Context (skip if you know PayPal UAE already)
- My company is a UAE free-zone entity.
- We use a PayPal Business account to invoice EU/UK clients; most payments arrive in EUR (sometimes GBP).
- PayPal lets me hold those balances in EUR/GBP, but when I try to withdraw, the only payout currencies offered are AED or USD. PayPal then auto-converts at ~4 % FX spread plus the usual withdrawal fee.
- Linking the firm’s EUR account at Vio Bank didn’t help – PayPal still insists on converting first.
- “Send → Friends & Family” isn’t an option here (it’s disabled for UAE and for business accounts).
- Move the EUR/GBP balance out of PayPal with zero or very low total cost – ideally straight into the company’s EUR IBAN, but I’d also consider an intermediate step (another PayPal account, Wise/Revolut/Payoneer, etc.) if that cuts the fees dramatically.
- Transaction sizes: €2 k – €15 k at a time, a few times per month.
- Must stay inside PayPal’s and the UAE’s rules (no TOS-breaking or KYC-dodging hacks).
- Direct withdrawal → PayPal insists on AED or USD → expensive.
- Linking EUR bank (Wio Bank business account) → PayPal still won’t let me choose EUR.
- Sending to a personal PayPal account abroad → F&F rail is disabled for UAE, and commercial transfers incur the same ~5 % fee.
- PayPal Payouts → looks promising but I haven’t found anyone who’s actually used it to a self-owned EU PayPal/E-money account.
- Has anyone in the UAE successfully withdrawn EUR or GBP as is from a PayPal Business account?
- If not, what’s your cheapest end-to-end path (PayPal → X → EUR bank) and what were the real, all-in percentages?
