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PayPal’s fees vary widely depending on the type of transaction you’re making, how you’re funding it, and whether money is being sent across borders.
For sending money to friends and family within the US, PayPal offers zero fees if you fund the payment with a bank account or your PayPal account balance. If you use a credit card or debit card to fund the payment, you’ll pay 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
For sending money to friends and family internationally, you’ll pay a 5% fee up to a maximum of $4.99. Credit and debit card payments incur the same 2.9% processing fee plus a fixed fee per transaction that varies based on the currency being received. There’s also an exchange rate markup, which can be 2% or more for many currency pairs.
There are no transaction fees for making payments to businesses, but you will pay an exchange rate markup if a currency exchange is involved. Business recipients pay a fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for domestic transactions, or 4.4% plus a currency-specific fixed fee per transaction for international transactions.
PayPal lets you send money using a bank account, credit card, or debit card. You can only send money to another PayPal account, not to a bank account or cash pickup location.
There are two payment types within PayPal. Friends and Family payments are designed for sending money to people you know and are non-refundable. Goods and Services payments are designed for sending money to strangers or businesses and are protected by dispute resolution. If you don’t receive the product you paid for, you can contact PayPal, and they’ll open an inquiry that may result in a refund.
To get a quote for a money transfer with PayPal, you must be logged in and go through the steps of setting up a payment. You can sign up for PayPal by following these steps:
All money transfers with PayPal are instant. Since you can only send funds to another PayPal account, you don’t have to wait for banks to process a payment or for cash to be ready for pickup.
PayPal provides customer support by phone and live chat 24/7. You can get help with a payment, get more information about the fees for a specific transaction, or initiate a dispute for a Goods and Services payment. The company also has an extensive online knowledgebase that explains how to transfer money with PayPal.
PayPal is one of the largest financial companies in the world and is considered extremely reliable. The company is accredited with the Better Business Bureau and is publicly traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange. You’re also protected by PayPal’s dispute resolution service if you use the Goods and Services payment option.
PayPal offers an online account dashboard as well as a free mobile app for iOS and Android. You can import contacts from your email client and send money to anyone using their name, email, phone number, or PayPal username. Fees aren’t displayed until the last step of a money transfer, but they are clearly visible before you make a payment. Since all PayPal payments are processed instantly, there’s no need to track transfers.
PayPal is one of the largest money transfer services in the world and is suitable for both personal and business payments. You can only send money from one PayPal account to another, but this system ensures that all payments are completed instantly. There’s no fee to send money to friends and family in the US if you fund your transfer with a bank account or your PayPal balance. However, fees for using a credit card or debit card, or for sending money abroad, can be much higher than with competitors.
This review was based on information on the PayPal website and using PayPal to send money.
