Talking About Paypal, Bank Charges and Fund Transfer Fees

One of my blog readers has found my posts about debit cards helpful for his personal research about useful bank and debit cards available in the country that can be linked to Paypal. However, he has a concern regarding the fees and other charges that are being deducted the moment the funds from Paypal gets transferred to a bank account or debit account.

It's been a long while since I have received payments for freelance jobs that I have done. In fact, It's been years since I had my last freelance job. I am not unfamiliar with the reader's concern because I myself was subjected to these charges when I had Paypal transactions before.

If you are a new Paypal user, here are some of the basic things you must know about using Paypal, transferring funds to your local bank and the charges.

• When you link a debit or savings account to your Paypal account, there might be a service fee of Php100. This will be deducted from the balance from your savings account, but will be reimbursed once the linking is done.
  

• When you link a card to your Paypal account, make sure that the information from your bank account is similar to the information you input on your Paypal profile. Otherwise, any fund transfers you do will fail. Also, you will be charged by Paypal a return fee and your respective bank.

• When you transfer your Paypal funds to your local bank account, the bank may charge an EFT, or electronic fund transfer. EFT charges may vary and may range from Php100 to Php300. Contact your bank about this. 
  
• Luckily, the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), Eastwest Bank and UnionBankPH have shared their EFT fees:
  
  
  
  
  

• When your client sends you a payment, Paypal will charge you around $2 as the transfer fee.
• When you transfer Paypal funds worth Php6,999 below to your debit account, Paypal will charge you Php50. If you transfer Php7,000 or more, the Php50 charge will be waived.(I suggest always go for a >Php7,000 transfer, 50pesos din yun no!)
• Upon completing Paypal fund transfer to your debit account, you must wait between 2-4 working days (if there is longer waiting time than this, I am not sure) for your bank to receive the request and have the funds transferred to your bank account. (I struggled back then because of this. Juice ko!)

If you want to be more technical about it, you can check Paypal's Terms and Conditions > User Agreement for Paypal Services (but this only discusses charges on Paypal's end, bank policies and charges excluded) or their FAQs. Also, you may regularly check if Paypal has revised its user agreements. Effectivity of revisions are announced 30 days prior to the actual effectivity date.

I am not using a bank account, but a VISA-powered card such as Paymaya or Gcash. Would the policy differ?

I have not tried to transfer Paypal funds to either my Paymaya or GCash cards, although I have tried linking my Paymaya to my Paypal profile. This cost me US$1.00 (about Php50, or depending on the foreign exchange rate of the day) and Php100 (which was reimbursed lately).

I would also like to mention that cash withdrawal from these two cards incurs charges. Wherever you do your withdrawal locally, regardless of what bank's ATM you use, there will be a withdrawal fee of Php15 (for Paymaya) and Php20 (for GCash, AFAICR). A balance inquiry will also incur Php1.00 charge, so better check your Paymaya or GCash balance through their respective apps instead. Please contact Paymaya regarding the Paypal transfer fees and waiting time. :)

The things I mentioned in this blog post are based on how I experienced Paypal transfer way back years ago, plus some research I did from Paypal, and Paymaya websites, as well as checking information about remittance on local banks' websites. :) If you think I mentioned some errors or misinterpretations on the information stated above, let me know.

Hope this helps.

Do you have any other details you can add to this post? Please comment down below.

*Will be edited to correct or update info. :)