As far as the prepaid card goes, it is between very difficult and impossible to use one through paypal. Since prepaids don't have a pin and you need the name on the card, you would need to know how the purchaser of the card (if it was a gift) registered their name or yours on it, and you would have to call the card provider to get information on the pin and whatever else paypal asks for when attaching a card to your account.
I do believe you have to have a bank account number attached to your paypal account, because that is where it recieves the funds from, whether you put these funds on paypal or simply have them instantly transferred when you make purchases (this keeps your paypal balance at $0.00 and simply draws funds from your bank account. no advantage or disadvantage). I don't think you need a credit card attached, however paypal would rather have one as a backup if using your account number somehow fails. I'm not sure if they require a card or not.
