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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.

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.

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