You might have noticed that I love writing guides. Maybe it’s a guy thing, you know, like reading manuals and shopping in DIY stores. Judging from my earlier success with some rather geeky tutorials waaaaaaay back in 2003, I think the habit stuck.
Okie, enough self promotion, let’s get back to today’s guide.
If you are a Malaysian like me who wants to withdraw money out from your PayPal account, this is one of the most cost-effective way to do it. You might be able to setup bank accounts in other countries where PayPal withdrawals can be made without any fees, but in this guide, I am going to show you how you can do it without using any oversea bank accounts at a minimal charge of USD 5 per transaction (limited to USD 500.00 per transaction).
So let’s get down to the ingredients you need:
Item 1: RM 100 in cash. No cheques, bank drafts or postal cheques.
Item 2: Your NRIC
Item 3: An Al Rajhi Branch, the closer the better.
That’s all.
Here’s the 19-Steps Procedure:
1) Go to the Teller and request to open an Al Rajhi Savings Account. Opt for the Mudharabah Savings Account-i since according to the Wise Teller I’ve met, the normal Savings Account-i does not give you any form interest. Also request for the Debit-ATM Card-i, which is the critical ingredient in our entire PayPal withdrawal scheme.
Tips: Don’t bother asking the Teller about PayPal related fees, you might just get a “Huh!?” look.
2) You can also opt to open for the Al Rajhi Current Account-i, but make sure you have the following extra ingredients: a letter from an Introducer who already holds an Al-Rajhi current account or a 6-months current account statement from other banks.
3) You will be asked to fill up the standard account application form and there’ll be a few autograph sessions.
4) After that, you will be asked to part with your RM 100 cash, and you will be notified by the Teller that you must have a minimum RM 50 balance in your account at all times (if you open the Mudharabah Savings Account-i).
5) Once you made the payment, the Teller should return to you with the Debit ATM card, where you will be asked to sign on the back of the card. You will also be given a document folder (also known as the Scrolls), where it contains a few important documents which you will need to activate your account later on.
Tips: Step 3 to Step 5 should take no longer than 15 minutes.
6) You should have everything you need from the Teller. The next step is to activate your Internet-Banking access, and to do that, you must obtain a temporary Internet PIN.
7) To obtain the magical temporary Internet PIN, you must explore the Scrolls given to you by Teller previously. There should be a Scroll that says “Confidential/Sulit”. Open it and you should see 6 magical PINs where you will use it to access your account via the ATM Machine later. Hence, it’s important that you DO NOT LEAVE the Al Rajhi branch yet.
8) Go to the ATM Machine, insert the Debit ATM card and use the 6 magical PINs from the “Confidential/Sulit” Scroll. Select the option to obtain the Temporary Internet Pin and the machine will then print you a random 6 digit numbers which will be your Temporary Internet Pin. It should look something like the following:
9) Okie, you can now leave the Al Rajhi branch and head home on your next quest to link your PayPal account to your new Al Rajhi Debit ATM card. Make sure you activate your Al Rajhi ATM card first before you add the card in your PayPal account.
10) Go to the Al Rajhi official website: http://www.alrajhibank.com.my/. Click on the First Time Login under the Internet Banking section.
11) Read and then accept the Terms and Conditions to proceed. It’s not like we have a choice NOT to accept. Banks will always be banks.
12) Now, take out the Scroll that says “Essential Information”.
The CIC Number above corresponds to the Customer Number you see in the “First Time Logon” screen below. The Pin will be the set of 6 digit numbers you obtain previously from the ATM Machine. Do not confuse this PIN with the 6 digit numbers given to you in the “Confidential/Sulit” scroll- they are different.
13) Once you are logged in, you will be asked to insert a “New Username” and “New Password”. Once you are done, click on log out to complete the process of initializing your Internet Banking registration.
14) Now, let’s proceed to the real deal: logging into your Internet Banking Account. Go to the official Al Rajhi website again: http://www.alrajhibank.com.my/. This time, click on the “Login” link instead of “First Time Login” under the Intenet Banking section. Use the “New Username” and “New Password” you have just set in Step 13. You should be able to login into your account and that means your Al Rajhi Internet Banking is officially active now.
15) Now, login into your PayPal account. Click on the “Withdraw” link, under the “My Account” header.
16) Click on the “Withdraw Funds to Your Card” link. Notice that you’ll be charged USD 5.00 per transaction.
17) Using the information printed on your Al Rajhi ATM Debit Card, fill up the information as requested by PayPal.
Tips: Insert single space after every 4 digit as per your Debit Card Number. Also, use the same Address for the Billing Address as the one you provided when applying for your Al Rajhi account earlier on. It doesn’t need to be the exact format and structure, but don’t stray too far.
18) Once you are done filling up the details, click on the “Add Card” button. If you have not activated your Al Rajhi Internet Banking account previously, please make sure you do so using Step 10 to Step 14. Otherwise, you will be greeted with an “Unsuccessful” page when you tried adding the card, even if all the information you’ve provided is correct.
Tips: You MUST activate your Internet Banking account first before linking your card from PayPal.
19) Assuming that you’ve successfully added your new ATM Debit card into your Paypal account, you will see your new card when you click on the Withdraw link. All you need to do now is to insert the amount of money you want to transfer to your ATM Debit card. The maximum withdrawal limit for Paypal to Al Rajhi ATM Debit card is USD 500.00 as of this writing.
And that concludes the PayPal Withdrawal Guide. I am not sure how are the procedures like with other Debit Cards, but it should be roughly the same- activate your internet banking account and then link the card from within Paypal.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the guide and find it useful in your quest to transfer money to your bank account from PayPal. Should you find anything missing, confusing or have anything to add, just drop me a line!
By the way, I wouldn’t mind a little tips:
The widely-queued-for fund from Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad will stopped transaction from 26th Aug to 1st September 2008 for the calculation of their newly declared 7 sen dividend.
