Hello,

I just wanted to share a resent experience I had trying to pay for services using paypal. Before now, its been very easy buying goods or paying for services with Nigerian Debit Mastercard/VISA until recently. I observed that each time I try to pay in USD, Paypal automatically converted the amount to Nigerian currency, thus I get a decline notice from the bank. This is one of the notice from my bank:

Dear Valued Customer,
Declined Card Transaction: DCC Restriction
Thank you for using your GTBank Naira MasterCard.

Please be informed that your transaction with the details below could not be completed because you have selected the DCC payment option (Dynamic Currency Conversion) that allows you to pay in Naira, which has been temporarily restricted on all our cards. Please reattempt the transaction and select the currency of the country you are transacting in.

I tried severally to no avail. I had to use FBN Mastercard and VISA, same thing happened. I also used a colleague DOLLAR VISA CARD, all to no avail. The customer care representatives of these banks are clueless, their suggestions did no good. Though they affirmed that nothing was wrong with my cards.

On a second thought, I contacted Paypal via email and in less than five minutes I got a response followed by a call. The guy walked me through and it worked! Below is the solution as contained in the email he (paypal rep) sent to me.

I hope you are doing well today. My name is Mark from PayPal Customer Service.

I'm sorry to hear that you have been unable to complete your payment. We recently upgraded our services and PayPal is now able to charge your debit/credit card in Nigerian Nairas. This allows you to know upfront the exact cost of your transaction. However, it shows that your card issuer is not authorizing us to charge your card in your local currency.

Normally, you can opt out of using PayPal's conversion rate. However, we have received reports that this option doesn't show on our users' end. I assure you that this has been escalated and our technical support team is already working on resolving this issue. In the meantime, kindly follow the steps I have outlined below to allow you to complete your payment.

The steps that I have outlined below will have you try sending a payment in AUD. But don't worry as you would not complete it. It will just prompt you out of having your card charged automatically in NGN.

1.Log in to your PayPal account.
2.Click Send & Request at the top of the page.
3.Click Pay for goods or services.
4.Enter the recipient's email address and enter $1.00 AUD for the amount.
5.Click Continue.
6.Click ‘Other Conversion Options’ and select 'Use My Card's Conversion Rate' or ‘Bill me in the currency listed on the seller’s invoice.’
7.Click Next.
8.Log out of your PayPal account and log back in to your PayPal account.
9.Try sending your payment again.


I assure you that you'll be all set for your future payments after completing the steps I have outlined above.

We'll be glad to hear from you if you need clarification or assistance. Please don't hesitate to email us again. You can also call us at +1-402-517-4519 (U.S. telephone number) Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM local Nigerian time.


Thank you for choosing PayPal. Have a great day!

This really saved my day. Am sure it will help someone.

I tried as detailed but still can't with my naira master card. Though the 1 aud went through.