What is PayPal?
I know you’ve heard of PayPal several times and if you know or do not know what it is, then this article explains it in detail and how to create PayPal account in Ghana and link your debit card.
PayPal is a financial company that provides worldwide online payment system transfer and receive money. PayPal serves as a digital alternative to our physical cash, cheque, and other forms of exchange for goods and services.
It allows you to purchase goods and services more securely. It also helps us to purchase and receive payments more easily especially from other countries and different currencies. Before we move to how to create a PayPal account in Ghana, let us look at some uses of PayPal. You can skip to the process.
Uses of PayPal
1. Purchase goods and services
PayPal can be used to purchase or buy items from physical stores (not common in Ghana) and most commonly online stores such as kikuu.com, alibaba.com, aliexpress.com, Amazon, etc.
Also, you can pay for a service using PayPal. Most service providers such as website designers, graphic designers, and others accept payments from PayPal.
Almost all freelancing platforms also accept PayPal.
2. Send and receive money from family and friends
With PayPal, you can send money to your relatives and friend within your country and other countries.
3. Accept Payment
Are you a business owner? You can use PayPal to accept payments from clients; which is more convenient. This account is best for Small and Medium Enterprises(SMEs).
Why is PayPal blocked in some countries?
Below is an extract from PayPal’s website that explains this question.
Also, most people think because of fraudulent activities, that is why Ghana has been blocked from using PayPal.
How to Create PayPal Account in Ghana (The process)
NB: We are going to create a business account that works perfectly fine as a personal account with additional features. The personal account won’t work in our case. This is because businesses can operate in more than one country.
Note the following
- We are going to use your valid or real details. Your name, phone number, address, nationality should be your own Ghana details. No fake stuff.
- We do not use VPN.
Creating your PayPal Account in Ghana
- Enter https://paypal.com/ls/ in the address bar of your web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge etc). This will direct you to Lesotho’s PayPal’s homepage.
- Click on Open Business account. Please do not click on Sign Up for Free.
- Enter your email address. Make sure you enter a valid email address that you have access to. You will need it to confirm your email account and click on Continue.
- Enter your password, make sure your password is up to 8 characters or more. Also, you have to choose a password that contains both upper and lower case letters, symbols and numbers. Make sure your password is memorable but not easy to guess. Click continue.
- The next page will ask you to tell them more about your business. If you have a business, make sure you give accurate details, but you can choose any name if you are creating the account for personal use. Take note: Your name and your phone number should be accurate. Do not use any US number, use your Ghana number. For the address, you can use your home address. Agree to their terms by checking the box and click Continue. The image below will guide you.
- You’ll be asked to describe your business. At this stage, you can select any and for the website section, you can skip it. Then click Continue.
- At this step as I said earlier, make sure you give valid details. Enter your date of birth, select Ghana as nationality. For the Identity document, you can select National ID and enter your Voters ID or Ghana Card ID number. You can check your business address as same as your home address. Click Continue.
- At this stage, you’re almost done creating your account. Follow the next step to confirm your account.
Confirming Your PayPal Account
- After you’ve successfully created your PayPal account by following the steps above, you have to confirm your email.
- Login to your email, you’ll receive three emails from PayPal.
- Look for the mail message sent from ‘PayPal Service” with the subject; “Confirm your email”.
- Open the email and click on the blue Confirm your Email button.
- You’ll be asked to enter your password to login to your account. Enter your password and click continue to confirm your email account.
- To check whether your email address has been successfully confirmed or not. Click on the gear icon (settings icon) located at the top right corner of your Paypal account page. Click on Your Profile from the dropdown menu. At the login and security tab, click on the update right after your email address, a new page will be opened for you, if you see primary under your email address then your email is confirmed else they will give you unconfirmed link to confirm your email again.
- Now you have fully created your account. What is left is to add your credit card to fund and withdraw from your account.
How to Link a Debit Card to your PayPal
The best way to fund your Paypal is to add a debit to your account. PayPal accepts the following cards; VISA, MASTERCARD, American Express and Discover. This Debit Card will allow PayPal to make transactions through them. If you already have one, then you are good to use it or you can get some below.
To get a Debit card, the following banks can give you one with or without an account.
- UBA Bank (Tested)
- Fidelity Bank (Tested)
- Ecobank (Tested)
- Access Bank
- Stanbic Bank
Also, some apps provide virtual cards. Which you can get a VISA card without walking to any bank. Such Apps are:
- Ecobank Mobile App (Used for this tutorial)
- PalmPay (Tested)
Now that we have our debit card let us link it to our PayPal Account.
Linking Debit Card to PayPal Account
- When you log in to your PayPal account, you will see a message to link your card and confirm your card. Click on See details.
- Select Link a Credit Card on the Link Payment method Page. Do not link your bank your account.
- Enter your card details. Your card number and date are always at the front page of the card and your CSC/CVV code is at the back. For the card type Select VISA if your card number starts with 4, 5 for MasterCard, 6 for Discover and 3 for American Express. Select your billing address and click on save. Make sure you have about GHC20.00 on your Card. There will be some transaction here.
- On the next page, click on confirm your card
- Another page will be opened for you click on Get a code button. Remember I said you should have a minimum of GHC20.00 on your credit card. At this stage too there will be another transaction of $1.95 but this amount will be refunded between 5- 7 business days. If you get an error that your card has been rejected, then it might be your account balance isn’t sufficient.
- After step 5, move to your bank account and look through your transaction history. You’ll see a debit transaction from PayPal with a description or reference similar to this PP*XXXXCODE. Copy the four digits number between the * and the C and paste it in your Paypal’s card confirmation page.
- After this, then your account is fully created with a linked card. This will lift all limitations on your account.
How to Protect Your PayPal Account
- Use a strong password that is difficult to guess but you can remember easily.
- Never use VPN to log in to your account.
- Always access your account using PayPal Lesotho’s sign-in address https://www.paypal.com/ls/signin.
- Always use the same browser and device to access your account. Avoid signing in with different browsers and devices.
- Don’t sign in using the PayPal App.
- Finally, let money rest in your account for some time and avoid unnecessarily withdrawal because each withdrawal costs you a fee.
Conclusion
Thank you for your time and we hope you were able to create your PayPal account in Ghana with your own details. You can now use your account to make all sorts of transactions. Please do not forget to comment and subscribe to our newsletter to get our future posts.
