The Advantages and Disadvantages of a Having a Paypal Account in PNG

The idea of giving your credit card information to unknown persons over the internet to purchase something gives me the goosebumps. It is literally like giving someone a signed blank check – unsupervised access to the candy shop. However, digital wallets like Paypal became that buffer needed to protect consumers. Unfortunately, it does not work as advertised in some third world countries including Papua New Guinea (PNG).

In this post, I am going to share some of the advantages and disadvantages of having a Paypal account in PNG. The comparison is drawn mostly from personal experience but I will also source some information from other sources.

A Brief History of Paypal

According to the Paypal blog, the company was born in December 1998. However, initial conception started in September of the same year when Peter Thiel and Max Levchin launched Fieldlink; a security company that encrypted and turned Palm Pilots and PDAs into digital wallets.

The duo got together with Luke Nosek and Ken Howery to form Confinity and in 2000 merged with online banking company X.com started by Elon Musk. They retained the name X.com. However, surveys indicated that consumers found the name vague and potentially pornographic, and preferred Paypal. The company was later restructured and adopted the Paypal Inc.

After an IPO, Paypal was purchased by eBay and was a subsidiary of the world’s largest auction website from 2002 – 2014. It was purchased for US$1.5 billion and allowed eBay users to use Paypal payments.  This proved a good move for both companies.

Paypal in Papua New Guinea

Paypal has been used in the country since the introduction of the internet. Unfortunately, it is only one way traffic for users yet. Users in PNG are only able to use the digital wallet to make purchases – receiving payments is not an option yet. However, there are hopes that this will change in the near future.

You can get more information here https://www.paypal.com/pg/webapps/mpp/home

Opening a Paypal Account

Opening a Paypal account is easy. All you will need is a BSP Visa Debit Card or equivalent from other commercial banks that operate in country.

https://www.paypal.com/pg/signup/account

Summary

Advantage	Disadvantage
Pay can be made on almost all websites for goods and services.	Users are unable to receive payment yet.
Secure.	Requires a BSP Visa Debit card or equivalent

Having a Paypal account in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is great if you are trying to make purchases online. However, if you are thinking of using it to receive payment then you will be disappointed.

The Payza Alternative

Payza is a digital wallet that I am currently using and it will accept payments. However, I have been unable to link it with my bank account. That is the only issue I have at the moment.

If you want to try Payza then click here.

Payza has been seized amid allegations of money laundering. The image below is a screenshot of the notice on their payment

Payoneer

Another alternative that I’ve found is Payoneer. This site is a digital wallet (ewallet) – the same as Payza – but requires and more stringent verification process.

I have linked my ShutterStock contributor account to Payoneer.

You can signup for Payoneer here.  

Share your experiences

If you have experiences that you believe will be beneficial for Papua New Guineans especially those who wish to use services like Paypal or Payza, then please share it with us.