Online Transactions through Paypal in Kenya

TAKING SAFETY OF ONLINE TRANSACTIONS ONE STEP HIGHER

Using Paypal In Kenya

This article addresses the steps to making online trading in Kenya a notch higher in safety through the use of Paypal. Paypal rightfully boast to be the safer and easier way to pay without exposing your credit card or bank account details. The added advantages in securing your online trading include 24/7 monitoring to help prevent fraud 100% protection from unauthorized payments. Using Paypal to conduct your online transactions also ensure speed through checkout while shopping online. To top it all, you can sign up this account online for free! Would you dare say no to this?

This is the link to create your own free Paypal account

 

In Kenya, many people who have Paypal accounts have complained that they are not able to Link and confirm their credit or debit cards so they are left with no option but to directly key in their debit or credit cards information into multiple merchant sites hence endangering their finances. The good news now is that it is possible to use the M-Pesa Pre-Pay Safari Card to link and confirm the Paypal account. Once you have activated your Mpesa Pre-pay Safari card online in the Online banking section of the Website, you will be ready to go.

 In my previous post on M-Pesa Pre-Pay Safari Card; the safer way to online transactions  you will get more information about this card.

For those who to take the full advantage of Paypal; the sending, receiving and withdrawing cash using Paypal, there is need to proceed into a higher notch. This is done through opening an account with ePAY-KENYA. This site rightly boasts to be the gateway to global payment. I have this account and I got it free, you too can get one for free. They charge absolutely to open the account; just like Paypal.

This is the link to create your own free ePAY-KENYA account.

The process of opening the account is so simple; they will require to verify your Paypal account first. Fill in your details in the ePAY-KENYA account form and for verification of your account you will need to upload your clear scanned copy of your identity card – make sure you scan and send both sides of your identity card or passport to the email address they provide. When your account is verified, you will automatically receive instructions on how to withdraw.

To add funds into your Paypal account you use the Deposit money option under the Payments Menu once you have logged into your account. You will need to specify the amount of money you need to deposit into your Paypal account in US dollars. There is a minimum amount that you can transfer into your Paypal account and is usually specified in the page. Since sending the money to ePAY-KENYA is commonly done using Mpesa which is done in Kenya Shillings, there is need to calculate the total amount to deposit in Kenya shillings before using Online Purchase option. There is also the need to use the currency converter to make sure that you send enough cash for your transaction. The process later requires the ePAY-KENYA’s account holder to send the required money using Mpesa to them using the account holder’s Safaricom line to their own line. Once the amount is confirmed as received the processing continues leading to addition of funds into the owner’s Paypal account. It is so simple. Please note that while depositing the money you will be charged 6% of the amount you deposit so you need to put this into consideration when making your calculations.

The next step after depositing the amount of money you want to fund your Paypal account with is going back to the Payment menu section of the ePAY KENYA website and go for the Withdraw Money option. Enter the amount you want to send to your Paypal account in the Amount to Withdraw in $ section. Note that the amount will be 3$ less when the funding finally happens because the charges in this section is $3. For the Method of payment that you want, select Paypal, it is the first option. Give this step about 24 hours to be effected, though it does at times take much shorter time than this. The next step requires you to specify the Paypal account that you want funded. Once you have done that and verified, the ePAY KENYA people will effect the funding of your Paypal account. 

To make a clear go on funding your Paypal account; before you begin the transaction do a simple calculation on how much money you will need to send to the ePAY KENYA. If you want to fund Paypal with $10, at the deposit section you will need more than $10. Working backwards, add the $3 for withdrawal to the $10 you need funded to your Paypal account, increase the total amount by 6%.

$10 + $3= $13. Then consider 6% of $13. In total you need at least $14. 

I personally called the ePAY KENYA people after going through the funding of Paypal account process and had a wonderful conversation with them. They told me that they had been in business with Paypal for the last 4 years without disruptions at the time of the writing of this article! It is great to swim with the big fish. Oh and I was the first person to call them and query them about their services since the Mpesa funding actually goes into a Safaricom line that is registered to an individual that I will not mention here for respect and security purposes. Have no fear, the company is clean.

The ePAY KENYA services are the best I have seen so far and I look forward to using them more. Many have come and gone but ePAYKENYA stands out. Why don’t you get an account with them and learn more of their services, there is a lot to gain from this people. May they live forever!

You can use Oanda to perform a reliable currency conversion.

To withdraw funds that you may have received through your Paypal account, you still use your ePAY-KENYA account. This is done using the Withdraw Money Option under the Payments Menu once you have logged into your ePAY-KENYA account. You will need to specify the amount of money that you desire to withdraw. Make sure you specify an amount higher than the minimum allowed as well as how you intend to receive the money from your Paypal account. Living in Kenya, you are spoilt for choices. It depends on what cellular network you are in. 

