Paypal released a new debit card which draws on money in your Paypal account. The card has no monthly fees and funds can be added with direct deposit, cash loads at various stores, bank transfers, or P2P Paypal transfers from friends.
The card is confusingly called the Paypal Cash Mastercard, not the same thing as the Paypal MyCash Card (PMCC) which is a single-load card to add money to your Paypal account.
Previously, there were two versions of the Paypal debit card:
- Paypal Prepaid Mastercard (our review) which has a $4.95 non-waivable monthly fee, and is part of the Netspend family including their 5% savings account offering
- Paypal Business Debit Card (PPBDC) which has no fees and earns 1% back on purchases
The main difference between the two is that the PPBDC is only for Paypal Business accounts (though you can also get it on a personal account if that account has received $500 in payments) while the Paypal Prepaid Mastercard is for personal accounts. The new Paypal Cash Debit Mastercard is also a personal card, and it’s possible they’ll phase out the Paypal Prepaid Mastercard in favor of this new offering.
Some people are interested in Paypal debit cards since they can be loaded with PPMCC purchased with a credit card. (The PPBDC also has an additional advantage of earning 1%.) With the release of the Paypal Cash Mastercard, there’s an additional no-fee Paypal debit card, one which can be used with a Paypal personal account.
I personally don’t advise MSing with Paypal (my story), but you do you.
Other details:
- No minimum balance required
- No credit check (like most prepaid cards)
- Free ATM withdrawals at MoneyPass ATMs
- No monthly or annual fees
- 2.5% foreign transaction fee
Hat tip to reader P.R.
View Comments (21)
How do I go about getting a PayPal debit card? Is there a charge for using it? I'd like to add a significant amount of money to my PayPal account and just use a debit card. Is there any fee for this?
So I received the new debit card and after a week or so got two offers from PayPal
1) 10$ for making two DD totaling $500 by 11/22
2) 10$ for $100 spend by 10/31 (MO should do the trick here I believe)
Paypal is not even a recognized FI and I don't know why they are able to freeze people's accounts and hold funds at anytime. Only reason I can think of is we agreed to this under their T&C when we signed up and it gives them leeway to do as they please. Many are saying it is a waste of time to deal with their notorious compliance department which does the limitation/shutdown of accounts. This is the reason many got frustrated that nothing happened with their CFPB complaint and they just had to wait 180 days to get their funds to "thaw".
It's safe to say that paypal is great when it's working... until one day, you find out they don't want to do business with you anymore and meantime, they'll keep your funds for 180 days.
I see its tied to an ACH account and routing number from Wells Fargo. Does this mean the account allows ACH withdrawals (to allow for bill pay) or does the ACH only allow deposits?
I reached out to Wells Fargo, and they confirmed this account CANNOT be used for ACH pulls by a third party institution. This means that this unfortunately is not a full bank replacement (yet). May wish to note this in the description, for those who want to replace their bank with Paypal as it is not posted anywhere. I tried to do an ACH out of the account for a bill pay and can confirm that what I was told is accurate
If I sign up for this card does it require a hard pull?
I doubt it would be a hard pull. Prepaid cards usually are not.
Don't see why it wouldn't
PPMC is pretty much all dead anyway...
R.I.P the good old days.
Since paypal doesnt report transfers to your account under $20k, this could be a decent option for those that want to withdraw cryptocurrency profits into a non-checking account to avert uncle sam. Some exchanges have paypal as an option.
anybody know if it would be possible to load this card with visa gift cards in order to liquidate cash from them?
No, it's not loadable at Walmart or USPS, though you may be able to buy a PPMCC with a Visa gift card, YMMV.
you can buy the paypal reload in CVS anymore right?
you cant..error i meant!
PayPal is widely known for "limiting" their customer's accounts. It sounds like such an innocent word, but when they do they lock all of the funds in your PayPal account up for 180 days. When the 180 days are finally up they allow you to withdraw the funds to a linked checking or savings account.
This means some poor schmuck out there is going to sign up for this prepaid card and naively use it with their PayPal account to handle all of their finances. Life will be good for a few months and then one fateful day that person will load whatever PayPal deems to be a little too much to their account or will make some purchase that PayPal doesn't like and discover their account is limited and they're now unable to pay their rent, insurance, cell phone bill, etc. since they're locked out of their money for 6-months. If you think I'm exaggerating about this do your own research and you'll see these are common reasons PayPal "limits" their user's accounts.
After begging and pleading with all their friends and family they barely manage to borrow enough to cover their bills and get their life back on track with a different brand of prepaid card. 6-months later the 180-days is finally up and they're excited to get the money PayPal had been holding hostage. Only now PayPal is telling them that they won't reactive the debit card because their account remains in "limited" status so the poor schmuck still can't get at the funds. PalPay then explains that they'll be happy to transfer the funds to a linked checking of savings account. Wait, you were one of our prepaid card users specifically because you didn't have a checking or savings account so these is no linked account we can transfer to? Well, let us know when you do so we can help you link it so you can finally get your money back from us!
Seriously, DoC: It's good that you include a link to your PayPal story near the bottom of the article, but given the very real financial ruin this product will likely put several unsuspecting users through the warning should be big letters flashing in red near the top of the post to warn people considering the card what they might be getting themselves into!
Paypal Will Mail You A Check If You Don't Have A Bank To Withdraw Funds to. Your description is an over simplification of how and when paypal deals with limited accounts. When an account is limited it is able to be lifted MUCH more frequently than it isn't.
This is outrageous and disgusting! I don't know why anybody would use PayPal as a main account, but I suppose there are people who can't get regular checking accounts.
But "your" money is not really your money no matter where it is anyway... We're being trained to accept it in various ways, by various institutions.
We like to put out the information there and let readers decide for themselves. My assumption is that most readers are more veteran and understand most of the things you wrote, but I'm sure there are some random people who will see the post, so I can hear your point.
On another note, I believe Paypal has gotten better with freezing account in general, and freezing funds inside frozen account, in particular.
I agree about veteran DoC readers being knowledgeable, but I think you may underestimate your search rankings. Open an Incognito window and search for paypal debit card. The first page is almost entirely PalPal links or sites they control. This post is at the top of the second page. That may change in the future, of course.