AdesBlog.com

BuckDrop creates “buy me” links that you can place in your blog. The word can be customized when you are creating the link. People will pay you using PayPal or Google Checkout.

It simplfies the process of accepting money. You can use it to accept donations, Get PayPal pending auction payments or even to collect money from friends. It is simply a copy-paste thing and does not require you to register with BuckDrop or install anything.

I have created my own “Buy me a coffee” link, which will appear at the end of the post. So after this if you see that there is no post in AdesBlog for a day or two, you might want to buy me a coffee ;) Because I must be feeling too sleepy to write a post, since I often work at night.

www.buckdrop.com

PayPal’s new logo is not that different than from its old one, but it’s still a change that might confuse many users. It can also lead to many exploitations by scammers. I personally believe companies like PayPal who deal with online money transfer should not change their identity often, especially the logo.

Because when it comes to online money handling, people are very serious and cautious about their money, if not scared. Therefore they want to make sure that, their money is in secure hands. People also want to see a stable company. So when the company changes their identity often (especially if the new logo looks worse than the previous one) it might send a wrong message to its customers. People can get the perception that the company is not reliable.

Therefore corporate identity change is a tricky business, especially for online money transfer sites like paypal. It might not be so crucial to other companies. For example, nobody would really care if GeneralMotors had changed its logo.

New Website Interface

PayPal has also ended its beta testing of its new website interface. It will soon have a new look. The new interface is a welcoming change.

Revamping the website look and improving its usability should not be confused with corporate identity change. They are totally different things.

When I went to Kyrgyzstan for my holiday, I took along my VMI Debit Card with me, I put it to a test and withdrew from an ATM that bore the Cirrus logo. And the result? Voila, It worked!

It was nice to be able to withdraw my PayPal funds even when I was on holiday.

However before you proceed and purchase your own VMI Debit Card, there is one thing to consider. You must have heard people talking about their PayPal account being “frozen” or being limited (cannot receive & send money). That talk is true, because my own PayPal account had been limited for this same reason - using VMI Debit Card. But it has been restored back since.

Good news is that VMI Debit Card is still working for withdrawing PayPal funds. After my PayPal account has been restored, I tried to withdraw my PayPal funds and it was successful. So it’s working fine for me at the moment, unless of course PayPal limits my account once again. You can expect anything from the robots of paypal ;)

VMI Debit Card’s other uses

While most of Asian and other non-US countries use VMI Debit Card to withdraw their PayPal funds, for non-PayPal users it’s just a normal debit card with lots of features. So if you do not have PayPal account, or if you do not want to own Credit Card for various reasons you can opt to such debit cards.

Here is the list of benefits you can enjoy while owning VMI Debit Card:

• Accessible globally in over 140 countries at millions of locations.
• All the convenience of a bankcard for persons currently having no banking relationships
• Accepted at gas stations, supermarkets, department stores, restaurants and places of entertainment
• Benefits of not carrying cash with the convenience associated with bank account holders
• Facilitation of instant transfer of funds to another card holder at a much lower cost than that of current options
• Convenience . easy to use and easier to carry than cash
• Immediate anytime access to account information via the Virtual Money® web site or telephone.

Where do I get?

VMI’s official website do not offer any option to buy from their website, you have to buy from their agents instead. I bought from Millie Luong by sending her email. She was nice and very fast in registering and sending the debit card. I have blogged about it here.

Do let me know about your experiences if you have used VMI Debit Card.

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

After sending two batches of documents to paypal, finally today my PayPal account has been restored. It’s a good news for me, no it’s a great news. Because it has been restored just before I am about to receive my payments. Unfortunately few payments have already bounced back. But that’s a small matter.

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

PayPal Limited Account Access has happened to many international users, especially the ones from countries that PayPal do not offer withdrawal options to their local banks. It was just a matter of time that it will happen to me too. Well, it has arrived…

I hope my account will be re-activated soon, end of month is fast approaching and I should be expecting many payments then. If not I will be doomed, because during “limited access” period, you can’t send or receive funds. Also you cannot withdraw your funds.

Suspicious Transaction
The suspicious transaction that they refer is, it’s the withdrawal transaction that I made to my VMI Debit Card account. I have been withdrawing with this card for the last 5 months without a problem. However I have heard from many people that, for this same reason (using VMI card) their account has been limited.

PayPal Debit Card
As you all know, PayPal has its own Debit Card that links your PayPal account to it. However this card is for US citizens only. Isn’t it strange? US citizens can already withdraw their funds to their local banks for free. International users need this debit card more than them. It seems PayPal is just creating more work to themselves. Because every time some international user withdraws his funds, they will set his/her account to limited. And all the process will start (i.e identity and address verification, waiting for days for response, uploading more files to PayPal..etc).

Suggestion to Paypal
If only PayPal could introduce their own Debit Card to all international users, these kind of things wouldn’t happen. Because then, they would know that we are all withdrawing with the verified Debit Card. And no extra work would have been created for themselves, and I am sure PayPal would save lots of man hours on this.

I just hope that this PayPal Debit Card will go international soon, and of course I hope that my account gets activated asap. Also if anyone from PayPal is reading this, please get some real people behind the “support team”. Otherwise pre-written emails from robots are killing us, it’s so difficult to reach a human being over there.

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

Have you heard about microlending or microcredit? Microcredit is the extension of small loans to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. In developing countries especially, microcredit enables very poor people to engage in self-employment projects that generate income.

So basically it’s lending as low as $100 or $50 to the poor for opening a business to support their livelihood. Please note that it’s not a donation, you will get your money back, it’s a loan. So why not help someone, lending as small as $50 from your PayPal funds? Rather than your PayPal fund lying in your account for 30 days or more, within this time you could actually help some family in Uganda to start a business.

How to help
Kiva.org is the answer. Kiva allows you to search the database of poor entrepreneurs who are looking for small loans to start their business. You can search the database by region, business field, gender, and status of the project. And because of this, almost all (close to 100%) people who borrow the money actually pay back.

Kiva partners with existing microfinance institutions in different countries. These partners choose the entrepreneurs and posts their profile on Kiva. So the people on Kiva, are hardworking people who are handpicked by their local agencies.

PBS Frontline
Here is a PBS video about Kiva and how they are literally changing people’s lives.

www.kiva.org