There finally seems to be a legitimate, trustworthy way for Kenyans in Kenya to access their PayPal money quickly and easily: PayMPESA.
In case you are new here, some time last year PayPal did us a favour and made it possible to maintain a PayPal balance with a “Kenyan” PayPal account. This meant that we could finally receive money via PayPal in Kenya. However, withdrawing that money turned out to be a whole other story. Why? Because PayPal has no relationship (currently) with local banks. They need this in order to allow “Kenyan” PayPal accounts the ability to withdraw to a local, Kenyan, bank account. In plain English, this means that you can have money in PayPal but you cannot take it out.
The only way to take it out – and this is what PayPal themselves recommend – is to withdraw to a US bank account. Unfortunately, not many Kenyans have one so this is a very real and very serious problem when it comes to dealing with PayPal from Kenya.
Until now. With PayMPESA, all you have to do is to deposit your PayPal funds with them, and they will send it to you in Kenya via MPESA. Nice, eh? I think they are onto something very, very lucrative here and I wish them massive success.
Have you tried it yet? What do you think?
Paympesa are just dubious con men. I requested payments on October 3rd 2011. Order #233, I have not received any money to date (Jan 2012). I will not advise any Kenyan to use this guys. I am making an article to the “Cutting Edge” Daily nation on the same
@Raphael you should have filed a dispute before 45 days elapsed. Mine was #236 by Paypal got my money back. Sorry about that though.
Kevin of paympesa, kindly do the honorable thing and pay Raphael his money. In as much as epay-kenya are perceived to be expensive, I think in retrospect, they are cheaper if you value trustworthiness and time. I am yet to come across any blog where anyone has been corned by them. epay-kenya, keep it up and consider reducing your rates. I use your services on regular basis and I must say your service level is excellent.
I am looking for the like button on George’s statement. I Agree with you 101%. At the end of the day, cheap is expensive. E-pay might be expensive but with the customer service and timely service you get, you cannot even begin to compare with companies in Kenya. I join George in saying kudos to e-pay!
Crystal, thank you for sharing the same sentiments. You’ve summed it all …..Cheap can be expensive.
AM IN NAIROBI WHAT ARE THE SIMPLEST PROCEDURES AM I GOING TO USE PLEASE?
If you are in Kenya, and you want to withdraw from Paypal, the best bet is Epay.
People are so stupid. Whenever you are doing online transactions. Always look for https:// URL link.
The HTTPS:// instead of HTTP:// is just the only thing to look for before getting scammed.
People just go around the web thinking that they know everything. Know security, in fact stop facebook facebooking or watching porn and Google or learn about online security.
First off, this site sucks by giving people wrong information.
Just to add Bobby, the HTTPS should not be only thing you should be on the lookout for because it means that they have an SSL certificate, which you can buy from any web hosting company like Godaddy. Personally, I rely on what other people are saying about the website before I go ahead and do any transaction.
PS: Likechapaa is a site with a lot of useful information.
I agree with Albert. The true test of integrity is not on the SSL certificate as this simply ensures encryption of sensitive data to deter identity theft through phishing. There are sights that are secured but do not necessarily display the https. The best test for these is to type the https: and see whether the site loads. It is easier to check for scams through search engines/blogs and all tools available on the net today. Bobby’s point regarding cyber thieves should not be taken for granted as they do exist and the http feature could be a lead into further research. Now that we are at it, watch out for this site: http://paycashexchange.info. Now these are professional scammers as I have been a victim. The owner of the site pretends that he can help you convert paypal or moneybookers or alertpay earnings into KES through western union. AVOID this site!
@albert send me details about the american visa card at duncankabue@gmail.com,
has anybody tried trincmoney dot com? i saw that they do paypal to mpesa transactions
Anybody ever heard of TrINC Money or more precisely used it?
They are relatively new in this business. They seem to be offering good terms from their site though am not sure how long it takes for them to deliver. One thing is for sure though. Paypal will certainly catch up with them (just a matter of time) and when they do, they will track the accounts from which money has been transferred to their their account and chances of these accounts being limited are very high. This is what has happened to PayMpesa. Just a word of caution if you want to try them out.
@Crystal didnt know about it but just visited their website n they brought up a frame ‘Paypal to Mpesa. have you tried it to conform its legitimacy. would be agreat plus!
