There was a time when we heard of PayPal users who had their accounts closed for selling products as mundane as coffee from Cuba. That’s all about the change with PayPal set to enable money transfers to Cuba by the end of the year.
With the normalising of diplomatic relationships between the US and Cuba and trade embargoes being removed, the PayPal President and CEO, Dan Schulman is over in Cuba this week alongside the US president.
Dan says that up to $2 billion is sent from the US to Cuba annually and that these US remittances serve as 3% of Cuban GDP. Naturally PayPal wouldn’t mind a slice of the fees for processing these transactions and so XOOM, the money transfer business PayPal acquired, is set to launch to Cuban customers.
We wouldn’t advise that you rush out and add Cuban products to your website just yet… at least not without checking with PayPal first. PayPal have always said that they’re “obliged to comply with US government-imposed sanctions”, so make sure that your account won’t be closed or limited before you ship Cuban products.
One Response
I am a U.S. resident and my PayPal account was suspended (or limited as they like to call it) because I sold a 117 year old used Cuba postage stamp to another U.S. resident. That happened in April of 2013 and my account is still frozen and they have ignored all my e-mails.