What payment methods can I use with PayPal?

You don’t need to have money in your PayPal account to send a payment. You can send money directly from a credit card, or a debit card.

You can use any of these methods to send payments:

PayPal account balance

• Your PayPal account balance is the first payment method that we use when you make a payment.
• Your payment occurs immediately.

Credit or debit card

• You can pay with a credit or debit card if you don’t have enough money in your PayPal account balance.
• Your payment occurs immediately.

Here's how to change your preferred payment method:

1. Click Wallet.
2. Click the preferred payment method.
3. Click Set as preferred.

For some payments, when your selected or preferred payment method isn’t available, we’ll use your backup payment method instead. In those instances, the backup payment method may be displayed to you before you complete the payment. This applies to one-time, online transactions, not in-store or automatic payments.

Before sending a payment, please ensure the payment method you want is the one selected. A payment method can’t be changed or canceled after a payment is sent, even if it shows it’s pending. If you sent a payment and want to change the payment method you’ll need to request a refund and send the payment again with the correct payment method.

Please note that you need to add a payment method (such as a card) to your PayPal account before you can select it as a preferred way to pay.

Changing your preferred payment method won’t affect automatic payments. You can update your payment preference directly on the automatic payment.