PayPal is one of the most convenient ways to pay for goods and services on line.  It is now possible to link PayPal to debit cards, linking one of the most convenient ways to pay offline to one of the most convenient ways to pay online.

PayPal is owned by EBay, the world’s largest auction site and also the world’s largest consumer to consumer sales network.  It is a system that is well suited towards small transactions and a growing number of small business sites use PayPal as a way of accepting payments on the internet.  As PayPal has the ability to accept credit and debit cards, this can often be a lower cost way of accepting these cards.

Traditionally PayPal used to operate with a balance on the account, in the same way as a prepaid debit card.  This was not always practical for many people who would have to transfer money in regularly and would have money in a number of accounts if they were not using the card.

PayPal now offers the ability to link a debit card to a PayPal account.  This means that when paying by PayPal then it is no longer necessary to top up the account first.  It is necessary for a PayPal user to first go into their PayPal account and then to go to the Administration area of their PayPal account.  Within this administration area they can then choose to set up a debit or credit card and link it to their account.

To set up a debit or a credit card account it is also necessary to verify the card.  After the card details have been entered then within a day PayPal will send two transactions that will be less than a dollar in total and will expect the card user to enter these figures into the verification screen.  Once these details have been entered then the card will be fully verified and will be able to be used.

It is usually better to set up a debit card as there is less of a risk with a debit card that there will be a large debt being built up as there would be if a credit card was being used instead.

Debit cards are also useful in that they can funnel money that is being made from a PayPal account.  This can be more useful than the alternative of a bank account.