What is PayPal

You've heard a lot about PayPal from your friends lately, but since they haven't properly explained what it is, you decided to do a quick internet search to find out exactly what PayPal is and how you could best use it. service. Well, in this case I have to reassure you: you've come to the right place at the right time! In the next paragraphs, in fact, I will not only explain what PayPal is, but I will also show you how you can best use this service.

As I will explain in detail below, PayPal is a service created with the aim of simplifying payments that take place online. Thanks to it, in fact, users can transfer and receive money without providing the details of their bank account or the number of their credit card. As if this were not enough, a PayPal account can be opened by anyone - both individuals and companies - and completely free of charge: there are no deposit restrictions, there are no opening or other costs. The only costs that you have to face are represented by some small commissions that you have to pay for money transfers that do not take place between two PayPal accounts, but I will deepen the discussion of fees and commissions in a few paragraphs.

So, you can't wait to dive into this reading to understand what exactly PayPal is and what advantages does it offer? Well, then let's not waste any more time and get straight to the point. Make yourself comfortable, take all the time you need to carefully examine the information I am about to give you and you will see that, at the end of this reading, you will know more about how PayPal works than your friends: shall we bet?

PayPal: what it is and what advantages it offers

PayPal , as I already mentioned in the introduction of this article, is a service that allows you to make payments online. It was founded in 1998 by Peter Thiel , Max Levchin and Elon Musk (the South African entrepreneur and inventor who became famous above all for his daring projects concerning autonomous driving and the conquest of Mars).

PayPal's success was relatively rapid, so much so that eBay Inc. , A well-known ecommerce giant, acquired the service in 2002 for a record $ 1.4 billion . In September 2014, the spin-off phase of eBay from PayPal began, which it gave to a company of its own - PayPal Holdings Inc. , For the record - which made its stock market debut in the summer of 2015.

The fundamental concept on which PayPal is based, as already mentioned above, concerns the fact that the user must be able to carry out online transactions without necessarily having to share their data (coordinates of their bank current, the number of their card credit, etc.) with the recipient of the payment. Another significant aspect contemplated in the PayPal philosophy concerns the simplicity with which the service can be used: to send money it is sufficient to have an e-mail address, a password and to associate a payment method between prepaid card, credit card and bank account. to your account.

You have probably already understood what the main advantages of PayPal are: in addition to the fact that your data is not shared with other users, the service is really simple to use and transactions take place quite quickly. But also from an economic point of view, PayPal offers considerable advantages: there is no monthly or annual fee , but only some small commissions which are indicated below.

• Purchases in euros  - it's free.
• Sales  - if sales are made in the euro zone, a commission ranging from 1.8% to 3.4% of the total sales + 0.35 euro for the transaction is paid. If the sales are made outside the euro zone, the rate for currency conversions and international payments is applied; while for sales involving non-profit organizations, a commission of 1.8% of total sales is paid + 0.35 euros for the transaction.
  Sending money  - if it takes place in the euro zone it is free only if the PayPal account is used, while a commission of up to 3.4% + 0.35 euro is paidper transaction if the money is sent via a card associated with the PayPal account. As regards sending money outside the euro zone, an international payment reception fee of between 0.4% and 1.8% is applied and, if a card associated with your account is used, there is a a rate of up to 5.2% + € 0.35 (rates may vary according to the country of destination).

To view the rest of the rates in detail, I recommend that you read the table on the PayPal website .

Another interesting aspect of PayPal is the so-called PayPal Buyer Protection Program . What is it about? I'll explain it to you right away: thanks to the PayPal Buyer Protection Program, it is possible to receive a refund of the entire amount of a purchase made (including shipping costs) if it does not conform to the description made by the seller, shows signs of damage / wear that is not indicated in the description made by the seller or, of course, if the product is not delivered to the buyer. For more details on this, read the conditions of use of the service that PayPal has published on its website.

Would you like to use PayPal and take advantage of the many benefits I mentioned earlier? In this case, I invite you to read the next paragraphs to get some more details on how to create a PayPal account, associate a card to the account and how to send and receive money. In addition to this, I suggest you read the various insights that I have published and that you find linked in each of the following chapters.

