Is there a fee to send a paypal payment using a debit card?

[Johnson184]

Whenever I buy goods from someone online, I always ask that they wait 3-5 business days for me to transfer money from my bank account to my paypal account. I was recently told I could add my debit card information to my paypal account so I can instantly send money to anyone without waiting 3-5 business days. Is there an additional fee for this if I send it as gift or goods?

Thanks in advance.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi Johnson184, and welcome to the forums!

You actually have a couple of options, both of which are far more convenient! 🙂

Even if you have a zero balance, you can make a payment with PayPal. When you go through the flow to send money or to check out, pay special attention to the source of the payment. You'll see that your bank will be listed. You can make your payment in this way and PayPal does all the work for you. That way you don't have to transfer and wait, and then log back in later to send the payment.

Payments sent like this when you just have a bank on file are sent as eChecks. The activity on your end is all done at the same time, but the seller still waits for the money to clear from your bank. The payment will show as "uncleared" in their transaction history.

The benefit to adding a debit or credit card is that the Instant Transfer feature will become available. With Instant Transfer, PayPal will send the request for funds to your bank and at the same time will pay your seller up front for you while the funds are still in the process of clearing in the background. This way your seller can see the completed payment right away and can begin filling your order.

To learn more about using your bank with PayPal, please take a look at the Bank FAQ.

I hope this helps!

Olivia