In simpler language what I am saying is; you have no reason to deny yourself the platinum opportunity to trade online. Your business online can range from:

• Buying ebooks- An ebook like Millions of Robots that is already online
• Buying digital products like softwares and games
• Affiliate Marketing- mine offers me the opportunity to market the products on the site and also list my own such that having an online shop is at the tip of my fingers. You too can enjoy the wide online market filled with awesome products here.
• Selling your products online. A good place to start is by joining the ecommerce association here.
• Participating in online auctions to get great products at amazing discounts up to 90%!

The choices go on and on. You have no reason to limit your business to your local market. Go online, the coast is clear!

M-Pesa Pre-Pay Safari Card; the safer way to online transactions

SAFE ONLINE TRANSACTION IN KENYA

Due to the increased use of technology; many businesses desire to trade internationally. Buying and selling of products across the borders of different continents is now a need than it was a few years ago hence shrinking the entire world into a palm-sized global village!

Business entrepreneurs today desire to trade with their fellows far and wide. Sometimes this kind of trading involves buying and selling eBooks or huge products and machinery; there are no limits in online trading. Not anymore.

The need to fully pay for a product or service or even to down pay for the same has left many people in search for safer ways to conduct the online transactions.

A few years ago, the most common way of buying a product or services online was through the use of credit cards. But this came with its own share of woes which was largely contributed by hackers who broke into companies’ servers and stole credit cards information belonging to the companies’ clients and hence the clients’ hard earned cash.

To some great extent the customers lost huge amounts of cash and as a result most of these clients and would-be clients shied away from online transactions. What a drawback in e-business!

In some countries, banks issuing credit cards currently follow closely the online transactions that their clients get involved in so as to protect their clients from the hackers. They also educate their clients accordingly so that they are able to make informed decisions when transacting online.  Some banks even go as far as blocking the credit cards should they be suspicious of some seemingly unusual activities involving the client’s credit card and online payments. It then becomes the client’s business to follow up with the bank and assure the bank that they are fully accountable for the online activities that involves their cards. Painful but very good!

For a long while now, credit cards are not only the only way to transact online. A great number of Visa debit cards are now used to transact online payments as well.

Using a Visa debit card is a viable method of paying for online transactions. The threat in using a debit card happens when the hacker is able to steal the debit card details and access the bank account of the client hence being able to mysteriously withdraw cash from the client’s bank account posing as the client.

This leaves the online trader with the option of using prepaid Visa cards that are not locked to any bank account at all. This means that the prepaid card is pre-loaded with the amount of cash required for the transactions that need to be done and then used to pay for those transactions. The prepaid card can be left empty after the transaction or blocked immediately after the transaction. Isn’t that amazing?

In Kenya, one such Visa Prepaid card is the famous brainchild of Kenya’s largest cellular network, Safaricom and a top bank in the country, I&M Bank.  The M-Pesa Pre-Pay Safari Card. This card resembles an ordinary Visa electron card physically and give almost the same services as an ordinary debit card but with one major difference that makes it the best card to use for your online transactions; it has no bank account linked to it though it is acquired from I&M Bank. Funny huh?
 
What does this mean to the online traders in Kenya? You no longer have to fear buying and selling online anymore. 

The other unique features of this card other than the fact that it is prepaid include:

1.       Cash is loaded directly from M-pesa, the Safaricom’s money transfer service. This allows any Safaricom subscriber to easily load cash into the card using the paybill option in the M-pesa menu on the subscriber’s phone. 

2.       The M-Pesa Pre-Pay Safari Card can be used to withdraw cash from any Visa ATM worldwide. This helps the client to take off any remaining cash from the card in case there is need to do so.

3.       The card is also viable for making purchases from any Visa merchants’ shops, restaurants and supermarkets like the famous Tuskys Supermarket.

4.       The best of them all, The M-Pesa Pre-Pay Safari Card is the most friendly and safe card to use while making online purchases. It gives you free online access to your online activities such as last ten transactions, statement, activating and deactivating the card among other facilities. This is done through I&M Bank’s website in the pre-paid section of the website. 

5.       One more plus for The M-Pesa Pre-Pay Safari Card is that it can be used to verify the Paypal account for the bearer of the card once it is activated on the I&M Bank’s website

The M-Pesa Pre-Pay Safari Card is easily purchased from the I&M Bank branches and Safaricom shops countrywide, there is no reason not to have one leave alone trading insecurely online if you are living in Kenya.  It actually takes less than 2 hours on a busy day at the bank bearing in mind that Safaricom network rarely experiences hitches.

 The goodies about this card are not left for those residing in Kenya only. This card is actually an international pre-paid Visa card that needs only to be pre-loaded with funds, in Kenya Shillings that can be used to by a card owner to withdraw cash in any currency from over 1.6 million Visa ATMs worldwide as well as to make purchases at over 28 million shops and other merchant outlets worldwide. The M-Pesa Pre-Pay Safari Card can be reloaded for continued usage using your M-Pesa and residual balances can also be refunded.

Don’t go wrong in running your online business, pay for your goods and services using your M-Pesa Pre-Pay Safari Card now!