One of the number 1 questions that has been asked for the past several years is, How to Receive Funds from Paypal in Trinidad and Tobago.
You might recall in March that I had some news about Visa taking a decision and Paypal responding by blocking push payments or deposits to Visa Enabled cards for the Caribbean. Now that message is still coming up for MANY people across the region.
From my personal correspondence with Paypal, they have been addressing this on a case-by-case scenario. If you are someone experiencing issues from receiving international clients, you need to report the error message to Paypal and their account specialist will review your account to rectify the issue.
So without further adieu, let’s break down the Paypal payment process for us here in Trinidad and Tobago.
What You Need
Here are all of the things you need to receive money from Paypal if you are in Trinidad and Tobago:
- Visa Debit card from JMMB, Venture Credit Union, PSCU Credit Union or a Visa Credit Card from ANY bank except RBC. (Linx Visa Debit Cards CANNOT be connected to Paypal…Look for Linx Logo on Visa Debit cards)
- You need to ensure that your PayPal account is a Trinidad account. When registering, look at the bottom right-hand of the page and look at the flag to ensure you see Trinidad and Tobago. *If you created a US PayPal account and used a US address, you will need to close it and PayPal doesn’t allow you to transfer the money out of that account. Count that as a loss.
You can receive money internationally regardless if your account is a personal or a business account in Paypal.
JMMB and the banks listed only give out their Visa Debit cards when you open up personal accounts with them, so keep that in mind. The account can either be a Personal Chequings or Savings account to receive the Visa Debit Card.
Paypal usually takes a $5usd fee to manually deposit the funds to your account but because of Covid, they are waiving that fee. The processing fee is currently at 5.4% per transaction in USD.
Most people either have instant deposits to their JMMB or VISA cards, that show up within minutes or Paypal has put their account on a 30-day hold before releasing the funds. This is completely up to PayPal and their review of your account.
Paypal also reserves the right to not grant you access to receiving the funds at all, so try doing a small test amount to see if they give you access to receive those funds.
Paypal also does a free 1x Per Month transfer to your bank account that happens on the first of every month. This is what they called their “Automatic Transfer”.
You can also check out a full video of the process right here.
Start Watching from the 23rd minute. I provide a FULL walk-through of the entire process, from setting it up to depositing the funds.
Using Wise With Paypal in Trinidad and Tobago
You can also use the Virtual Bank service Wise to receive money from PayPal. Wise will allow you to connect its virtual account to PayPal, it will receive the money from PayPal to the Wise wallet and then wire transfer the money to ANY bank account! If you want your funds to go directly to your business account, this is the best option for you.
It doesn’t matter if the account is a Chequings or Savings, Wise will wire transfer the money to any account with any bank.
Here’s how it works!
- You will need to create a Personal Wise account, do not use a business account as it has not rolled out in the Caribbean.
- Fill out all the information for the Personal Wise account and it will ask you to pay a registration fee of $20usd with a credit card or you can wire transfer the funds from your bank. You will get the money back after registration.
- Wise will allow you to sign up for an account in almost any currency but for standard use, sign up for a USD account.
- Wise will give you the Bank Info with a routing number and account number. Take that information and add it to the bank account section in PayPal. When adding the account, if PayPal says that “You need help adding this account to PayPal”, then you will need to CALL them and ask them to have the account added. If you message their chat team, they will not add it, you must CALL them.
- Get the SWIFT code for your local bank or Routing number and register the bank account to Wise under the Recipient section. This is the local bank account that Wise will deposit the funds into.
- All of the fees are listed on Wise website and the funds take about 2-4 business days once you withdraw from Wise, to show up in your local bank account.
Using Colour From Wipay To Receive Funds From Paypal
This is something that everybody in Trinidad and Tobago can do. You can receive your funds from PayPal and deposit the money into your Colour account. The benefit to this is that now you have an official way from a local company to receive these funds without having to go and sign up for a bank account as mentioned above.
With Colour, you can apply for their Colour Visa Debit card. Downloading the app and creating an account is free, you can order the card and it will cost $100ttd, which they will then mail you the card. Once you receive the card, you will add it to your PayPal account as shown in the videos above.
What Happens When The Funds Hit Your Colour Account
- You can leave the funds in your Colour app and use the Colour card to spend the money. You can use the card at ATMs or at Point of Sales.
- You can connect your Bank account to the Colour App, and then deposit the funds from the Colour App into your local bank accounts in Trinidad and Tobago.
Adding The Colour Card To Your PayPal:
- Select Pay & Get Paid
- Click on Banks and Cards
- Under Credit & Debit Cards, Select “Link a Card”
- Enter in the Colour Card Number and Details
- Click “Link Card”
Download the Colour App from any of the app stores or you can download it from the Colour Website.
That’s all you need to receive money from PayPal in Trinidad and Tobago.
I hope this is the missing link for some of you to finally get past the hurdle of receiving payments online or from international clients. If you have a question that has not been answered in this article or the videos, you can contact me here —> Contact.
Hi Keron,
Great article, thank for the update. Can you specify the time frame for transfers to the card? Or does it go case by case or by transaction type?
It’s either going to be instant or a 30 day hold…Paypal determines that though based on your account. All of my deposits are instant to my JMMB account.
This is awesome, I am building out my ecommerce space and I need a seemless way to collect payments. O’m in Tobago however, is there a way for me to set up a JMMB account from here.
