Buying from Amazon with a PayPal Debit Card
Many of us maintain a PayPal personal account in order to buy items online and receive money. For buying from merchants which interface with PayPal, that’s an easy, convenient option. But what if you’re needing to buy something from Amazon, which does not allow direct PayPal payments?
That’s where the PayPal debit card comes in. This debit card can be used pretty much anywhere that a standard credit card can be used.
What Is a PayPal Debit Card?
A PayPal debit card is just like a debit card from a bank. It lets you access the funds you already have. You can’t charge for something beyond your fund balance.
There are no fees associated with the PayPal debit card. When you try to buy something, either it is approved if you have enough money, or it is declined if you don’t have enough money in your PayPal account. That’s it.
How Do I Order a PayPal Debit Card?
Your PayPal account does not automatically send you a PayPal debit card. You have to order it to get it. This probably saves them a lot of money in sending out plastic cards to hundreds of thousands of people who don’t want one anyway.
So we’ll start from the beginning.
PayPal personal accounts come in two categories – PayPal Cash and PayPal Cash Plus. As of 2020 if you have a PayPal personal account it’s one or the other. If you’re not sure which, it’s probably a PayPal Cash account.
It’s a bit confusing, but the second category, PayPal Cash Plus, isn’t something you directly “opt into”. Rather, it’s just what PayPal calls it if you:
- Sign up for their debit card
- Have direct deposit adding money to your account
If you do either of those things, now you have access to a few extra features like setting up goals to help manage your money.
So the next step would be to sign up for a PayPal Cash Card, which is a debit card.
You do so here:
https://www.paypal.com/myaccount/bundle/upgrade
If you’re nervous about following that link, just log into your PayPal account. Search for PayPal Cash Card in the help area. An option in the results will be this FAQ page –
So just follow the link on that page. It’ll give you a direct link to sign up for the debit card.
Note that because this is now acting as a bank account they’ll need a home address, a phone number, and your social security number for anti-fraud reasons.
Once you get that PayPal debit card, you can use it on Amazon, at restaurants, and anywhere else that a normal debit card is used.
Here’s another option. Just turn your PayPal money into an Amazon gift card –
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