How does PayPal work? How does the PayPal buyer protection thing work and can I use the online payment service without a bank account? We have compiled the answers to numerous questions – so that your online and offline purchases and money transfers go smoothly.
Before you can begin any of the rest of the tips and hints in this article, you’ll need a PayPal account first. You can easily create this online via the PayPal website. There you have to click on “New login” at the top right and then select whether it should be a private or a business account. If you want to open a private account, all you need is your first and last name, a secure password and an email address. The latter should be chosen with care, as it roughly corresponds to the account number in your PayPal account and can therefore be viewed by every transfer partner.
In the second step of setting up the account, additional data such as your telephone number and address will be requested. Here, too, you should truthfully fill in the fields, as it will be the address that is on your invoices and that may be used as the delivery address. Now you can set up your PayPal account – a bank account or credit card is initially not required.
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Use the payment service without a bank account
There are many advantages to linking your PayPal account to your bank account or credit card. For example, if you, as a buyer, want to pay for goods or send money, is the amount simply debited from your bank account by direct debit? Conversely, you can also transfer funds from your PayPal account to your bank account. But it can also be done without a bank and credit card link. For example, friends can send you amounts to your account and “top-up” the credit so that you can spend later. However, the money transfers are limited in this case. And payouts can only be made via the accounts of other PayPal users.
Pay in Paypal money – This is How it works
If you have decided to link your bank and PayPal accounts, you can still top up your credit. You can do this by having someone send you money, but of course, you can also fill the account by bank transfer. Before this is possible, however, two requirements must be met: You have to connect your bank account to your account, otherwise, PayPal cannot correctly assign the transferred money. The company also emphasizes that the bank account must be in the same name as the account. If the requirements are ticked off, you can transfer the amount quickly as with any other transfer. You can find the information required for this on the PayPal page under E-Exchange> Deposit or withdraw money> Deposit money.
As soon as the money is in your account, you will receive an email. Depending on which bank you are with, the transfer of your own “payment” can take a few days. Alternatively, the money can also be deposited via Giropay. You can also find out exactly how this works on the PayPal page under “Deposit or withdraw money”. You can also use this menu to withdraw your money to your bank account. This works either free of charge within a few working days or for a fee within a few minutes.
Paypal buyer Protection: Get your money back
PayPal has two types of money transfers: you can send money to friends and family, or you can pay for goods and services. Transfers to friends and family are free, but not subject to PayPal Buyer Protection. When the money is gone, it’s gone – there’s not much you can do about it. Things look completely different when you pay for goods. Here the payment service claims a certain amount for itself, but the so-called buyer protection applies for up to 180 days.
To claim PayPal Buyer Protection and claim the money back, you must first log in and select the payment in question under “Activities”. Then you can aim at “Report a problem” and get in touch with the seller. If they do not respond, you have 20 days to convert the report into a buyer protection request. To do this, first, click on conflict resolution, then next to the conflict on “Display” and finally on “Activate PayPal for clarification”. The online payment service then takes care of the rest within the scope of PayPal buyer protection.
Important: You must make the application for buyer protection within 20 days after you reported a problem. Otherwise, the online payment service finally closes the conflict. An application for buyer protection is then no longer possible.
How Paypal works: The most important steps
Some of the most common questions asked about the digital payment service are how to send money online with PayPal, change your PayPal password and delete your PayPal account. We have created brief step-by-step instructions for all of these questions.
Transfer money with PayPal
As already mentioned: With PayPal, the email address is the equivalent of the account number. And that’s all you need to know to send money to friends, family and salespeople. As soon as you dial into PayPal, the label “Send” appears in the middle of the upper display area. One-click on the button and a window opens in which you can enter the name, username, mobile phone number or email address of the recipient. Now you just have to follow the instructions and the transferred amount will land on your friend’s PayPal account.
Attention: If you, as a buyer, pay for goods or services, the transfer is not free of charge! Unless you pay through a retailer (such as eBay). The reason: In this case, PayPal’s share is often already integrated into the purchase price – but not always. This is determined by the seller.
Change PayPal password
To change your password, you must first click on the gear symbol on the top right of the PayPal website. There you select the ” Security ” window and the first entry in the new menu is used to update your PayPal password. However, you will also need to remember your old password if you want to set a new one.
Delete PayPal account
If you want to delete your PayPal account, this can also be done using the gear symbol on the top right. There you just scroll down until you find the menu item “Close account”. Before this is possible, however, you must first transfer all funds to your bank account. You also have to remove the bank account or credit card details from the PayPal account.
Attention: If there are pending payments, pending disputes, requests for buyer protection or chargebacks, the online payment service will not close your account immediately.
Pay contactless
There are several ways to make contactless payments in stores using PayPal. However, one of the methods requires that your own account be linked to Google Play. It is much less complicated using the so-called QR codes. All you have to do is select the “Scan / Pay” button in the PayPal app and then scan the merchant’s QR code. From then on the process is intuitive. The only problem: There are currently only a limited number of merchants who support PayPal’s contactless payment using QR codes.
Hotline: This is how you can reach the provider
If you want to contact PayPal customer service, you must first log in to your account. Because as the company announces, customer service only discusses questions about the account with the account holder for security reasons. Once this hurdle has been overcome, you can reach the PayPal hotline on “069 945189832”. But before you pull out your phone: You must first go to the PayPal customer service page and click on “Call us”. Because apart from the phone number, you also need a unique customer service PIN for identification, which is generated on this page and expires after an hour.
Alternatively, you can write to customer service online in the chat on the same website, whereby you will first be confronted with a digital assistant. Only when the bot is at a loss does it forward you to one of the customer service representatives. As a rule, they should reply “within a few hours”. If you don’t want to wait that long, the only thing left is the PayPal community forum with its 4,168,639 users (January 2021).