Thank you for this informative article.
Does the JMMB card and account still accept Paypal payments?
I know that things have changed a bit.
Yes they do.
This is so good to know . Didn’t realize that’s what was up. Now I know how to fix it .
Is your paypal account a business one? Or personal? Great video and thanks for this!
I have a personal and business…I can receive on both.
Did you need to connect a credit card for persons to send you money on your personal account
Hey if I want to link my PayPal to RBC credit card for payments, it can’t work ?
What else can I do? Would it work for fcb?
You can use any of the options listed on this page or in the video.
Nice! I saw this article posted on Facebook and I’m glad I read it!
I have an RBC Visa credit card linked on paypal and they have actually stopped transfers to the card citing that the service is no longer available for my region. I therefore have funds in paypal right now that I cannot get on my card. They also do not allow me to use the funds in paypal for payments because of my region. I contacted them on both issues before and they simply say that it’s because of my region and there is basically nothing I can do.
Hey…Sent you an email regarding this.
Hi, this is also the problem I am having with my RBC credit card. Based on your article, I should try to open an JMMB account; any other option with my current set up?
Thanks for the useful information Keron.
Thanks for taking the time to write the article and create the video demonstration. I really appreciate it especially since you had previously wrote about PayPal blocking payments to Visa.
Are the payments settled in USD or TTD? If TTD, how can I get payments settled in USD?
Hey Allan…You used to be be able to keep Paypal funds in USD by depositing it to your RBL VTM Card…So for those who still have one active, it stays in USD. If you don’t have one, unfortunately there is no way to keep it in USD in Trinidad. You will need to open up a US bank account.
Hey thanks a mill for relaying this information. Via jmmb is the fund’s received converted to ttd or remains in usd?
Thanks a million for this information.
Just sold my first story to a US magazine who are paying me via PayPal next month. I’ve been at my wits’ end trying to figure out how to access this and future funds from PayPal.
I’ll be off to JMMB as soon as possible to open an account!.
Hi the jmmb account is it a us or tt account
TT account
Has Scotiabank restricted access to sending funds from PayPal to the new Visa Debit Card if shopping online locally?
All LINX Visa Debit cards, cannot be connected to Paypal period…It’s not a Scotia thing, it’s across the board…Only card that can connect to Paypla is JMMB.
Hi Keron! How long does it take for your VTM Card to be credited with funds from PayPal?
You get it within a few minutes.
Good afternoon, Would a personal savings account at JMMB be suffice to link succes6with PayPal. Just asking since I know that they have different types of accounts.
JMMB ONLY gives Visa Debit cards to personal accounts.
Wow! It has been 2 weeks and I am yet to receive my funds. Sigh.
I used RBC Credit Card before and it doesn’t work anymore. Is it that I need a JMMB Credit card to retrieve my funds from Paypal?
RBC blocked the ability to receive Paypal Funds…as the article states…Yes, you can deposit funds into Jmmb, Venture Credit Union and PSCU has just been added to the list.
Hello, how are you? I am a freelancer at a company in the UK there method of payment is via PayPal unfortunately I don’t have a visa debit card, I am going soon to open a JMMB account, by the meantime can the company send the money to my PayPal account and can I use it to shop or make payments online?
No, you can’t, you can only deposit the funds to one of the accounts listed, you won’t be able to do anything else with the funds in the wallet.
Hi Keron,
Do I need to connect the visa debit card to PayPal before I begin receiving funds into account?
No you don’t…the money will sit in your wallet.
Hi Keron, thanks for your article and video. Should the JMMB card be the visa debit card or a visa credit card?
It can be either…Visa Debit from JMMB or a Visa Credit Card from anybody except RBC.
Hi Keron,
Thanks for the article, it has helped, a lot.
This is a bit different, but hopefully you can help. I have the JMMB debit card attached to my PayPal account, is there a limit on how much money I can send to someone else’s PayPal account, in USD?
You gotta ask PayPal…I dont know about the sending, i only help businesses receive money.
I dont have an account do u need a bank account for paypal if no i want to open an account
Yes, you need a bank account to withdraw the Paypal funds.
My Paypal account was registered under Trinidad/Tabago by mistake, but it is supposed to be South Africa.
Right now I am unable to withdraw the finances that are in my PayPal account. I want to transfer it to another Paypal account but I am unable to. I also want to cancel my card from Paypal as I need to open a new Paypal account but I first need to get the finances from the old one and then I can open a new one with the same email. I only have a South African Bank
Unfortunately, PayPal won’t let you take the funds out first. That money is essentially dead.
Does wise still allow you to withdraw to a personal RBL TTD account? I am doing this for the first time to get money from my Paypal to tt account but I am not seeing TTD listed. Would it still work if I enter the tt account information and the USD will be converted to TTD? Or is it strictly to local USD accounts now? Any info will be greatly appreciated.
You have to open a USD account with Wise and when it wires the money to your bank, your bank will convert the USD to whatever the denomination your account is in. So if it’s TTD, you will receive TTD.
can a visa debit card from UTC work to access funds from Pay pal?
Naw, UTC doesn’t work.
A blessing. Wish I had found this article sooner. I’m wondering which credit union listed here would be the better of the two. Looked them up and they both seem usable for my purpose. Wished in TT there were more in depth reviews about companies and banks