Paypal using bank account available NOW in Australia

I just received an email, that allows me to register a bank account with Paypal. I think this is available to all Australian users. Previously, only a credit card was the only option, so this is definately a good thing to send funds to other CPF members who can only accept cash paypal!, although probably not a good thing for my wallet.

Haz


Dear User,

Now you can fund your purchases from your bank account - offering more flexibility the next time you make a purchase, while enjoying:

• Security and Trust
• Buyer Protection
• Added convenience
• Access to records and tracking
• The recipient never sees your bank account details when you use PayPal

So use your bank account the next time you pay for your regular purchases. To add your bank account to your PayPal account, log in to your PayPal account and go to your Profile, then click the Bank Accounts link under the Financial Information column.

Sincerely,

The PayPal Team

You might want to check the exorbitant exchange rate that Paypal charges before you go ahead with this. I was pretty excited when Paypal did this for Hong Kong last year, but the exchange rate to transfer money from Paypal to my bank account or vice versa, was at least 30% more expensive than the standard exchange rate between US$ to HK$. e.g. Standard exchange rate is US$1 : HK$7.78 and Paypal would use US$1 : HK$ 5.50 to transfer money to my bank account.. :thinking:

My back account will also accept US$ but Paypal refuses to transfer US$ to any bank account outside of the US and insists on transferring the amount in HK$ after using their ridiculous exchange rate.. This was a while back, so they may have changed this since I tried it... :shrug:

Also, after hearing all the horror stories about Paypal indiscriminately transferring money from your bank account due to some complaint or other, I'm very happy that as an overseas member, I DO NOT have to register a bank account with Paypal to use it..

Take a look at Paypalsucks for some of these horror stories.

Thanks, i will check it out. That sounds worrying if it's possible for Paypal to transfer money from your account without authorisation.

that's why it's best to use a bank account for paypal use only.

As a very regular user of Paypal, I would say that yes, some of these issues are known to exist and the wisdom to use separate accounts is good advice.

Where I am, the financial authorities have permitted Paypal to have access to our bank accounts, but ONE WAY only - I can withdraw, but I cannot put money into the Paypal balance. Recently a glitch occured where a transaction went wrong and resulted in me being credited, so Paypal took unilateral action to recover the funds by 'adjusting' my Paypal account balance to negative. However, this would have been preferable to Paypal helping themselves to $$ directly from the bank account. This way it still requires my intervention to transfer funds back in. After checking I found it was indeed a mistake so I did the right thing and returned the extra money, however I can also imagine situations where it might not have been as simple and straightforward.