Xoom, a PayPal Service for worldwide money transfer may be the most expected PayPal solution to move funds from other parts of the world to Africa.
Though this isn’t solving the problem of African freelancers and digital entrepreneurs receiving online paymentsv from service platforms, it allows them to receive money from family and friends.
PayPal’s Xoom allows someone in USA, Canada, Europe, etc, with a valid PayPal account to transfer money to from PayPal to Nigeria, Cameroon and other third world countries. Funds can be moved straight to Bank Account or Direct Pickup through partner agencies.
[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://enstinemuki.com/Xoom’ target=’_blank’ size=’medium’ align=’aligncenter’]Create A Free Xoom Account[/thrive_link][click_to_tweet tweet=”How to receive PayPal Payments in Cameroon, Nigeria and other Not-covered countries” quote=”How to receive PayPal Payments in Cameroon, Nigeria and other Not-covered countries”]
Transfer PayPal Funds to Cameroon for instant Picktup
If you are out of Cameroon and you’d like to make secured money transfer to Cameroon (from your PayPal Balance) without risk of compromising your Card data, you’ve got to try out Xoom.
The advantages are many:
- Low fees
- Recipient can pickup anywhere in Cameroon
- You can make direct Bank Deposit to all Banks in Cameroon
- Transfer is quick and secured
First, go open a free Xoom account here. Signup using existing PayPal Account or use email.
Sending money is quite easy and straight to the point:
Go to Quick Send -> Send Money tab and select the country from the list of countries covered. We are going with Cameroon for the sake of this demo
Sending $1000 from USA to Cameroon only costs $2,99. That’s amazing right? And the exchange rate isn’t inflated.
Now, you have two options to receive the funds in Cameroon:
- Bank Deposit (All mojor banks supported)
- Cash Pickup.
Let’s move on with the Cash Pickup method:
At the moment of writing, Cash Pickup is available at Banque Atlantic, First Trust, ECPC Credit Populaire and Exchange House SARL. I know this will rapidly grow with time.
The next step is to fill out the recipient form:
Note that the recipient will need a valid ID document to receive the funds. The names you fill on this form should match names on his/her document.
NB: If you have enough funds in your PayPal Balance to cover the transaction, that will be available for use.
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Some commonly asked questions addressed by Xoom:
- How to receive PayPal payments in Cameroon
- Can I receive PayPal payments in Cameroon
- How to withdraw PayPal in Cameroon
- How to open PayPal account that receive money in Nigeria
- How to withdraw from PayPal to Nigeria bank account
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Top up mobile Phone in Cameroon, Nigeria and Africa with PayPal
Let me walk you through the process of buying airtime for any phone Number in Cameroon (MTN and ORANGE). I don’t have Nextell this moment to try out.
Go to Quick Start -> Reload Phones
Then Select the phone country, enter the number you want to recharge or select from the list:
Xoom will automatically detect the carrier and if the number is valid. Again, this is quick and cheap. They have a flat rate of 1.49 USD per transaction to Cameroon and the maximum topup amount at the moment of writing was 19700. I don’t know if this is unique to my Xoom account.
NB: If you are running the app for the very first time, PayPal may require some authentication actions to make sure your account isn’t being pirated.
How to send money from PayPal to Pickup or Bank Account in Nigeria.
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Sending money from PayPal to a recipient in Nigeria is pretty same as in Cameroon. Of course you’ll have to select Nigeria from the list of countries:
Sending $1000 to Nigeria incurs low fees of $4,99. Though this is a bit on the upper side of the charges for Cameroon, it’s still quite competitive.
Like in Cameroon, there are two methods available in Nigeria:
- Bank Deposit (Deposits to all banks in Nigeria typically in minutes Banks include GT Bank, First Bank of Nigeria, and more)
- Cash Pickup
If you select the Bank Deposit method, you’ll need to select the bank and enter the recipient’s account number to continue:
Load a Mobile phone in Nigeria with Xoom
This is quite as simple as Cameroon. The only difference is you have to select Nigeria as your Mobile phone country:
Enter the phone number and Xoom is going to run some checks. You have four packages to choose from:
This action to Nigeria has a unique charge of 1.99 USD
Adding Recipients to Xoom list
One of the things you may want to do is to add recipients to your account. That way, each time you want to make payment, it would be easier to pick from the list.
Go to the left menu and click Recipients and then on Add Recipient button:
Xoom Money Transfer Payment Options
There are three payment options available for Xoomers:
- Bank Account
- Credit Card
- PayPal Balance
Xoom is a PayPal service so definitely, you can use your PayPal Balance to make payments. According to their website, “Your PayPal balance will appear as a payment option if you have enough available balance to pay for your Xoom transaction in full.”
How helpful is Xoom to Africans?
PayPal has been and it’s still the most secured Payment Processor online. However, many African countries and online entrepreneurs are left out.
The ease and PayPal security make it quite widely used. I think Xoom is their effort to safely expand to Africa and other third world countries in the money transfer industry.
As a freelancer who earns commissions on job platforms like UpWork, Fiverr,Freelancer, or as an author who sells stuffs online, you will need a valid foreign PayPal account to receive your funds. Xoom will help you move the funds to Africa at very competitive rate.
But if you have someone who wants to send you funds using Credit Card, Bank Deposit or PayPal, this is arguably the most affordable method.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”How to send funds from PayPal Balance to Nigeria, Cameroon and other African countries” quote=”How to send funds from PayPal Balance to Nigeria, Cameroon and other African countries” theme=”style1″]
Xoom Vs WorldRemit
For about a year now, I have been using WorldRemit to receive payments from USA and Europe. I have also received funds from PayPal through WR. Here is how it happens:
- You link a valid Bank account to PayPal
- Transfer funds from PayPal to the Bank Account
- Then attache the Bank Account to your WordRemit Account
- Move funds from your foreign Bank Account to local bank account, thanks to Worldremit
But I personally think Xoom is a serious thread to WR. The reason is at the level of charges and time. With WorldRemit, you loose a lot of money on the way. You will also need a Foreign Bank account to operate, which isn’t required with Xoom.
Conclusion
Let me know what you think about Xoom for money transfer and PayPal payment