Update 3/2/25: American Express sending out an email that they will no longer be a payee on Paypal Bill Pay as of 4/1/25 (ht reader E.A.)
Update 2/15/24: Tons of payees that people were using got removed yesterday from the Paypal Bill Pay system.
Update 2/9/23: Multiple Reddit reports (1, 2) talk about an issue whereby Paypal changes the payment method after the fact to your bank. YMMV
Update 1/16/23: a lot of people are experiencing very delayed payments, myself included, so use this option with caution.
Original Post:
Sometimes there are things staring us in the face that we just don’t notice. I learned this week about Paypal Bill Pay. (Maybe everyone already knows about this?)
Paypal Bill Pay allows paying utilities, insurance, phone bills and more directly from your Paypal account with all of the regular payment methods allowed by Paypal. Vendors found in the Paypal Bill Pay system will be paid via ACH bank payment.
Most insurance companies and utilities likely allow direct credit card payments, so this bill pay system might not be useful for most people since you can pay with a credit card, regardless.
For years I’ve been paying a large monthly insurance bill with bank ACH payment since they don’t allow card payments. This week, I added the bill to Paypal Bill Pay and sent a $1 payment with my saved credit card as the payment method. Two days later the payment is being reflected on my insurance company balance.
You can also pay credit card and mortgage bills with Paypal Bill Pay, but for those you can only use bank or Paypal balance as the payment method.
Potential uses of Paypal Bill Pay:
- Bills such as insurances or utilities occasionally won’t accept credit card payments. Or they may charge a fee for card payment or they won’t accept AmEx cards or Visa gift cards. These might be payable with Paypal Bill Pay.
- Paypal is sometimes a bonus category on various cards, and Paypal Bill Pay is a nice way to use them.
A few notes:
- Paypal does not appear to allow splitting bills across multiple cards when using their Bill Pay service.
- There is a message on the payment screen that your Paypal balance is always used first. Be sure to transfer out any Paypal balance before making a payment if you want the payment to charge your card.
- Random interesting tidbit FWIW: I see that the category of the bill carries through to the card issuer when using Paypal Bill Pay. My insurance bill payment is showing “Merchant type – Insurance sales, underwriting and premiums.”
- Be sure to double check your payment method – there are many reports of Paypal switching the payment method afterward, see this Reddit thread.
Hat tip thefrugaltourist
Is this an end to the workaround to not have to pay the high% when paying federal taxes with an Amex business card?
At least we all made a lot from Carl telling us about it. Shame how it came to end!
Amex has been taken out since last week and there is no sign of coming back
Can anyone here cofirm if any debit card that works for any amount of cashback?
There are a few. Myfico has a thread. But it’s not going to be major players.
My Primis Perks debit card gives me the 50 cent reward each time I do a billpay through PayPal.
Are people still able to pay BofA Credit Cards using PPBP? I tried with multiple debit cards but the transaction is rejected. I’m able to pay other CCs with PPBP, and I see the transactions on my bank ledger (I see two transactions that cancel out), suggesting it’s not the debit card bank rejecting the transaction. Wondering if it’s just me or if it’s more widespread.
It seems intermittent. My first attempt to pay a BofA card with PPBP on the 22nd had the same problem, but a few hours it worked. BofA received the payment on the 23rd.
I made 2-3 payments and it worked but not seeing the benefit if no cashback
Almost every attempt of mine since mid-Jan was refunded (by BoA if you believe the transaction details). I’m pretty sure the payment itself is enough to trigger spend requirements despite the refund, at least for Affinity.
Yes refund works for affinity. Just be careful paypal does not shut your account down for too many refunds like this.
Gotcha, thanks for the warning, lol
I made two payments to BOA credit card on the 19th through Paypal bill pay, the second one got posted the same day, the first one still hasn’t showed up on BOA account as of today. Should I be worried? Should I contact Paypal or BOA card?
This happened before several times, and it is still happening once in a while.
“Update 1/16/23: a lot of people are experiencing very delayed payments, myself included, so use this option with caution.“
Basically the payment processor Paypal uses (e.g., Paymentus) messes up. Eventually the payment will arrive, but it may take as long as a few weeks in previous cases.
favo🔗
Good to know. It looks like the Paypal payment processor messed up again. Two payments to the same biller in the same day, one arrived the next day, the other one is still in transit after days.
Can anyone get T-Mobile to work? I entered the 5-digit Zip code on the electronic bill and it’s still not working.
Has anyone tried paying a BofA card through PPBP since the apocalypse? I was able to add that bill today. I’ll do a test and let you know.
Yes, it was never affected
Do gift cards still work or what is the play?
@mike
I never heard of gift cards ever working in PayPal bill pay. Do they work for you? What brand gift card?
Are you able to pay with a credit card or only for gift card liquidation?
Good question, my play is use a cashback-earning debit card. I haven’t tried liquidating.
Which debit card are you using?
PayPal sent email that Mastercard will earn 1.5% everywhere, down from 2% starting August 1st. Didn’t see this here sorry if I missed it
A small ray of good news: I was able to re-add one of my utilities that was removed in the big purge, so you may want to periodically check for other payees
Wow, good job being watchful
That’s good to know. I just checked and my utility is still not available. Based on your DP, I guess that I’ll check every so often.
.
The only utility company I have left on PayPal doesn’t charge a fee for CC usage anyway… so you might want to just go directly through the utility company if that is the case. Why deal with a middle man?
The other option, scour your utility bill for a different account number, or drop leading Zeros. I know my local tax bills/fees have like 3 different numbers, one for epayments, bill pay, etc.