Feb
27
It appears that Paypal will be resuming bank withdrawals to India by March 3, 2010, but business account holders will have to provide an IEC (Import Export Code) number.
I got the following email today:
Dear ***,
We have been diligently working with the RBI and our business
partners to resume Indian bank withdrawals for the thousands
of Indian businesses who depend on PayPal to sell their goods
or services in the global marketplace.
Today, we are happy to announce that the RBI has allowed us
to continue local bank withdrawals for settlements for exports
of goods and services. We are currently making changes to
comply with Indian regulations for settlements for exports of
goods and services, and we anticipate that, as of Wednesday,
March 3rd, customers will be able to use our
bank withdrawal service.
As part of the changes, you will be required to fill out a
new field entitled ‘Export Code’ when you request a withdrawal.
This information is required under the current laws of India in
order to identify the nature of cross-border merchant transactions.
On Monday, March 1st, we will be back in touch with specific
instructions on how you can move your money into your bank account.
Moving forward, the RBI has told us that PayPal needs specific
approvals to allow personal remittances to India, which we
currently do not have. Until we get these approvals, personal
payments into India will remain suspended. However, if you are
an exporter, you will continue to be able to use the PayPal
service for payments of goods and services. In fact, with the
changes we are making to our system, PayPal is now set to be a
more powerful engine for exporters in India. With purpose codes
for export transactions and FIRCs (Foreign Inward Remittance
Certificates), you should now be able to get the export
related benefits you seek.
You can check the PayPal blog for additional updates.
www.thepaypalblog.com
We thank you for your business and for your patience during
the past few weeks.
Sincerely,
PayPal
Feb
26
Most of the media coverage of the Paypal problems in the Indian media have been just about RBI stopping Paypal operations, not about the inconvenience caused to the lakhs of Indian account holders. If a small co-operative bank collapses, RBI will take steps to ensure that the account holders interests are protected, but with Paypal, there seems to be no progress for a month.
This article http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/business-capital-stuck-in-paypal-accounts/386902/
mentions the problems faced by small business account holders in India, but underestimates the number of people affected. It is not 30,000-40000, it is more likely to be 400,000( my estimate is that it should be more). I have an old work at home website, about making money online, and the yearly traffic is much more than 30,000 – 40,000. If you make any significant amount of money online, and have diversified income sources, Paypal is the most popular payment option for online payments.
This issue has adversely affected many businesses, especially service providers who have to pay their employees and freelancers who have loans and families to support. It is nearly a month now, mass payments sent to even Indian business accounts between Feb 1-3 were reversed, and some senders are not returning the money. Both Paypal and RBI could have handled the issue better and at least indicated a time frame for resolution, so that users can plan for the future.
The mainstream media can give extensive coverage to film stars and cricketers, who are basically entertainers , but is totally isolated from issues which really affect people online. This could be the reason why despite all the investments they make, there is little growth in their internet business. Though Twitter, Facebook and social networking websites get a lot of media coverage, they are basically time pass activities. In India, people are looking for value for money, if I can make money online, I do not mind spending money online, but I definitely do not care for fake “friends”online.
Feb
21
For most users of Paypal, there has been no major update this week on transfers from Paypal to Indian bank accounts.
Direct transfer of funds from Paypal to Indian bank accounts is still not possible. Paypal seems to be contacting business account holders with large balances of over $10 K and offering them the facility to withdraw the balance by wire transfer to their bank accounts. Many eBay sellers need the funds for buying new stocks. However, many banks charge a fee for incoming wire transfer , but the exchange rates are usually higher for SWIFT transfers than the rate Paypal offers. The eBay sellers seem to have been contacted by Paypal directly or through their Paypal account manager.
Currently Indian Paypal account holders can withdraw using a credit card or check. For both there is a $5 withdrawal fee, but the $5 fee for checks will be reimbursed according to the official Paypal blog. Earlier there was no limit on withdrawals for certain business accounts, but now there is $2500 monthly limit for check withdrawal. The checks are sent in Indian Rupees, drawn on Citibank.
Many Indian freelancers with a verified Premier and Personal account could withdraw money from their Paypal balance using Xoom , but now they are facing problems since intra-India transfers using Xoom seem to be getting blocked since 21 February. RBI seems to have imposed restrictions on Xoom and the issue may be resolved in 2-3 months.
The issue seems likely to get resolved by March 10, 2010, when there is going to be a new Paypal policy update and all payments to Indian personal accounts will be charged a fee similar to that charged for premier and business accounts.