I haven’t tried them but I just talked to someone over there. What they do is you send money to their paypal address and they send you money within an hour. Will try them out next week and see how it goes. If they con me…………………..you will definitely hear about it!
You should do a small amount test first
somebody tell me if paypal link with mpesa really waks
I agree with all of u… we all have our different experiences, for me as a writer i have been receiving all my payment from pay pal to mpesa or bank transfer via paypoa for over an year now… cheap rates and an undisputed service… it free to open an account
hi caroline am a writer but receiving payments has been difficult. will you kindly advise me on how to transfer paypal to my mpesa account
Just so you know TrINC works and works fast. Got my money within 15 minutes via Mpesa today. They also called me the first time to inform me my transaction is being processed and it was before 8:00am :-). And what I like about TrINC is I am able to calculate how much I will get even before transaction, not in percentages but in Kenyan Shillings. Epay officially has a competitor!
I am glad to hear this because some feedback being left here: http://likechapaa.com/2012/01/trinc-money-mpesa-paypal-service/ is not so nice. Thanks for the update!
i used http://www.epesamoney.com to withdraw $15 dollars i checked within an hour and i had ksh 1200 on my mpesa Damn this is good i recommend guys to use it and they are much cheaper by far from epay or any other service …..
I do not mind giving them a trial but my greatest fear is that they are doing this business directly with paypal, meaning they can be shut any time. This would definitely jeopardize my paypal account. I have friends who have fallen victims of such circumstances.
This issue is really a pain in the aaaa! I wonder why Kenyans banks don’t take up this opportunity as it’s very lucrative. Apparently trincmoney doesn’t work directly with paypal and so it is only a matter of time till they catch up with them. And what normally follows is getting your account blocked if you had any transactions with any of these money transfer. But meanwhile trincmoneyis the best better rates that epay, they are on call and its took me less than an hour to get my money.
Have Trinc followed the Paympesa route? Their service is no longer available and their facebook page has also disappeared! Someone, pls clarify what is happening.
Cathy here is the email we received:
Good Morning,
It is with regret that we announce the temporary suspension of the Trincmoney Service. This announcement comes at a time that we are reviewing our partnerships with MPESA, PayPal and our supporting bank in order to improve our service delivery standards to our customers.
We will advise when we are ready to resume a better Trincmoney service.
Apologies for any inconveniences caused.
Warmest Regards,
Sebastian Wafula
Customer Support | TrINC Money
M: 254 707 180 874
Thanks Chrystal. They must have landed on the wrong side of paypal. We wish them well. We must however be cautious with service providers dealing directly with paypal. A few of my friends who were using Trinc Money also had their accounts limited for 180 days. I guess I will have to confine myself to epay under such circumstances.
Anyone who has ever tried paypesa http://www.paypesa.com? I have withdrawn with them last week and I received my money in 4 days. Though many days are many, I am happy that I received my money within the time which I was promised.
One more thing I like about paypesa is that you can track the progress and status of your order. So I was not anxious at all.
Anyone with same experience or another?
hi people,
thank you very much for info you share here.
am new in this and was checking to see how i can get my cash from paypal.
can anyone suggest to me the lasted mode they have used to get their cash from paypal to their account or mpesa.
I think people get it either very skewedly wrong or they dont, at all!!!
I got this from a paypal agent on the 24th of April. so when you stand there tall cheating people on how easy it is to withdraw from Paypal, I yawn…old story smelling fishy and uninformed….
To withdraw your available PayPal account, you must add a US bank account. The option to add your local bank is not available for some countries including Kenya, however, you still have the option to use your balance when sending payments. You cannot withdraw your balance to your card or to your local bank.
Secondly I have tried these local guys like eazypay and all they do is that someone in Kariobangi receives your money from paypal and sends you some mpesa cash from his pocket to later on use the cash that you transfered to them from Paypal. they have no standard charges, withdraw USD 15 today and get KShs. 1,000. try that the same tomorrow and you will get KShs. 400 for USD. 15!!
So when a person tries to cheat people there is a way you can withdrwal from paypal when in Kenya they are just out to SCAM you.
Get your payments via the normal ways like bank transfer or better still why not try moneybookers and you will be having cash in your bank account in three days! Afterall paypal is not the only way to send money or receive it.
PLEASE GO FOR KNOWN AND LICENSED MONEY DEALERS…..Not Jacks and Toms from the downtown streets….
