PayPal Stops Personal Payments Sent To and From India

Today Paypal reversed advertisement earnings from a top advertising network from our PayPal account citing that they had “stopped allowing personal payments to be sent to or from India.” Here is the email we received explaining why the payment was returned back.

Your payment of 123456 has been sent back to the sender of the payment. We reversed this payment because we have stopped allowing personal payments to be sent to or from India.

If this was a payment for a purchase of goods or services, and not a personal payment, then you may contact the buyer and have him or her resend the payment as follows:  (a) click the Send Money tab, (b) select “Goods,” and (c) provide a shipping address.

If this payment was a personal payment such as a gift, then we have requested that the sender find another payment method until we restore personal payments to and from India. We are trying to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and we’re sorry for any inconvenience. Thank you, PayPal

Here is what the Paypal send money screen looks like

Advertisement earnings or affiliate commissions are not personal gifts. So if your affiliate payment money transfer or advertising income payment has to be done, it means the payer needs to select Goods as the reason for payment, or the funds will be sent back if your PayPal account lists you are based in India.

Update (Feb 4): Anuj from Paypal has confirmed in the comments

Personal payments to and from India have been suspended while we address some questions from our business partners. You can still make commercial payments. We’re trying to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and we’re sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Update (Feb 5): Binary Turf managed to get a paypal customer support reply.

Personal Payment – Send Money for India Accounts

· India customers are no longer able to see the option to send a Personal payment on the Send Money page

· They can continue to use other payment options, such as eBay checkout.

If this was a payment for a purchase of goods or services, and not a personal payment, then you may contact the buyer and have him or her resend the  payment as follows: (a) click the Send Money tab, (b) select ‘Goods’, and (c) provide a shipping address.

If this payment was a personal payment, such as a gift to a friend or family  member, then we request that you find another payment method until we restore personal payments to and from India.

Although India customers are unable to send Personal payments, they are still receiving Personal payments from Non India customers.

· In order to stop ALL Personal payments TO and FROM India accounts, we have started reversing Personal payments sent by Non India customers starting today. (the only exception will be in cases where the buyer has included a shipping address – we don’t want to delay any shipment of goods)

· Emails will be sent to both sender and recipient to let them know why the money was returned and what options they have to proceed forward. (see attached for  examples)

· We are also in the process of implementing a change on the website to automatically stop the payment from processing, rather than waiting to reverse the payment. We will send you additional updates as soon as we have more details.

The Personal payment option on the International Send Money page has been updated and India has been removed from the ‘select a country’ drop down list.

· If the payment was for a purchase of goods or services, and not a personal payment, then the buyer may resend the payment to the seller by following these steps on the PayPal website: (a) click the Send Money tab, (b) select ‘Goods’, and (c) provide a shipping address.

Update: The Paypal payment block will continue for a few months pending dispute with Indian regulatory authorities.