Just tried to donate to Ubuntu and Canonical using
The only option was paypal, and I selected “pay with credit card”
as I closed my paypal account a few years ago in reaction to their forex fees.
However the donation was declined because apparently
“the merchant didnt use extra security checks like 3D Secure (3DS) or PIN.”
In fact doing my annual donations round, paypal failed on several projects
(often with the groan-inducing message
“Donations to this recipient aren’t supported in this country”
I’m in NZ)
but almost everyone else offered an alternative
(Mozilla and Thunderbird were especially smooth - not sure who they use)
so after a bit of pain was generally able to donate.
Could Ubuntu consider an alternative payment processor for when paypal fails?
I get huge benefit (and have since Ub 6.06) from the Ubuntu project
and would like to continue to contribute.
3 Likes
I just donated today through PayPal but I have a PayPal account. I agree though it would be nice to have an alternative way to donate. I’m from New Zealand too and have had on a couple of free and opensource projects I donate to the PayPal message “Donations to this recipient aren’t supported in this country”
I sent PayPal a message about this and actually rang me and said there are no restrictions on your country It’s the vendor that has set it up incorrectly. It seems to be only where the vendor originates out of the EU. I was able to setup one donation through Ko-fi as they had that as an alternative payment option, but unfortunately not the other project.
2 Likes
Interesting that they blame the vendor 
In fact one of the sites I got the
“Donations to this recipient aren’t supported in this country”
was based in the Netherlands - ie in the EU.
so not just outside the EU.
It’s possible paypal made a change and didn’t communicate it.
I’m in multiple currencies for historical work reasons, and Paypal’s exchange rates and transaction fees are unholy. 
So I now use Wise and Revolut.
In fact the donation to Ubuntu failed not because
“Donations to this recipient aren’t supported in this country”
but because the transaction wasn’t considered secure.
Projects that dont use paypal were all fine.
2 Likes
Sorry I meant in the EU not out 
I’ve been able to donate to Thunderbird, no issue. I’ve not tried donating to Ubuntu but I did attempt to donate to The Document Foundation. Credit card, not PayPal; and it declined, no reason given.
I’m also in New Zealand.
1 Like