You must sign up for PayPal, and you give them your bank account information. When you pay through PayPal, the money is electronically transferred from your bank account to the bank account of the person you’re paying. You can also register a credit card with PayPal, and charge on-line purchases through it if the other party accepts credit card payments. It is free, unless your bank charges you a service fee for electronic transfers. It is also possible to keep a cash balance with PayPal itself, if someone sends you money and you don’t tell them to transfer it to your bank account. Then you can pay for things just by having the money deducted from the PayPal balance. It’s very convenient.

You provide “real” money to the service.
The service converts that into “e-money” in your account.
You transfer the “e-money” to your intended recipient’s account. Then the recipient can exchange the “e-money” for “real” money with the service.

You sign up for Paypal at their website, you have to give them some information including at least one credit card and possibly your checking account number. It is 100% free to send money to people;but if someone send you payment with their credit card through Paypal, they will charge you a certain percentage. You should check out their website.

First of all, you must open an account with Paypal. You must have a source of funds,such as your checking account or a major credit card. Are you using it to pay for something from Ebay? Paypal is now owned by Ebay and there are direct links. As a buyer or purchaser, you do not pay a fee. If you are the seller or recipient of the payment , they automatically deduct a fee for each transaction based on a percentage of the transaction. So, it is not really “free”, in fact it really adds up after awhile. It is, however, very convenient for Ebay users. It is safe and they also have programs to prevent fraud.

The recipient must also have a Paypal account and the funds are deposited into their account. To take the money out, you can either request a check, which can take many days, or transfer it into your checking account. This takes just a few days. I hope that helps.

If the person you are paying has an email address you can send them money via PayPal…however…
the recipient does not actually get the money right away. The person getting the money gets an email message informing them of the money being held by PayPal. Then they have to log on to the PayPal website and make arrangements to get the money. The money can be electronically sent to their bank account after they give PayPal the information that they need like account number, etc.
They can also leave the money with PayPal and spend it at places like Ebay. If you are sending money to someone who is not computer savvy, or is very leery about giving personal information online, they might not be able to get their money at all.

It’s like a bank account but not FDIC insured. Your email account is you account number. You have to have a bank account and or credit/debit card to open the pay pal account. You transfer money from your debit/credit or bank account to pay for things that you buy online and other services on line. That way your personal banking and credit information is not released to anyone but paypal.