Feb
20
Hacking / fraud at Wipro
Most large companies dealing with physical products have a lot of internal controls and systems in place, every action is usually cross checked by people from at least 2 other departments. Things change in the IT and internet industry quickly, so it may be difficult for them to put proper systems in place, but it is also important to ensure that the people they hire are reliable and understand their personal value system. A person may be smart, but if he does not follow the rules, it can be a nightmare for the employer and others who deal with him.
In this case the password was stolen and money transferred out, but no complaint was filed with the cybercrime cell. I wonder how many similar crimes are hushed up?
Feb
17
If you use Web hosting with CPanel, Plesk or DirectAdmin , the web statistics package Awstats is usually installed as a default option for all the websites in the package.
However, for some custom hosting configurations , you may have to install it manually for each add on domain and SSH (shell) access is required.
For manual updates, the following link can be used
http://some-domain-name.in/awstats/awstats.pl?config=some-domain-name.in
Most web hosts rotate the traffic log files, so the update should be done before the log files are rotated.
Feb
15
Bank transfers from Paypal accounts have been stopped since 27 January 2010. Some ad networks are not resending the payments or even replying to emails regarding payments reversed by Paypal, even though they were sent by Paypal Masspay to business Paypal accounts, so some of the Paypal alternatives are:
Moneybookers
Liberty Reserve
PerfectMoney
AlertPay
Pecunix
EPassporte
Alipay
Web Money
Only a few of the above allow withdrawal/conversion to Indian Rupees for small amounts, but you can use the money for making purchases online like Web hosting, Domain registration or related services.
Feb
12
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/international/article102659.ece
Victorian police chief Simon Overland has advised Indian students in Australia to keep a low profile and “try to look as poor as you can”
There are several advantages of looking poor
- Fewer people are jealous, so less attacks
- You don’t attract gold diggers , the kind who will after becoming “friends” say - we have an outstanding credit card bill, can you pay it off.
- People let their guard down and show their true character – after all very few bother to be nice to a poor person.
- People think you are stupid, so they lie to you and foolishly try to cheat you.
- People underestimate you, so do not prepare well when they attack you professionally or in business.
- Looking poor is low maintenance, a less expensive lifestyle option
Feb
10
This article on big companies and innovation – Microsoft’s creative destruction , explains why there is so little innovation at the largest companies in the world. Big companies are able to attract the best and brightest talent in the world, but usually there is so much office politics, that the best ideas are rarely converted into workable products.
If a large amount of investment required, large companies have a distinct advantage, but in terms of new ideas for low investment products/services, a smaller business can be better that a manager in a big company as they can spend time more productively. Not every idea works out, and few managers wish to put their career at stake if it does not.
Feb
6
Paypal has been reversing payments made to Indians since February 1, 2010 . Though the email they send says
Hello ***,
Your payment of xx.xx has been sent back to the sender of the payment.
We reversed this payment because we have stopped allowing personal payments to be sent to or from India.
If this was a payment for a purchase of goods or services, and not a personal payment, then you may contact the buyer and have him or her resend the payment as follows: (a) click the Send Money tab, (b) select “Goods,” and (c) provide a shipping address.
If this payment was a personal payment such as a gift, then we have requested that the sender find another payment method until we restore personal payments to and from India.
We are trying to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and we’re sorry for any inconvenience.
Thank you,
PayPal
They claim that only personal payments are affected, but payments sent by Paypal Masspay to verified business and premier accounts are also getting reversed. Paypal Masspay is used by most advertising and affiliate networks to make payments to their publishers
Some of the networks whose Masspay payments are being reversed are:
Infolinks
Chitika
RentaCoder
Freelancer / GetaFreelancer
Reviewme
TLA
Adsdaq
Adengage
Inpostlinks (formerly PayperPost)
Netline/Revresponse
Forbes publisher
The worst affected are freelancers and sellers of digital products who receive small payments from a number of customers, who will find it difficult to get their money back.
Bank transfer requests have not been completed even after 10 days, and could take up to 30 days. New transfer requests have status as pending. If your balance is negative after the transfer request, the transfer will be canceled.
Feb
4
There has been a delay in withdrawal of funds from Paypal to Indian bank accounts and Paypal has sent this mail.
Dear ***,
We are currently experiencing an issue processing withdrawals to Indian bank accounts. As a result, there may be some delay in withdrawals from your PayPal account to your bank account.
We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused, and are doing all we can to resolve the issue.
Thank You,
PayPal
From forums, it appears that Paypal withdrawal requests from 27th January 2010 have not yet been credited. Last year (2009), there was a similar delay and funds were credited after 15 days in some cases.
Also refer to : http://www2.ebay.com/aw/in/200903061108272.html
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