[Update] Paypal Bill Pay – Conveniently Pay Bills With Your Saved Cards

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:

  1. Paypal does not appear to allow splitting bills across multiple cards when using their Bill Pay service.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.”
  4. 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
    Chuck
  • On February 15, 2024, 08:53
Tags: paypal

View Comments (824)

  • 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. @guest_1773051

      • 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.

  • 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

      • 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.

    • 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.

  • I had removed bank account from Paypal to avoid paypal using my bank to pay the bills. Now I tried to add the bank account back, and paypal cannot link any of my bank account. Always an error message: We're sorry. We're not able to process your request right now.

    • I feel your pain. PayPal completely removed Navy Federal FCU from the linkable banks list. I know I have had it linked before, and my P2 still has it linked.

  • Booo they finally got me. Went to pay my elec bill and found they removed my electric/gas utility and unfortunately my township as well, through whom I could pay property taxes.

    I've paid probably close to $30k in the last 3 years using PPBP with $200 fee free VGCs from Staples on my Ink Cash, earning 5% back. It was a bit of work but if you split it up in small batches it was manageable. Really loved Paypal 5% quarters for Chase as that eliminated the work of using VGCs since i have 2 Freedom cards. I prepaid Q2 prop taxes about a month ago to go towards an Ink SUB, very glad I jumped on that early.

    Not sure what the best play for taxes will be going forward. The official 3rd party online payment site now charges for tax bill payments via ACH(ridiculous!) or a 3% CC fee. Doesn't seem worth the work for only 2%, I don't even know if VGCs would even work. Might have to use my real bank's bill pay to avoid dropping an actual check in a payment box.

    Elec/gas utility does take CC payments directly, but with a flat $3.50 fee so if you make large enough payments you can cancel it out or make a tiny bit and at least get some spend.

  • I'm surprised they opted to remove payees instead of adding fees.

    Does anyone know of any alternatives to PayPal Bill Pay that accept credit cards to pay bills other than Plastiq? I would be willing to pay a fee to use a credit card for some bills.

    PayPal Bill Pay payments showed up as an ACH transaction so Verizon Wireless would still give you an autopay discount.

    PayPal primarily uses Paymentus and Fiserv to process bill payments. https://www.paymentus.com/paypal/

    Walmart also uses Paymentus but only takes debit cards or cash. You would also need to go in person. https://www.paymentus.com/walmart/

    https://www.paymentus.com/instant-payment-network/

    Has anyone tried doxo Bill Pay or one of the other bill pay apps available on the iOS or Android app stores?

    • Based on a quick Google search, looks like Doxo has fees. I don't have an account and just going off what a couple of sites say that Doxo charges.

      "Convenience fees apply on Credit/Debit/ApplePay payments. ($3.99 or 3.5%, whichever is greater)"

      Melio costs 2.9% on debit & credit card payments. @guest_1811746

      • It looks like I can pay mortgage with Doxo but it comes with a hefty 3.5% fee. I can't think of a credit card that can come ahead with that fee. I know the argument is that I can do a sign-up bonus, but I'm talking about on a regular basis

        • If you have Ink you can make 1.5% by buying 200 and/or 500 V/MCGCs from Office Supply stores and using that to pay mortgage so long as your mortgage company accepts multiple split payments.

  • I just checked my list of billers again and noticed that my billers for my hospital is now gone from my list of billers in PayPal bill pay. Now my doctor visits and family medical co-pays can no longer benefit from my PayPal card's 3% bonus.

    So far I've lost most of my billers. The one that hurts the most is my electric utility biller since that one charges a fee for credit card payments while PayPal bill pay does not. With these changes I find myself not even touching PayPal anymore. PayPal used to be my main hub for paying my bills for everything. :(

    • Does your electric take Debit Cards fee free? You can try buying fee free Visa or MC Gift Cards from Staples or Office Max using a credit card that gives high rewards for office (Like Chase Ink Cash at 5%) and then using them to pay directly as a debit card.

      • Unfortunately, my electric utility also charges a fee for debit cards as well. The only method that has no fee is checking account. PayPal bill pay was literally the only way I've ever been able to pay my electric utility with a credit card with no fees.

        Now that I've noticed it, I see that someone else mentioned that PayPal bill pay uses two different processers Paymentus and Fiserv. I wonder if PayPal no longer works with Paymentus anymore. My gas utility uses Paymentus for their credit/debit card payments and my gas utility is no longer in PayPal bill pay. This might explain why some billers are still here while others are gone.

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