PayPal And TransferTo Pair On Prepaid Mobile Top-Up

For immigrants living in Canada who want to instantly top-up prepaid mobile phones for friends and family living back in their home countries, PayPal has formed a new remittance partner to make it easier.

PayPal announced late last week (July 24) that it was teamed with the global airtime remittance company, TransferTo, to offer mobile airtime time top-up to customers in Canada. Now, Canadians can tap into their PayPal account to add more airtime to their prepaid mobile phones of relatives and friends instantly with more than 400 carriers across 100 countries.

“Mobile phones help connect people with their communities, and give them access to education, employment, and essential medical and financial services,” said Cameron Schmidt, General Manager of PayPal Canada, in a news release. “With today’s announcement, Canadians can extend a lifeline to a grandmother who needs to frequently call her doctor in India, or help a sister access the Internet from her mobile phone in the Philippines.”

Because Canada has a high immigrant population (particularly from the Philippines, India and China), having the ability to top up those prepaid mobile phones is a popular option for those living abroad to help friends and family back home.

According to Statistics Canada, there’s quite a need for this service. These numbers show why:

• In 2011, more than 152,000 Canadians were born in the Philippines, representing 13.1 per cent of all immigrants. There are more mobile connections (114.6 million) in the Philippines than there are people (100.9 million). Of those mobile connections, 95 percent are prepaid.
• China is the second leading country of birth among people who immigrated to Canada between 2006 and 2011. There are 1.3 billion mobile connections in China of which 79 percent are prepaid.
• India is the third leading country of birth among people who immigrated to Canada between 2006 and 2011. There are 941 million mobile connections in India of which 95 percent are prepaid.

“People come first for me. Staying connected with my aunts, uncles and relatives in India is an essential part of my life,” Nav Bhatia, a Toronto-based Sikh entrepreneur who moved to Canada 30 years ago, said in the news release. “In life … communication is the key to success. PayPal now offers me a way to top up my relatives’ prepaid mobile phones. Now, regardless of the distance, we can operate better as a team and feel closer as a family.”

Just earlier this month Xoom and TransferTo collaborated on prepaid mobile top-up to help Xoom customers recharge their prepaid mobile phones internationally. PayPal also recently announced it would be acquiring Xoom for $890 million.

The service will let users charge their devices in nearly two dozen countries, spanning India, Mexico and the Philippines, among others. The service allows for instant transfer of airtime credit from the U.S. to international prepaid phones. This type of activity has been prevalent among populations that use mobile devices to communicate, make payments and conduct other activities.

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