Is PayPal normal/No Credit Cards?

[billt4sf]

Funny story...I paid for a dive trip (not to Indo) with Paypal, because it was the only option. That was the only reason I signed up for a Paypal account in the first place, and was therefore the only time I had ever used it. Sitting at the airport in the airline lounge waiting for my international flight to Singapore (where I was transiting) and my phone starts going apes**t. My credit card is set up with a secondary security measure where a text message gets sent to my phone with a code, and I have to enter the code online to authorize the transaction for any international transactions. Someone had just tried to run up about £100k of charges on my card. On the phone to the bank to figure out what was happening...My card details had been hacked in that giant Paypal account data breach. Card cancelled on the spot - so I was now about to leave the country with almost no cash and no credit card (because I mean who carries cash from home? You get it out of the ATM when you land!). My bank managed to get me an emergency replacement card in the middle of nowhere within 72 hours, but it was a nightmare for 3 days without a card. All because I paid for a dive trip with Paypal.

Beware of teh Paypal!

Fair enough. it sounds like you learned Lesson 1 of international travel the way I did (the hard way): Always carry multiple cards from multiple banks!

- Bill

 

[Rred]

Some hungry folks try to beat the Paypal fees (and Paypal got started because they promised it would be free) by using a "gifts to friends" instead of regular Paypal payments. That also has no recourse if there's a problem.

So when in doubt, ask the merchant "WTF?" and whether there's another payment option that you both can accept. Not paying 3% off your gross income is all well and good, but not too many customers want to pay all cash these days, and checks DO sometimes bounce. Which used to be a selling point for credit card companies.

 

[calliejlong]

I have done both bank transfers and paypal payments to numerous hotels in Indonesia and the Philippines. All went without problems so far. Also to note, one of them was to NAD Lembeh about 3 years ago.

 

[buiszie]

We accept it all. Problem is that paypal charges a lot of commission and the exchange rates are not the best. What i know lots of businesses in Indo are using a paypal accvopunt. Mostly with a personal email adres cos it was very hard to get an indonesian bank account connected to paypal account

 

[Moana Cruising]

I have seen Paypal fees from 3 - 5.5% which is very high. This does not include any withdrawel/currency exchange fee for us as the operator.

After about 6-12 months (l lost track) we finally have an online credit card payment system in place with our Indonesian bank. So our customers can pay directly via credit card now. For this we charge the "regular" 3.1% fees

 

[Indah]

PayPal charges us 4.5% (because we are a company and in Indonesia). And because of their very bad exchange rate we lose another 3%. Many of our guests who do not have a bank account in Europe an off-line credit card transaction. We only need the details as they show at the front of the card. They always can reclaim their payment and are having all the benefits of paying by credit-card. Our costs are 2 - 3.5% but we do not charge this to our guests.

 

[outofofficebrb]

Normal fare for Indonesia - and Thailand, and most of SE Asia where I have traveled.

We did this for a Komodo LOB. I'm returning to dive R4 this year and though I booked direct with operator for that, we are stopping in Lembeh and staying with NAD as well. No issues so far - confirmation good to go! (We just paid it.)

I will note that I always pay the PayPal fee - not sending to friends and family, and I also always pay with the credit card option. It makes me feel better to know that there are 2 levels of protection, somewhat.

 

[NYCNaiad]

I know the OP already decided what to do in regards to this, but I wanted to add something else to think about.

Paypal can put a hold on the monies being transferred. I once had a hold put on monies being transferred to a dive resort for 2.5 weeks. That's when I found out Paypal can put a lengthy hold on monies. They note that this hold is usually 21 days or less. (But it could be more & anecdotally, this seems to happen with larger sums of money.)

I work in tech & I use Paypal fairly often as I find it reliable. They have also sided with me when there have been problems. But if you have something timely that requires money transferred, Paypal may not always be the answer.

 

[Dan]

I have sent numerous bank transfers to resorts in Indo and the Phils and not had any fraud problems -- but my US bank always warns me about it.

Have others had frauds occur with their bank transfers?

- Bill

I've done bank wire transfer to Indonesian dive resorts & liveaboards for the last 10 years without any problems.

 

[Luko]

I've done bank wire transfer to Indonesian dive resorts & liveaboards for the last 10 years without any problems.

Wire transfer is OK until it is not...
There are no norms in indonesia such as IBAN for instance, lots of intermediaries and so on.
5 years ago my money went AWOL after a wire transfer though I had the correct nu, hence wiring in Indonesia is a NoNo for me. Some of the expats I know in Indo (Bill knows them as well) do not recommend transfer at least from France.