Paypal in Pakistan

Paypal is a great service, enabling people in many countries to transfer money easily. Paypal has transformed buying goods and services online and for millions of people it allows them to work at home and earn money online as it is the preferred payment method for most online companies.

However - this isn't true, or possible, for millions of people in Pakistan and around the world.

Paypal is a private company and simply doesn't operate in Pakistan - a source of major annoyance for those people living there. There are ways to get paid by Paypal in Pakistan, but these aren't entirely legal, or legitimate - and your account is likely to be closed down if you try to circumvent the system.

There are three services which are provided by Paypal:

• Send: allowing you to send money from your Paypal account to somebody.
• Receive: allowing you to receive money/be paid through Paypal
• Withdraw: enabling you to transfer money you have received from your Paypal account to your bank account

It is likely that Paypal would introduce 1-2 of these services in the first instance before making all three available.

In order for Paypal to add Pakistan to their list of supported countries, they need to be able to work electronically, seamlessly and safely directly with Pakistan banks. And this is where the problem is.

Paypal visited Pakistan a couple of years ago and have been working in the background to get the systems in place, with the banks, so they can offer their service in Pakistan. These things don't happen overnight though!

The banking infrastructure in Pakistan is not compatible with what Paypal needs - once the infrastructure has been upgraded and brought in line, Paypal will be able to move this forward.

Pakistan Banking Regulations

There are issues to be ironed out with Pakistan's banking regulations - meaning it can't legally happen. But even if the Govt of Pakistan sorted these problems out it's still down to the banks to be in a position to offer an appropriate banking infrastructure for Paypal to work in Pakistan.

It's easy to find alternatives to Paypal in Pakistan - Moneybookers and Alertpay are the two most common choices. But if you want to earn money online with a website like Hubpages, who pay via Paypal, then you have no control over their choice of payment provider, so you have no choice and can't earn money through Hubpages without a verified Paypal account.

There are many reasons why Paypal do not offer a service in Pakistan - if it were possible then I'm sure they would do, however, there must be very good reasons why they won't or can't.

There are many reasons why Hubpages have chosen to only use Paypal to pay writers. If Hubpages had a good reason to offer alternative payment systems, I'm sure they would have done. A good reason = safe, reliable and commercially viable. It doesn't mean "because a lot of people live in Pakistan".

If I were you I'd continue to write at Hubpages for the experience and exposure - and maybe in some future time things might change and you might be able to get paid. Hubpages is a great site, with a good reputation and it is therefore a good place for any writer to be a member.

I wish you luck.