Using a credit card to pay a debt on Paypal

Hominu

Some card providers will allow you to transfer money to your current account for a fee. The fee might be slightly higher than Paypal (4%, compared to 3.4% + 20p), but it'll be whole lot safer.

laurylaury

Hominu wrote: »

Some card providers will allow you to transfer money to your current account for a fee. The fee might be slightly higher than Paypal (4%, compared to 3.4% + 20p), but it'll be whole lot safer.

Although if you do this you'll need to also be aware that, in addition to a charge, usually a higher interest rate applies for 'money transfers' and also be aware that if this rate is higher than your purchase rate some providers allocate payments in a way that the debt at the higher rate of interest is paid off last.

Hominu

laurylaury wrote: »

Although if you do this you'll need to also be aware that, in addition to a charge, usually a higher interest rate applies for 'money transfers' and also be aware that if this rate is higher than your purchase rate some providers allocate payments in a way that the debt at the higher rate of interest is paid off last.

Yes, you obviously need to read the specific T&Cs for you card. For example, when I did it with MBNA, the transfer to my current account was treated as a balance transfer, and as such was eligible for 20 months of interest free. I transferred 3K, paid the minimum payment for 19 months and then paid it off in full. Ended up getting more than the fee back in interest from the savings account I used for the period.

gglaze

Just to point out - if you have multiple email addresses (and who doesn't) and you have more than one bank account, you can basically set up multiple "identities" on paypal, and then you would be able to "pay yourself" by paying from one email address to the other. I wouldn't advise doing this on a frequent regular basis, but as a one-off, I think it should be ok. I think it's less of a fraud concern, and more of a "going against the intended use of Paypal" concern.