Hello @ChrisTenerife , I hope you're doing fine.
Your friend cannot send you money even if they are going to use your paypal.me link. They will be directed to create a paypal account to complete the process. However, if they really don't want to create an account, you can send them an invoice or a money request and they can pay as a guest.
To know more about paypal.me, you can refer to this link https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/what-is-paypal.me-faq3025?app=searchAutoComplete
I hope this helps. If you find this helpful, make our community better by giving kudos or accepting it as a solution.
Have a great day and keep safe.
