Best Location In Caribbean, Latin America (or tropical location) for Paypal

I'm in Canada and running an online business using Paypal for payments (virtual services).

I'm looking to re-locate to a warmer country, either in the Caribbean or Latin America (also open to elsewhere with warm weather). This may eventually be permanent, but at the beginning it will be as a tourist for 6 months or so.

Does anyone have some advice on the best location for using Paypal would be? I want to run my business from where I re-locate to and it looks like using Paypal is very limited in many places. I want to be able to set up a local account and have local access to the funds.

The best country in Latin America is Chile, the best country in the West Indies is Trinidad. That is for everything, business, life, social etc. Others on here may disagree, they have no idea what they are talking about, trust me I am right. That is if you have any bar to the standard of life you want to live. If you want to live like a peasant, some people don't care, then you can live anywhere.

For Paypal with Chile you are F***ed because you wont be able to open a local bank account (personal) unless you open a business there and you dont really want to do that even with the incentives offered. For Trinidad I suggest you open a CIBC account, if you don't already have one, and then tell CIBC (First Caribbean) you have relocated.

Panama is a backward, backhand talking sh**box, Belize has the 3rd highest murder rate in the world.

Trinidad is the only real country in the Caribbean, all the other islands are tourist destinations, they are floating Disney Worlds.

Chile is the only country in Latin America that isn't third world, everyone will suggest Brazil etc etc, trust me they are all third world, whatever way you spin it.

Chile has a winter but no where near as cold as Canada as it is in Santiago, outside you can Ski if you miss the snow. Trinidad has two temperatures "it's hot" and "f*** me it's hot".

Good luck.

If right now you are living in Canada the best would be to chat with CIBC as they own CIBC First Caribbean International Bank as well. So you can likely get set up on an account there easily.

They operate across the Caribbean region including the British Virgin Islands (which has 0% tax rate on business and income and only taxes payroll. So if you take your money out as dividends it safes you a lot!). The same can be said for the Bahamas but they are a little harder to get set up in.

Another great warm place that you can easily get a bank account and Paypal set up in is Thailand. While they do have some taxes the cost of living is remarkably cheap (which is why Chang Mai is popular place for remote workers) and they don't put up with foreign countries giving them crap. So if you had any ties to the US or Canada and they ever came after you for something Thailand wouldn't extradite.

Just so you know condoms cost 750$ a pack in Panama - http://business.financialpost.com/2...w-venezuela-reeling-from-plunging-oil-prices/

Georgebg said:

Just so you know condoms cost 750$ a pack in Panama - http://business.financialpost.com/2...w-venezuela-reeling-from-plunging-oil-prices/

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That's VENEZUELA not PANAMA. Oh and the $ goes in front of the number, not behind it.

java said:

Oh and the $ goes in front of the number, not behind it.

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Different countries treat the {$|Currency Designation} sign differently, Java.. just like the way some countries have the date written 01/05/2015 for May 1st, 2015 as opposed to 05/01/2015 for the same date.

java said:

That's VENEZUELA not PANAMA. Oh and the $ goes in front of the number, not behind it.

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"smartass" reply: failed.

BassTrackerBoats said:

Different countries treat the {$|Currency Designation} sign differently, Java.. just like the way some countries have the date written 01/05/2015 for May 1st, 2015 as opposed to 05/01/2015 for the same date.

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I know that. That's why some people incorrectly put $ behind US dollars. In quoting US dollars the $ goes in front of the amount.

"When writing currency amounts the location of the symbol varies by currency. Many currencies, especially in the English-speaking world and Latin America, place it before the amount." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_symbol

Sunday Lunch said:

Others on here may disagree, they have no idea what they are talking about, trust me I am right.

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I disagree - and I do have an idea of what I am talking about.

Costa Rica is a great place to consider, for example. It's a safe country, great education and literacy rates, it's expat friendly and is not a bad place as far as business and banking goes.

It also has a great climate and being in Central America, is not quite as far from home for the OP as South America.

I agree that Belize can be dangerous, but that's mainly in Belize City. There are plenty of safe places in Belize. Depending on what lifestyle you're looking for, the Cayes could be a great place to locate yourself, especially if you like diving. There are a few of them, but Ambergris Caye is the biggest and therefore has the most facilities. It also has the advantage of being close to possibly the best dive site on the planet.

In fact, there are a few good options in Central America. Guatemala is another interesting country with some great locations. Yes, it has it's unsafe spots, but it also has a lot of very safe areas too.

OP,

It all depends on what sort of lifestyle you are looking for and what your priorities are - maybe if you give some information about the sort of thing you are looking for people can make some appropriate recommendations.

Trepanated said:

I disagree - and I do have an idea of what I am talking about.

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It was tongue in cheek fella.

The OP never really specified what he wanted from the location in terms of lifestyle. I tried to take the POV of big city & stated he could live anywhere if he did not want to live in a big city. So for example, San Jose is a village compared to Santiago.

Do you want international food? You can order an authentic Indian meal, you can get pastry from a genuine French patisserie. Italian, Chinese etc even the shit that Americans have added to the culinary world such as McDs and Dennys.

The construction of houses and apartments is 21st century with doorman, concierge, security, pool, gym, sauna etc.

Transport is 1st world, buses, a taxi on every street, a subway & real roads.

Do you want to be giving police money every day? Do you want to live in a country where the government is corrupt and you have to make extra handouts to get things done? Chile has none of that, the rest of South America is awash with it, Chile has over officious government workers but everyone is above board, as can be comparable to UK & US.

When you buy a sofa the sofa arrives the next day. When you order your internet connection it gets installed that week, fiber optic.

As I said, if you want to live like a peasant you can live anywhere on the planet. If you do not want to live like a peasant in South America it is Chile or nowhere. Again when I say peasant it is tongue in cheek, what I am saying is that you can live on numerous islands without a lot of creature comforts for next to nothing, globally. If your budget is endless then you can bring those comforts to you but if it isn't then you have to live somewhere that isn't 3rd world.

IMHO.

Why not Europe ? More options, civilized and you are not on a remote island and lots of countries to pick from.