Being scammed has become the norm of the day, but not when yo do your research well…Was a little bit mad for getting conned but thanks to you I went to E-pay and I got my money from PayPal..
much as PayPal don’t like the KYC standards in Kenya, we got genius minds at work.
Just proves how Kenyan banks are behind.
Kudos E-pay! and thank you Like Chapaa (sic) although too little too late.
I want use E Pay to receive money from the PayPal will it work?
@James, see comment below by Esther. Yes, epay is by far the most credible service provider irrespective of what you read below from Megg!! You might be less ignorant about epay than him/her.
web sites dealing with money should be secure …https ….epay can not afford to pay 900$ dollas for the site to be secure. How are they going to pay me? con men !!!!!!
I am not sure which browser you are using Megg. I however wish to assure you that our site is secured with a 228 bit Geotrust (which FYI cost more than your USD 900 guideline). We have however only secured the sensitive pages including our back of the house system as it is the one which hosts all the sensitive data. Any con man can afford to buy a security certificate, and that is why our website security is pegged on other fundamentals including implementation of a sound KYC (Know Your Customer) program, partnering with a Payment Gateway which has invested Millions of USD in fraud management systems and one which assures our customers that their accounts will not be limited by Paypal as is the case with many other providers who claim to be ‘cheaper’ than ePAY-KENYA. If you care to follow remarks of our customers through blogs and other media for the last 4 years, you will not find a single comment associating ePAY with fraud or the very common phrase ‘running away with my hard earned cash’ like is the case with the ‘cheap’ service providers who in many cases last a month on average. In conclusion, and before you rush to using such words as ‘con men’ when describing a legitimate business, do your homework more thoroughly and you will discover that there is more to a website security than just a https: prefix. If you are representing our competitor, we appreciate that but then use credible facts to push your agenda. If you are an innocent potential client, I have demystified the https:// illusion and you are welcome to join our happy ePAY family where you are guaranteed to get your money within the hour. You may be at ease to note that we are the first to introduce an uncensored Community Forum (https://epay-kenya.com/forum, note the https://) on our site, a platform that allows members to discuss ePAY related issues freely. What more can I say my friend Megg?????
@James, I realize Esther’s comment has been deleted for some reason and I thought it was a reasonable response to Megg’s concerns. I can however assure you that your money is safe with epay-kenya. I am not a tech person to know about the https but I know epay lays a lot of emphasis in fraud prevention and I also think they are very transparent in their dealings. You can also google to see what other users have to say about them. Give them a try.
Her comment was not deleted, it was awaiting moderation. Now visible.
I am glad you noticed the censorship of my comment to Megg, the more reasons I start doubting his identity and intentions. Nevertheless, I will reiterate that ePAY website is secured by a 228 bit GEOTRUST Certificate and that only sensitive pages plus back of the house system is fully secured as this contains all the sensitive data. We could not survive as a business for 4 years if our site was insecure. Megg is free to join our ePAY Community Forum which gives more insight to different aspects of our operation. It is also wrong and in bad taste to describe ePAY as ‘con men’ without legitimate basis. Such are the comments which should be censored in all fairness!!
Thanks for your clarification Kelvin! Phew, I was beginning to think Like Chapaa was under a serious attach by a hacker!
Not at all. We just get a lot of spam these day. A LOT. Therefore we have stricter controls. For example, if a comment contains one or more links it has to be verified by a human moderator before appearing. We do not like this any more than you, but we hate spam much, much more.
🙂
Is paypesa.com genuine?
Yes I’d like to hear some reviews on paypesa.com, as well as, epesamoney.com if anyone has had any recent experiences with them?
Also, I was trying to figure out if pesapal or jambopay let you transfer from paypal to mpesa – anyone have any experience w/ those? Thanks!!
Pesapal and Jambopay do not offer paypal to Mpesa. epesamoney stopped operations about 3 months ago and have had a ‘systems down’ notice since then. Be careful on the choice of provider you opt to transact with. There is not a single provider dealing with paypal directly in the name of ‘cheap services’ who has survived for more than three months. When such providers are shut down by paypal, this comes with negative consequences to customers in that their paypal accounts are limited and in many cases, the provider disappears with customers money like the case with paympesa. Take your time while researching on the provider to use. Rule of thumb, you might want to avoid any website which takes you directly to your paypal account to finalize your transaction or any website which requests you to transfer money directly from your paypal account to their paypal email address.
