I’d been wondering how to withdraw money from my PayPal accounts for quite a while and only recently I managed to ‘feel’ it in actual Ringgit.

I know PayPal allows its users withdrawing money to visa debit/ credit card but in the beginning I prefer to “recycle” (reinvest) the fund to fulfill business expansion plan; since I’m dealing with USD denominated market 99% of the time. This strategy is very effective if you want to hedge (protect) your business from Forex losses.

Though the variation is not that big; between RM3.8 to RM3.5 per USD, many local export oriented companies had been registering billions of RM losses due to foreign exchange!

Since I’ll start working after Raya and might not have enough time to seriously look after the assets maybe its time for me to withdraw the fund (and buy baju raya LOL). So, I decided to withdraw the money using Al-Rajhi Visa Debit Card after learning many great reviews from my colleagues.

The result, I got my cash in just 4 days! (when PayPal claim it should be cleared in 5-7 days)

Legend:
1-Date I signed up Al Rajhi Zamzam Saving Account-i with Debit Card
2-Date I request to transfer USD500 to my Al Rajhi Saving Account (USD5 will be deducted by PayPal)
3-Date when the money successfully credited to my bank account
4-Amount of money after conversion: RM3.4812 per USD
5-Al Rajhi Bank charging RM1 for each PayPal withdrawal

Comparing the forex conversion with CIMB (at the same date), Al Rajhi seems to be converting more (CIMB conversion: RM3.4660 per USD). Another card that offers the same service is Public Bank Visa Debit Card. However, the service, speed & conversion rate is way less than Al Rajhi’s.

Did I say that Al Rajhi’s staff is very friendly & helpful too? Probably the friendliest banking staff I’ve ever met. Hopefully, it is not because they are still new in Malaysian consumer banking. Anyway, judging from the speed and the conversion rate I got so far, I WILL transfer to Al Rajhi again in the future.

One thing I’m not happy with is it’s the debit card seems to be very old-fashion; maybe its simplicity suppose to be deemed as “executive” or “luxury” in Middle East culture? You bet!

Apart from that, I’m still contemplating whether I should withdraw my entire PayPal fund at once or gradually every month. Most people that I met prefer withdrawing the fund whenever it reaches the USD500 limit because:

1. Secure before PayPal have system error
2. USD is getting weaker by days or weeks
3. PayPal doesn’t give you any interest rate

But I have different view actually.

If PayPal’s system is not reliable, many of us will runaway from the service. But the truth is, numbers of PayPal users is just increasing every single day! Talks about Internet security, what makes you think your online banking with local bank is more reliable than international ones? (I’m not demote local expertise though).

USD value by its own should drop from its own recession, just like any other country. The fact that international currency still in USD, other countries (esp. China) will try their best to support USD; sounds very funny but its true. Otherwise their own asset (national reserve etc) will drop significantly.

For now, I’ve decided to withdraw the fund every month. Reason being, I can register it as my recurring income for faster, easier & higher property loan approval. Remember “asset buying asset” by Robert Kiyosaki?