Friend won’t set up PayPal

[dessertorchide]

Friend bought some tickets for my family as well as hers. Need to pay her back £200. Asked her PayPal but she doesn’t have an account. Have told her it’s very easy to set up but she doesn’t want to and has given bank details. Only problem is I don’t have the money in current account and want to use PayPal because it links to my credit card. She doesn’t want to wait until end of the month when I will have the cash. Don’t know what to do.

YABU to expect friend to set up PayPal
Does Friend have a DP with a PayPal account you can send to?

I do get what you mean. I guess I still think within 2 weeks is quite timely. I think if I was spotting someone money and knew I'd be needing it back straight away I would have checked beforehand to avoid this situation.

Even if she set up a new PayPal just for you, which she absolutely should not have to, she wouldn’t be able to get the money from it for weeks. New accounts can’t be used that quick, they ‘hold’ your money to check your legit. So not even an option.

Try old school, take cash out on the card pay it in to your account at PO or bank and transfer it.

Set up a second PayPal? Pay yourself (your current account) the £200 from your credit card and then transfer to her. You may need to set up a second email address.

You shouldn't have assumed, and you're definitely unreasonable to expect her to set up an account with Paypal to get money back in a timely manner that you owe her. Besides, they will hold any funds paid in to new accounts, so it won't help her.

I'm surprised how many people on this thread don't have PayPal 🤔

I know! Really odd.

I don't think either of you are being unreasonable though. As a friend I wouldn't want you to have to pay 28% for a couple of weeks of owing me money tbh but maybe she would be short for bills if you don't pay now. Tbh I wouldn't have offered to front the tickets if they was the case but you where you are.

As she's a friend can you not discuss it with her? Explain that the only way you can get money to get before payday is via PayPal or you'll incur 28% fees and see what she says. She maybe doesn't understand whether issue is? I'd set up a PayPal account if saved my mate 28%! She can always close it straight afterwards.

Why is it "really odd" that so many people don't have Paypal? It's not the only option to pay for things.

Maybe OP should have offered to pay for the tickets on her credit card in the first place. However, she didn't, and she is being beyond ridiculous expecting her friend to open a Paypal account just for this. Why can't she take a cash advance on her credit card? If it's only until the end of the month there will be very little fee to pay. She was happy enough to let her friend pay for the tickets, it's now up to her to front up with the money. This is CF territory.

PayPal say about 20 million people in the UK have an account.

There are around 40 million adults.

So while lots of people do have a PP account. As many again, don't have one.

@ShufflingHedgehogs that's so interesting, thanks for sharing that statistic. I had assumed it was a much higher % of adults because I assumed most people have an ebay account and an attached PayPal account (used to be?) (almost, or perhaps actually?) inevitable.

Also because it is accepted so many places for online shopping, and because of the buyer protections it offers, I just assumed most adults do at least some online shopping, and most of those people would have an account for that.

@ithinkthatmaybeimdreaming It's really odd that a lot of people on this thread don't have an account as pretty much everyone I know has one. No need to be snotty about it. Just a lighthearted comment. I'm not the only one on this thread that thinks it's unusual.

Why on earth would you assume that?
I buy from many places including marketplace, but don’t use PayPal for any of it.

You would transfer the money to a PayPal using friend and then they transfer the cash to your mate that does not have PayPal .

I have friends/ family that would do it for me.

The 28%is the interest rate per year so if you pay off your credit card in full next month once paid the months interest will be more like 2%.
The difference is that cash withdrawals start accumulating interest immediately unlike payments which only accrue interest if payment not made in full at next statement date. The charge is not 28% of the sum borrowed there may be a transaction fee of a few pounds mentioned by someone else

Someone may have already pointed this out, but you can just transfer your PayPal balance (or part of it) to your bank account? I did this the other week, it was straightforward.

I've used ebay since the start and never had PayPal. All you hear about is scams and charges, how they keep your money and won't let you access it for spurious reasons. It's just a way for them to gain interest on your money instead of you, why does anyone have one? I don't know of any use for them.
I imagine the majority of users misunderstood ebay so set one up and now can't escape it or it is dormant.

I set up my Paypal account years ago when I started using Ebay, however I often use it to pay for other things, and have never had an issue. It's much easier than giving my credit card details each time I make an online purchase. As for "not being able to escape it" I don't imagine it is difficult to close the account. Paypal are actually very good if there is an issue on Ebay and refund your money.

I don't understand - what do people think will happen if they open up a PayPal account? 😂

It's very easy to transfer cash around to family/ friends & strangers who you'd buy from for one time only, and you're protected should anything happen.

Bank transfer is old news, need to set up the new recepitent, need to confirm the authorisation, which is all time consuming etc etc.

People need to start living in the modern world as times are changing.

Or seconds with your fingerprint on your phone in the banks app 🤣

More like PayPal is out of date, hyperjar and monzo are useful plus Google pay for online purchases.

@Boomboom22 I don't have fingerprint set up so didn't know this.
They can all be as convenient as each other then! So I don't see why people are put off from having Paypal as well, as it's another useful tool.
Plus I second the pp - PayPal are great if you ever have any issues over eBay.

Don't blame her. PayPal is the only thing that I have had hacked. 3 times! Closed it and moved on

It's not her problem and she doesn't have to open a PayPal account for you.

I have a PayPal but I understand why many don't. It might be another useful tool, but everything comes with risks.

The more online accounts you have, the more available points of entry there are to your data for scammers to exploit.

Yabu. You owe her the actual money. If you send it via paypal it goes into a paypal balance to spend from there and it's quite a faff to get it actually transferred out, and if she needs it for spends that can't come out of paypal it's unreasonable.

You should have bought the tickets yourself using paypal and let her pay you back.