Does PayPal Work in Turkey? No, Since 2016. What to Use Instead

No. PayPal does not work in Turkey, as of 13 October 2026. It stopped sending and receiving money for Turkey accounts on 6 June 2016 after the banking regulator BDDK refused its payment licence, and the Central Bank said in 2024 that PayPal has not applied again.

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What happened

In May 2016 the banking regulator BDDK rejected PayPal’s payment licence. Turkish rules require licensed payment companies to keep their main and backup IT systems in Turkey; PayPal runs one global platform and said it would not build a separate Turkish one. PayPal stopped sending and receiving money for Turkish customers on 6 June 2016.

Oversight of payment companies moved from BDDK to the Central Bank (TCMB) in 2020. In a February 2024 reply to a citizen query, the Central Bank said PayPal has not applied again since then.

What it means in practice

• You cannot open a PayPal account with a Turkish address, send, or receive.
• Etsy does not offer PayPal to sellers located in Türkiye.
• A client who says “I pay by PayPal” needs another route to pay you.
• Some foreign checkouts reject Turkish cards on PayPal; pay by card directly where the site allows it.

What to use instead

You want to	Use
Receive from clients, Upwork, Fiverr or Amazon	Payoneer: USD and EUR receiving details, withdraw to a Turkish bank
Get paid by a client who has Wise	Their Wise account, sent straight to your Turkish IBAN
Receive large or regular amounts	SWIFT into a foreign-currency account at your Turkish bank
Sell on Etsy	Etsy Payments, paid to your Turkish bank
Take card payments on your own shop	A Turkish payment provider such as iyzico or PayTR

Open a Payoneer account (affiliate link). New accounts opened through this link get a $35 reward from Payoneer after $5,000 of outgoing transactions within the first 100 days.

More detail and costs per $1,000 are in getting paid in Turkey. If you sell online, see how Etsy, Amazon and Shopify sellers in Turkey get paid. Wise has its own limits here: does Wise work in Turkey.

Common questions

Is PayPal banned in Turkey? Not exactly. It is not banned for use as a website, but PayPal itself stopped serving Turkey accounts on 6 June 2016 after BDDK refused its payment licence. It has not reapplied.

Is PayPal available in Turkey? No. You cannot open a PayPal account with a Turkish address, and you cannot send or receive money with a Turkey account.

Does Turkey use PayPal? No. Turkish shops and freelancers use bank transfer (EFT/FAST), cards, and local providers such as iyzico and PayTR. People paid from abroad use Payoneer, Wise or SWIFT.

Can tourists pay with PayPal in Turkey? Tourists cannot use PayPal at Turkish shops, which do not take it. A PayPal account registered in your home country still works for online shops abroad, but some checkouts may reject Turkish cards or addresses, so carry a normal card.

Disclosure

The Payoneer link on this page is an affiliate link: we earn a commission if you sign up, at no cost to you.