Paying back friends and family is about to get easier and faster, according to PayPal, thanks to their new secure way to pay, using just a short personalised link.
Users can now secure their own name at PayPal.Me (for example, a person called John Smith could register the personalised link with the username PayPal.Me/JohnSmith, if available) to send and receive money on any device.
Last year in the UK, research from PayPal found that Brits were owed an estimated £3.2 billion from casual borrowings by friends, family and colleagues. The new PayPal.Me service has been developed to overcome the awkwardness of asking to be paid back. Users can simply ping their customised link to friends and family to request payment, whether that’s in Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, text, email or on the web whether they are using a mobile phone, tablet or computer.
Secure your Paypal.me username
To sign up to the new service, consumers simply go to PayPal.Me to register with their PayPal details. They then create their unique link by securing a username. This link can then be shared over social media, email, text and the web to individuals or groups of people to request payment. In a few quick steps, PayPal users who receive the link from the requestor can click on the link, log into PayPal, enter the amount and hit send. Anyone clicking the link will need a PayPal account to send money. The money can be immediately transferred to the requestor’s PayPal account.
PayPal.Me users can also ask for a specific amount by adding this to their link request, for example, PayPal.Me/yourusername/20 and it will automatically populate the field with £20 making it an even faster more convenient experience.
Cameron McLean, Managing Director, PayPal UK, says:
“PayPal’s person-to-person payment service has been used by millions of our customers for years. The service evolved from the original idea behind PayPal, which was actually to let people beam money to each other using Palm Pilot personal organisers. With PayPal.Me you now have an even simpler, quicker and more convenient way of sending or requesting money between family and friends, whether at home or on the go.â€
PayPal.Me will be available in 18 markets worldwide from the 1st September. It is free of charge to use PayPal to send or receive payments funded by your debit card, bank account or PayPal balance between friends and family within the UK, with just small fees charged for payments funded by credit card and/or involving currency conversions. Small fees are charged for overseas transfers. For more information, visit https://www.paypal.me/