AdesBlog.com

We know that it is almost impossible to get hold of anybody from paypal. Most of their emails are also auto-generated, making it difficult to voice your opinion and send feedback.

But, now it seems like there is a window of opportunity for everyone to talk to them directly. Apparently they have official blog (which I didn’t know) since August 2007.

So fire it away, your comments, suggestions, complains…etc to www.thepaypalblog.com

A week ago I opened a bank account with Al-Rajhi Bank (Malaysian Branch), it’s the largest Saudi based Islamic bank in the world. Since it’s operations are Shariah compliant, they do not provide Credit Card, instead they give Charge Card. It’s basically a VISA enabled Debit Card.

This card is linked to your account, and you use your own money. That means, if you do not have any money in your account, you simply cannot purchase anything. (Bank won’t be lending you any money, and of course won’t be able to charge you interest. So, it’s an interest-free bank). Other than that, it has all the functions of a Credit Card.

Paypal Withdrawal

Upon receiving my debit card, I made a test withdrawal of $20.00 from paypal, -$5.00 for transaction fee (see below). So, I was supposed to get $15.00 . The transaction was successful.

So, those who couldn’t withdraw with PublicBank Debit Card should try Al-Rajhi Debit Card. You can open savings account with just RM20 ($6.00). Both savings and checking account comes with Debit Card.

al-Rajhi Internet Banking

Al-Rajhi offers internet banking where you can keep track of your transactions. Here is a screenshot of the paypal transaction that I made. It was processed on 10th March, it took about 4 days to process.

So, here you go. Another card that works with PayPal in Malaysia.

Al-Rajhi Saudi: www.alrajhibank.com.sa/en/
Al-Rajhi Malaysia : www.alrajhibank.com.my

Related: Too many problems with your PayPal? Try MoneyBookers.

PayPal’s recent change of its logo, didn’t go well with many online users (including me). One of the reasons were; PayPal didn’t announce the logo change to users beforehand. Many people were little worried if they were on the right website, by seeing a slightly different logo on paypal.com.

They probably learned a lesson from the logo change, now they have sent an email informing about the payment buttons’ new look. All the buttons will be changed to these new looks (unless you are using your own buttons).

PayPal says about the new buttons:

They’re bold and colorful. Designed to catch the eye of customers – and increase sales. PayPal

I do want more sales, but I think I will pass about using these new buttons. Instead, I will do the opposite and go change all the paypal’s default buttons on my websites to my own… What were they thinking introducing these ugly buttons?

Maybe they thought “RSS has a unique button (and color) of its own, let’s do the same!”?

They look like they were created by an amateur button creator software… don’t they? Italic and Bold typeface, too much round edges, not so smooth edges, crazy colors…etc.

Live in end of October

New buttons will go into effect by the end of this month. So, currently if you are using PayPal’s default buttons, don’t be surprised if you see one day “orange” button on your site. PayPal’s default buttons will be updated automatically. If you are using your own buttons, PayPal encourages you to update them to these new buttons:

If you host your own buttons, replace them with the new ones. Log in, click the Merchant Services tab, then go to the Create Buttons section. Customers will know you’re a business that currently uses PayPal. This will make them feel safer when they buy – and keep them coming back.

I am not sure if updating is compulsory though. I think it’s not. As I said, I won’t be updating unless it’s compulsory to use these icons. What about you? Will you be using them?

After PayPal announced that international users could use Credit Cards and Debit Cards to withdraw their paypal funds, I tried my PublicBank debit card that bears a Visa Electron logo on it.

I test-withdrew $35 on Sep 29, 2007 and after 4 days it was successfully arrived in my Public Bank account.

Below is the screenshot from my Public Bank account. As you can see it was available on 4th October 2007.

Public Bank Debit Cards

I have been using PublicBank debit card since 2002, and now I am on the second card. First one (see left) expired in 2006. It is a very reliable debit card. It works on internet and it works in any ATM worldwide that has (Visa Electron) logo on it.

The only difference of this card from Credit Card is that, the money on the card is your own. That means if you put $200 on it, you can only use up to $200. Charging the card $201 will give error. Other than that it functions exactly like credit card.

Annual fee for the card is RM24.00 (about USD7.00). You can also link it to your bank account so that you can reload it using internet banking. Now that I can receive paypal funds in my debit card, the extra money I can simply transfer to my bank account using the internet banking facility offered by Public Bank.

Related: Too many problems with your PayPal? Try MoneyBookers.

If you are selling only few products on your site and you would like to use PayPal and Google Checkout as the payment gateway, then FatFreeCart.com is for you. It’s free and it does not need any registration. You just need to cut and paste the code to your site, put in your product details and you are done!

Full Features

1. Handles shipping, handling, tax.
2. Handles up-to 3 option variables.
3. Can handle all currencies supported by PayPal (16) and Google Checkout (2).
4. Passed your site’s Google Analytics data to Google Checkout
5. Simply set the product price to 0.00 to let buyer enter her own amount!

Thanks to Robin for the heads up. www.fatfreecart.com

PayPal has added second option to to withdraw funds for international users, besides withdrawing to a US bank account. Now you can withdraw your funds to your local Credit Cards or Debit Cards with Visa, Visa Electron and MasterCard logos on them. I am not sure if it is done for all the countries worldwide, but what is sure is Malaysians now can. So if you are from a country that couldn’t withdraw before, you might want to check back your PayPal account.

This had to be done long time ago, but it’s still nice that PayPal’s robots did listed to us.

The charge per transaction is set to $5.00, and the daily maximum amount you can withdraw is $500.

Why it’s better than withdrawing to Debit Cards like VMI?

Because Debit Cards like VMI usually are not recognized by PayPal, and when they see you are using them. They usually freeze your account. Now that you can add verified Credit Cards and Debit Cards to your PayPal, you don’t have to worry about your account being frozen again (hopefully).

Another benefit is, with local CC or Debit Cards there is no withdrawal fee. Since it’s a local card and you use local ATMs, there is “zero” transaction fee. Some banks do charge 0.50 cents if you withdraw more than 3 or 4 times a month. (Maybank are you the one?)

Thanks for the heads up to my friend Hanafi, who notified me about this.

Related: Too many problems with your PayPal? Try MoneyBookers.