One of the obvious perks of the holiday season is gift cards galore. Show
Prepaid gift cards sold by credit card companies are a particularly great gift, because you can put the balance toward just about anything — including your PayPal account. And adding a gift card balance to your PayPal account might be a good idea if you often use PayPal. It's also a great way to eliminate the possibility of forfeiting your funds before you've even had a chance to splurge — a lot of us are prone to losing physical copies of things. Here's how to add a prepaid gift card from Visa, American Express, MasterCard, or Discover to your PayPal account. How to add a gift card to PayPal1. Go into your PayPal Wallet on a desktop computer. You'll need a PayPal Cash or PayPal Cash Plus account to transfer money from a bank to your PayPal account, but anyone can add a prepaid credit card gift as a payment method, whether or not you've elected for one of the Cash services. Emma Witman/Business Insider2. Click "Link a debit or credit card." 3. Tap "Link a card manually" if given the option to link manually or through a bank. 4. Enter the gift card information. 5. Tap "Link Card." Once linked, you can select the prepaid card a default payment option if you'd like. Emma Witman/Business InsiderSometimes, you might run into an error trying to add a gift card to your PayPal account as a payment method because gift cards lack personal identifiers, unlike traditionally-issued credit cards. If you run into this kind of trouble, register your gift card — there should be instructions on the card that will direct you to a website for registration. Additionally, there are also ways to exchange non-credit card gift cards for money in your PayPal account, but the cost of the transaction is significant — usually a minimum of 10% of the value of the gift card. Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech:
Emma Witman is an Asheville, NC-based freelance journalist with a keen interest in writing about hardware, PC gaming, politics, and personal finance. She is a former crime reporter for a daily newspaper, and has also written extensively about bartending for Insider. She may or may not judge your drink order when behind the bar. Follow her on Twitter at @emwity. Read more Read less If your prepaid card has account and routing numbers that support ACH transfers (like FamZoo cards do), you can link it to PayPal just like a typical bank checking account. Why is that useful? You can:
Linking Your Card To PayPalThe first step to using your prepaid card with PayPal is to link your card as a bank checking account. Here are the steps:
At this point, PayPal initiates a first-time only security dance. After a couple days, two small deposits will appear on your card followed by one withdrawal of the combined amount. If you turn on card activity alerts, you’ll know as soon as they’re delivered. Note the amounts of the two deposits, and complete the linkage to PayPal as follows:
With the linkage to your card confirmed, you can perform any of the operations below. You can also link your FamZoo card as a debit card (instead of a bank account) for making purchases and performing instant transfers. Make Purchases On Your Card Through PayPalMaking purchases with your linked prepaid card through PayPal is useful when:
If your card is the only payment method listed on the PayPal Wallet page, and you don’t carry a balance in PayPal, your card will be the source of funds when making purchases. If you have multiple payment methods linked, you may want to set your card as your preferred payment method. To do so, click on your card on the Wallet page, and click on Make this preferred when paying online. Load Your Card From Your PayPal BalanceIf you have money sitting in your PayPal account, you can load funds onto your linked prepaid card for free as follows:
The money should arrive on your card within 1 to 3 business days. You must open a PayPal Balance Account before you can accumulate funds in your PayPal wallet. If your PayPal Balance and a Transfer Money link are not visible when signing into PayPal, please see here. If you want to perform an instant load for a fee instead, see here. Move Money Off Your Card To Your PayPal BalanceYou can move money sitting on your linked prepaid card into your PayPal account as follows:
The money should arrive in your PayPal account within 1 to 3 business days. Load Your Card From Your Checking AccountIn most cases, the best way to load your prepaid card from your checking account is with a direct transfer from your bank or credit union’s online banking. However, some institutions still charge a fee for ACH transfers. If you’re willing to wait twice as long and deal with a two-step operation, you can avoid that fee by using PayPal as a middleman. Here’s how:
Move Money Off Your Card To Your Checking AccountThis is just the inverse of the previous recipe.
Send Money From Your Card To A FriendYou can send funds on your linked prepaid card to a friend through PayPal as follows:
Receive Money To Your Card From A FriendTell friends to send you money via PayPal using your email address, mobile phone, or PayPal.Me link. When the money arrives in your PayPal account, follow the steps here to move the money from your PayPal balance to your linked prepaid card. Can I put money from a prepaid card to PayPal?Yes. Anywhere in the U.S. where PayPal is accepted you can use prepaid gift cards that have a Visa®, MasterCard®, American Express®, or Discover® logo on it. Please note that this doesn't apply to merchant-specific gift cards, which do not have a Visa®, MasterCard®, American Express®, or Discover® logo on them.
Can I transfer Visa gift card to PayPal?There's no need to transfer money from a gift card to PayPal. Simply link the gift card to your PayPal account and fund any PayPal purchases that way. Nevertheless, if you'd still like to transfer money from your VISA gift card to your PayPal balance, you can. It will cost you, however.
How can I transfer money from a prepaid card?You can typically transfer money from your prepaid card to your bank account online, by logging in to prepaid card's app or website. If your prepaid card does not allow transfers to bank accounts, you can use a third party service like MoneyGram to make the transfer.
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