The PayPal prepaid card

PayPal is also a prepaid card of the MasterCard circuit, which can be used to make purchases online and in physical stores. It is not directly linked to online accounts, nor is it “standard” included in the latter, but it can be linked to the PayPal account to make quick money transfers. I told you about it in more detail in my post on how to make a PayPal card .

How to create a PayPal account

To use PayPal you must first create your free account. Then connect to the PayPal website and click on the  Register button , which is located at the top right. On the page that opens, put the check mark next to the Personal Account item , if you are a private individual, or next to the Business Account item , if you are a business user and want to accept payments and send pro-forma invoices to your customers. After choosing the type of account you want to open, click on the blue  Continue button  to continue creating your free account.

On the page that opens, fill out the form that you see on the screen by entering the required data in the appropriate fields, put the check mark next to the item Confirm that you have read and accepted the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy of PayPal and that you are 18 and finally click on the blue Accept and register button . Within a few minutes, you should receive a welcome email confirming that you have successfully created your PayPal account. Then click on the link contained in the e-mail to confirm the e-mail address you indicated during registration and log in to PayPal to verify your identity.

Once logged in, you will be asked to also confirm the mobile number you provided. To do this, click on the Get code button  and, within a few minutes, you should receive a 6-digit code via SMS to be entered in the Confirmation code field .

If you have not managed to complete the opening of your PayPal account, perhaps because you got lost in some step, do not hesitate to read the article in which I explain in even more detail how to create a PayPal account : I am sure that this further study will be of great help.

How to associate a credit card or bank account

Now is the time to associate your credit card or bank account with PayPal. To do this, click on the item Connect a card or Connect a bank account that you see in the Discover other PayPal functions section or, if you do not see this screen, click on the Wallet item (at the top) to access the page that allows you to complete the operation.

To connect a card, click on the  Connect a card button  (if you have not already done so), fill in the form you see on the screen by entering all the required data and click on the blue  Save button  to complete the operation. To connect your bank account to your PayPal account, instead, click on the Connect a bank account button (if you have not already done so), enter the IBAN of your account in the appropriate field and click on the Continue button .

Just like you did with your email and phone number, you now need to confirm the credit card or bank account you have associated with your PayPal account. Why do you have to do this? By confirming that you are the holder of the credit card or current account associated with your PayPal account, you will not have to deal with the limitations provided for those who do not confirm such data. At the time of writing, PayPal's limitations do not allow you to withdraw more than 750 Dollars per month, do not allow you to withdraw more than 1,000 euros per year and do not allow you to receive credits greater than 2,500 Dollars.

To confirm your credit card or current account, click on the bell symbol  and follow the instructions on the screen to confirm your credit card or current account. If you find it difficult to complete this operation, do not hesitate to read the tutorial in which I explain in detail  how PayPal works : there you will find information that will be of great help to complete the entire procedure.

How to pay and send money with PayPal

Now that you have associated your card or bank account with PayPal, you can finally "take action" and use your account to pay and send money (in the next chapter I will also briefly explain how to receive it).

PayPal is already supported by a huge number of e-commerce sites, primarily eBay which, as I mentioned at the beginning, acquired PayPal, making it the most used payment method by its users. To use it, simply click on the button in which the service logo is located and enter the password of your account.

To send money to a person, on the other hand, log into your PayPal account, click on the Send and request item (at the top of the service's home page), click on the item Send money to family and friends or on the item Pay for goods or services , and type the email address of the person you want to make the payment to. Alternatively, download the PayPal app for Android , iOS and Windows 10 Mobile and do it all from there. Find more details on how to send money with PayPal in the tutorial where I explain in depth how to pay with this service .

How to get paid and receive money with PayPal

To receive money or to request payments on PayPal, just communicate the e-mail address associated with your account to the person who has to send the money, that's all.

If, on the other hand, you want to request a payment that you have pending, select the item  Request money  that you see after clicking on the  Send and request item  (above) and type the e-mail address of the user you want to request money from. The person in question will receive a notification urging them to proceed with the payment, so that they can proceed as soon as possible with the credit in your favor (at least hopefully!). For more information on how to receive a payment on PayPal , read the tutorial I published on the subject.