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Ask HN: What countries is it impossible to accept payments from?

3 points by GigabyteCoin ↗ HN
PayPal does not currently work with the following list of 19 countries:

    Afghanistan
    Bangladesh
    Central African Republic
    North Korea
    Equatorial Guinea
    Ghana
    Haiti
    Iran
    Iraq
    Lebanon
    Liberia
    Libya
    Myanmar
    Pakistan
    South Sudan
    Sudan
    Syria
    Timor-Leste / East Timor
    Uzbekistan
As far as I know, it is impossible to register a PayPal account in any of those countries, and if a PayPal account is logged into from any of those countries it will be suspended until further investigation.

Stripe's global page [0] claims that I will "be able to accept payments from customers anywhere in the world" which sounds amazing, but how true is that statement really?

Does Visa even issue credit cards in the above list of 19 countries? Or is it a common thing for a Bangladeshi citizen to have a US-based credit card for online ordering?

I am posing this question because I am re-writing a SaaS website of mine, and I want to block access to my free-trial offer to any visitors from countries that it is impossible to make payments from. I would appreciate any comments relating to this as well, because I am torn as to whether or not that is the right thing to do.

[0] https://stripe.com/global

3 comments

[ 5.4 ms ] story [ 16.5 ms ] thread
jeffmould
First, I think you misread the Stripe global page. There is still restrictions on countries there.

Second, IANAL, but if you are a US-based company you may run into restrictions with accepting payments from customers in embargoed countries (i.e. Iran, Syria, etc...).

zhte415
If you're dealing with payments, check embargo and money laundering regulations from first hand sources, don't second-guess what another website is doing.

International transfer of funds done wrong could get you into incredible 'I need a lawyer' territory very quickly.

BTW, Visa does not issue credit cards, Visa partners do. And they certainly do and work in most of the countries you listed.

heraclez
Any country that does not have a credit card / online banking system, which represents easily a quarter of the world's countries.

However you may have people who live in those countries, with dual citizenships/also live abroad, that make purchases from within those countries.