Thanks Patricia!! My research suggested the same, but wanted to confirm since I’m working on a business model and wanted to be extra sure 🙂
Aside question – Why is it so difficult to move from paypal to mpesa? Is it money laundering laws or just that paypal is difficult to work with? In that case, I wonder if there is opportunity to develop something with partners like amazon.com….
You guys…….use epay-kenya.com This is the only legitimate way to get your paypal fees
Hi guys, has anyone tried using paypesa of late? their website is out of service en when u try to login they say it fails….. who has experienced this to help us on which service to use now…
Hi let’s be realistic here.Epay-kenya.com has/is helping alot of people to withdraw their paypal balance.Epay-kenya.com we applause you for that.But this is a business venture and it has flaws,strength competition amongst others.
Epay-kenya.com may be the major player like safaricom in this market but there are small players like yu .So not every provider is a conman.food of the mind what if epay-kenya went under? will it be a fraud? If a bank or state can go under what about epay-kenya.com
There are providers like pesamo.com which provide better services with higher exchange rate and fast services.
So let’s not pollute or chase away genuine provider who are genuine and doing their best to get and serve their clients.
Last but not least no money is safe.Safe is hype anyone can create to make themselves safe
Is anyone even reading what this chic is saying? ati “Last but not least no money is safe.Safe is hype anyone can create to make themselves safe”. i guess we have the true picture of this pesamo.com..goodluck Rose in getting people who are ready to lose their money to you and your colleagues….as for me epay it is….4 years down the road and they have never disappointed me. they are not expensive anymore and i know am safe….
I tend to differ with your opinion Rose (assuming you are not Pesamo). What is it that made you get attracted to that site which bears all the features you can think of when describing scam? Are you trying to tell us that offering a higher exchange rates than competitors is indeed a competitive edge?? May be you might be new to this blog site but some of us have been here long enough to see such websites come by day and disappear by night with their clients’ money. Your obscure definition of safety does not add merit to your post as to most readers, Safety comes before rates.
Guys be careful regarding the previous comment posted by Rose about pesamo.com. That site might turn out to be a scam for these 2 simple reasons:
1. It is not a secure site (Doesn’t have an SSL certificate e.g. https:// where the S means its a secure site)
2. It is hosted by a free hosting service provider (000webhost.com). How do you entrust your money to someone who can’t afford to pay for a decent web hosting service for as low as 1,000 a year?
My guess is the owner of this site wants to get quick money and get out when complains start streaming in. Don’t risk your money, however small it is, it’s better to go with Epay Kenya that we already know of.
Be safe, you’ve worked hard for your money, don’t let some guy just rip you off
Pesamo it is now? Kenyans be weary of these never relenting bunch of conmen who keep changing their business names after every two months or so….previous names will be withheld for confidentiality for now. The expiry of their business name is ALWAYS characterized by going underground (as they look for the next name) with people’s cash. Take a quick look at the site! and the layout, language, identity non-disclosure, inability to secure site, non-clarity of concept which gives you the impression of getting into a maze, (the list is endless) will simplify your verdict. If you are interested in losing your money in pursuit of cheapness, pesamo is an ideal platform. Good luck.
Kevin the year is ending…………some time back you hinted that we would be able to withdraw from PayPal directly……..I am still waiting, 2 more months 🙁 I pity the people who are forever looking for a new way to withdraw from PayPal since the ones they use always go under after a few months. I mean since this thread started how many pay blah blah and pesa blah blah have been discussed? Wenye macho hawaambiwi tazama. Kudos to Esther and the team Epay is the only solid Rock!!
I too thought that we would have an easy to work with system that allowed us to access our PayPal monies but, alas, there seems to be nothing new 🙁
Kevin, have you tried KenyaPesa? They deliver within 24 hours and their rates are very reasonable.
Has anyone used kenyapesa? I have checked the website, seems not bad, but I have not tried them thou.
I have tried kenyapesa and it works
kenyapesa aint working, same to pesagram and epay what else????????
Yes, KenyaPesa has written to it’s customers (Including me) that they have been warned by PayPal against such money services. They are working on better ways to provide the services, but as of now, they aren’t working. Hope they get better ways of doing it though.
Helo friends, I tried to sign up to Epay and got this message that they’ll be suspending paypal withdrawals as from Monday….which other site can I use please?
try payoneer, they’re cheap and easy to use