How to Open a PayPal Account

PayPal is an online payment service that enables individuals and businesses to send and receive money all over the world and pay for goods and services securely without exposing their full financial transaction details. It is easy and free to open a PayPal account online. All you need is a valid email address and you are good to go.

Opening a PayPal Personal account enables you to buy goods and services from online stores or send money to friends and family members just by using your PayPal account email address.

You can use PayPal to receive payments for freelance work and other online gigs and pay for shopping from online stores that accept PayPal as a mode of payment.

Read: How to Send Money from MPesa to Equity Bank Account

You will need to link your Visa or Master cards to your PayPal account in order to make purchases online or withdraw money to your bank. But this has been made even easier with M-Pesa. In Kenya, you can link PayPal account with your M-Pesa wallet by simply activating this service using your M-Pesa registered mobile number.

PayPal services. Pay for e-commerce goods, send and receive money.

Before you can enjoy PayPal services, you need to sign up for an account first. It is free and fast to sign up for PayPal.

How to Sign Up for a PayPal Account

To open and register a PayPal Account:

1. Visit the PayPal website
2. Select account type as Personal and then click on Sign Up
3. Select your country/region and click Get Started
4. Enter your working email address and click Next (or click Create a PayPal Account with Google, to fasten things)
5. Confirm the Security Challenge
6. Enter your phone number click Next
7. Enter  the security code just sent to your phone
8. Create a strong password and click Next
9. Enter your personal information. This should match your official ID, Passport or Driving licence
10. Next, enter your (billing) address details
11. Read and confirm PayPal’s user agreement and privacy statement and then click on Agree and Create Account

PayPal password screen

Read: How to Pay Netflix Via Mpesa Global Pay

Congratulations! You now have a PayPal account. You can also use the PayPal app from Google Play Store to register a PayPal account from your phone.

To enable receiving unlimited payments, you will need to activate your account by confirming your email address. To do this:

1. Click on the Set up your account tab
2. Click confirm your email
3. Click on Send Email to receive a confirmation link
4. Sign in to the email inbox you provided
5. Open the confirmation email from PayPal
6. Click on the link: Click to activate your account
7. Next, Log in with your PayPal Password

However, you don’t need to link your bank account or debit card to receive money.

Conclusion

Opening a Paypal account can be done in very simple steps and does not cost anything to sign up and activate it. If you want to make online payments or send money to friends, you can load funds to your PayPal account either by linking your debit card or depositing money directly from your linked M-Pesa mobile number.

In Kenya, Equity Bank has partnered with PayPal to make it very easy for you to link your Equity Bank debit card with PayPal. You can then transact directly with PayPal as if you are operating from from Equity Bank Account.

You bank balance will not be revealed on your PayPal dashboard.

PayPal does not charge you when you receive money. However a small percentage is charged when transferring money to friends, making online payments or withdrawing to your bank or M-Pesa account.