Are you a merchant caught in the conflict between PayPal and Turkey’s Banking and Regulation Agency?
You’re in good company. There are thousands of e-commerce and point-of-sale merchants who are scrambling for payment processing alternatives in Turkey. On Tuesday, PayPal (PYPL ^1.38%) announced it was forced to suspend operations as of June 6 in The Land of the Crescent Moon, simultaneously freezing out consumers from using the payment processing giant as well.
As inconvenient as it is, however, there is good news.
There are an abundance of payment options for Turkish merchants, such as a merchant account with a payment processor tied to several international and European banking partners and able to process in virtually any currency.
Why PayPal is Halting Operations in Turkey
Although Instabill is a direct competitor to PayPal, the fault of the situation lies with Turkish financial regulators who rejected PayPal’s application for payment processing.
The rejection by Turkish officials was because of the fact that of PayPal’s IT systems are stationed outside of Turkey, despite having operations in 200 markets worldwide. Turkish regulators want PayPal’s IT operations within their borders.
PayPal is accepting the ruling with grace, even offering instructions on how consumers can convert their accounts to local banks in Turkey. According to an article in Forbes, PayPal is working on securing the needed authorizations, but it won’t be able to do so by the June 6 deadline.
5 Advantages a Merchant Account Has Over PayPal
- Merchant Control: Funds are deposited directly into the merchant account; With PayPal, funds are deposited into merchant’s PayPal account.
- Multi-Currency Dominance: With a merchant account from Instabill, merchants can receive funds in more than 160 currencies while PayPal accepts 25.
- Lower Processing Fees: On average, merchant account processing fees are about 3/4 what it costs to process payments through a PayPal account.
- Coupon Offers: Merchants can create different coupon codes with a merchant account, leading to periodical deals and offers for consumers.
- Customer Support: With Instabill, merchants have a dedicated merchant account manager at their disposal, reachable at 1-800-318-2713 or by clicking on the live chat option below.
PayPal Shutout of Turkey – Now What?
The situation leaves several issues in the balance:
- Is this a long term situation or will PayPal export a division of its IT services to Turkey? It is unknown at this time, although, as stated previously, PayPal is working on getting the necessary permissions.
- Is June 6 enough time to find payment options for Turkish merchants? Certainly not for everyone. It is expected some merchants may experience an interruption.
In the meantime, we encourage PayPal merchants to contact Instabill to get the conversion process started. With one-on-one customer support and fast approvals, Instabill can make a merchant’s transition from PayPal to a merchant account seamless.