Today PayPal announced that Indian PayPal account holders can now directly withdraw their PayPal balance to Indian Bank accounts. So, No more long waiting for indian PayPal users from now on. PayPal users in India used to look for better ways to withdraw their hard earned money from PayPal, as the only withdrawal method was via cheque by normal post. It used to take about 20 to 30 days and it is very unreliable (Indian postal service sucks). Other options to withdraw funds were via US bank account (very few Indian PayPal users have US bank account) and funds deposit to their visa credit cards (this was introduced just last month). Apart from that users could cash out the funds by some other methods like xoom.com.

But, Now as PayPal has provided the new funds withdrawal service, the Indian PayPal users will not be having such troubles. Now, users can add their Indian bank account to the PayPal account, and then withdraw the PayPal funds directly to the bank. It considerably saves time and efforts gives faster access to the PayPal funds. Other good news is that there is no fee for withdrawal of over Rs. 7000/- and a nominal Rs. 50/- fee is for withdrawal of amount less than INR 7000/-

Currently the supported Indian Banks are:

• State Bank Of India
• Bank Of India
• Canara Bank
• Union Bank of India
• HDFC Bank
• ICICI Bank
• ING VYSYA Bank
• Axis Bank
• Standard Chartered Bank
• HSBC
• Citibank

To add you account on one of these banks you need to select the Bank name from the list of supported banks, IFSE code (keep reading for details) and Account number. Also the account name provided must match the name on bank account (Last name is fixed to the last name on your PayPal account).

IFSE code: The Indian Financial System Code (IFSC) is an alpha-numeric code designed to uniquely identify bank branches in India. This is an 11 -digit code with the first four characters representing the bank code, the next character is a control character, and the last 6 characters identify the branch. You can contact the bank for IFSC code or download a list of IFSC codes of Indian Banks compiled by Krishnendu.

After you add the bank account to the PayPal account you may proceed to withdraw payment link on your PayPal account and select the newly added bank account from the list. Enter the amount to be withdrawn in USD (It is then converted to INR as per the PayPal exchange rate). The PayPal Exchange Rate at the time I initiated a fund withdrawal is 1 U.S. Dollar = 38.0542 Indian Rupees which is considerable less than the real exchange rate 1 U.S. Dollar = 39.3075 Indian Rupees (Source: XE.com). Such Lower exchange rate is the secret behind free withdrawal to bank account for larger amounts.

I’ve initiated a test withdrawal of $450 just after receiving the PayPal announcement via e-mail. Now, It says the money will be in my bank account within 5-7 days. It is much better than the methods I used so far. And certainly a big relief to the Indian free lancer and small Indian service provider who get their overseas payment via PayPal. I’ll post the update
once I get the money in my bank account.

Pros.: Easy fund withdrawal, Faster and convenient then other methods, Free (if the amount is larger than Rs. 7000).

Cons.: Service is limited to few Indian Banks, Users will have to find and provide the IFSE code themselves for their bank, Considerably lower Exchange Rate.

GeekLord’s perception: Rapid growth of Indian IT industry specially the small scale IT service providers and freelancers has forced PayPal to provide Indian user more control over their money. We should expect more bank
names in supported bank’s list and also expect more features for Indian users in near future.