When shopping online, you can pay using PayPal wherever you see the PayPal logo. You can also use PayPal to send money to family and friends within New Zealand and overseas. Here’s what you need to know if you’re thinking about linking your PayPal account to your regular bank account.
KEY POINTS:
- You don’t need a bank account to sign up for PayPal or to receive money into your PayPal account
- But a bank account, credit card or debit card is required to fund your purchases
- A bank account, credit card or debit card is also required if you want to transfer funds out of your PayPal account
Do you need a bank account for PayPal?
No, you don’t need a bank account to sign up for PayPal or to receive money into your PayPal account. To open a personal account, you need only to provide your name, address, phone number and email address.
But you do need to link a payment method – such as a bank account, debit or credit card – if you want to send money, or if you want to make a payment and you don’t have sufficient funds in your PayPal balance.
You will, obviously, need to link your bank account if you want to withdraw funds from your PayPal account into it. However, you can also transfer funds out of your PayPal account to any eligible Visa or Mastercard credit or debit card.
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Should I link my bank account to PayPal?
If you link your bank account you won’t need to enter your details each time you make a payment through PayPal. Instead, you can check out using your email address and password.
When you link your bank account, it will automatically become your default PayPal payment method, unless you have chosen a different method.
There are also potential security benefits. For instance, a recipient will not see your bank account information when you pay, and PayPal will send you a receipt each time a payment is made. PayPal also reviews all transactions and can reimburse you for unauthorised payments.
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Is PayPal safe?
Generally, PayPal is considered to be a secure payment method, and PayPal says it uses extensive security measures to safeguard your bank account or card numbers. PayPal monitors and encrypts transactions to help prevent fraud and identity theft. If you are concerned something might have gone wrong, you can report it to PayPal and it will handle unauthorised transactions.
But it’s worth remembering that no platform is 100% risk-free. You may want to speak to your financial institution and find out about any safety protections you receive as a customer, and whether or not these may be impacted if your PayPal account becomes compromised.
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About the reviewer of this page
This report was reviewed by Canstar Content Producer, Caitlin Bingham. Caitlin is an experienced writer whose passion for creativity led her to study communication and journalism. She began her career freelancing as a content writer, before joining the Canstar team.
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