiabank, etc.) link with PayPal? Also, how to go about transferring funds from a US bank account to a T&T bank into T&T currency on a regular basis for everyday use?
(Reason asking if for an e-commerce website, PayPal’s existing user-base is quite large both locally and internationally.)
Thanks for your feedback.
Can a MasterCard be linked to your PayPal account here in trini (with the intention of being able to transfer funds to the card)? Or only a VISA… I read somewhere that it must be a VISA cc for that to work in TnT…
In theory any locally issued credit card will work to link to PayPal. However, receiving money through PayPal is not working and it seems to be deliberate from PayPal’s end.
Hi Zaf…i’v read though most of the comment looking for an answer related to my situation…anyway i would still like some clarification. I have school worksheets which i hope to sell on a website called “teacherpayteachers”. They make their payments through paypal. I understand that I have to link my credit card to my local paypal account, but how do I go about having the payment transferred to my local republic bank account.
Theoretically you should be able to withdraw funds from your PayPal account to your credit card, then withdraw the funds from your credit card account. However, these days most everyone who contacts me are reporting that PayPal is throwing errors when they attempt to withdraw. Something I’ve tested myself and I get the same thing. There seems to me to be purposely done by PayPal for some unknown reason.
Hi Zaf,
Have you ever used Quickbooks Online as a payment system?
No I haven’t, I never looked into it as an option either. I doubt that it would work in T&T because of the payment gateways.
HI I have a republic bank debit card and I am able to link my card but not able to transfer funds to it. I have more than 2k Usd in my account and I have no way of getting it. Do you have a solution?