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"I am an Indian living in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for the past 20 years. Recently I learned about some online money making jobs. I opened an account with PayPal. The problem is that neither the UAE nor India is included in their list to withdraw money to a bank account. How can I get money from PayPal to Dubai or India?" -- M. Abdulla, Gold Fish Traders, LLC

One approach that works for India, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic is Xoom.com (www.xoom.com). You can use PayPal to take credit cards in a variety of currencies. Then make payment via PayPal to Xoom, which transfers your money through a local distribution partner to a recipient in the target country who shows adequate identification. In India, Xoom's distribution partner is Wall Street Instant Cash, which has offices in major cities.

If you live in India, you could transfer money from your PayPal account to yourself via Xoom. If not, you could send money to a partner in India, who could deposit the money in an Indian bank account to which you have access. Xoom expects to expand its services throughout Wall Street Instant Cash's network in South Asia, so keep watching for new countries they'll be serving.

A fee calculator is available on the Xoom site, but their fee calculation algorithm is deliberately complex (to obfuscate competitors). They claim their fees are 10% to 50% cheaper than Western Union and MoneyGram (which don't currently have a PayPal payment option).

Another approach you could use is iKobo (www.ikobo.com). With this system you pay for a debit card which can be used to transfer money using ATM machines worldwide. iKobo has a system by which merchants can receive credit card payments, but not yet as advanced as PayPal's.