Stripe or Paypal in South Africa

Hi,

Squarespace offers Stripe and PayPal, but I'm not sure which one to choose, or whether to use both. I'm listing products in South African Rands (ZAR). Squarespace's documentation is contradictory about which payment option will work. Their documentation lists ZAR as being compatible only with Stripe, but Stripe's global website doesn't list South Africa as being supported. Their documentation specifically lists ZAR as not being compatible with PayPal, but PayPal's global website has South Africa listed as being supported. Does anyone have any experience with this? Thanks in advance. 

Stripe supports the ZAR currency, but does not allow businesses who are solely based in South Africa.

PayPal doesn't support ZAR.

Thanks for the reply, Paul. Could you maybe explain what you mean by PayPal doesn't support ZAR? It's a bit confusing since their website lists it as being supported: https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/country-worldwide

1 hour ago, RGC said:

Could you maybe explain what you mean by PayPal doesn't support ZAR?

I agree the documentation is confusing.

PayPal is not supported for payments in ZAR on Squarespace because, although PayPal supports South African accounts, they do not allow you to receive business payments in South African Rand (ZAR). With PayPal, you can be paid in Dollars and then transfer your USD balance into an FNB bank account as Rand at the prevailing rate.

I hope that helps to explain.

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Thanks so much for the explanation!

1 minute ago, FPMM said:

If I have a Stripe account (US) but am selling with ZAR currency, would that work?

Yes. If your Stripe account is US-based, you should be able to use ZAR as the checkout currency, as listed here: Does Squarespace support my currency?

In that case I recommend reaching out to Squarespace Customer Care for some Circle Member Priority Support! They should be able to explain what's happening on the site that's not offering this.