Verifying a Paypal account from Nigeria

I recently blogged about Using a Paypal account in Nigeria. Well getting a Paypal account is quite easy as it allows everyone to sign up.
Getting verified and removing limits on your account is quite another thing as it requires more commitment on your part and definitely not for those whoa are not serious about doing online business from Nigeria.

Getting a Paypal account
You don't really need to hide your ip or anything but you should use a US address which you can get from Graphcard and then register with your own email using the address. You may also use a relative's or friend's address in the US. You should register first for a Personal account with Paypal and then move up from there if you want to upgrade. Once you become a member of Paypal, there are a whole lot of things you can do with your account - You can send and receive money online with email addresses to and from other people and even selling with Paypal buttons. However, there are certain limits which Paypal will place in your account that will prevent you from getting the maximum benefits from that account. What you need to do to open that door for wider opportunities is to verify you Paypal account and yes, you can do this from Nigeria.

Paypal account Verification
Verifying your Paypal account would be the next step after having a Paypal account for yourself. There are many benefits of getting verified;

Why do you may want to verify your paypal account?
- It gives you more spending power
- It gives greater confidence to your buyers are they can now see you as verified
- It gives you more flexibility and you get more ways to make payments

Disadvantages of not being verified:
- Your sending limit is placed at 0, meaning you can't send any money
- Your withdrawal limit is placed at $500
- You can still receive money from people though

Did you know that Verifying a Paypal account requires either of these two things:
- Getting a Paypal plus Mastercard or
- Adding your US bank account

Getting a US bank account via a third partyThe latter option is more preferred as getting a Paypal Mastercard can bring up some monthly charges on your account. What you will need to do is get someone in the US like an agent, friend, family residing there to open a bank account for you as a non- resident. There is a way this can be done as even students, travelers normally an open accounts when they travel to America. I think it requires about $2000 to open an account which you can equally use with your Paypal account. When you get the account details, you should include it in your Paypal account in order to get verified.
Click on the link bank account button in your Paypal account and it takes you to another page that says Enter bank details:

The required details include:
- Whether it's a checking or savings account
- Enter Bank Account Details
- Routing number(9 digits) and Account number

Getting a US bank account yourselfEven if you don't have a friend in the US to do this for you, you can do this yourself with Citibank using online application. There is this banking product they have that is called International Personal Banking (IPB)and with it, I believe you can open a bank account for yourself in the US. The routing number for Citibank New York is ABA 021000089 and you an use the account number that you will be given to verify your account. To get online access to your Citibank account online, then you can go to online.citibank.com.

Ordinarily, if you are not yet ready to do online business in Nigeria or not yet sure if a verified account is what you need right now, you may still work with your personal unverified Paypal account which is still useful in receiving funds online.
*To receive money with Paypal, you will need to first confirm your email address
*Adding a credit card will increase your sending limit to $2000 for verified accounts