Here’s some news I never expected to see – PayPal partnering with an instant money service, but it’s true. PayPal have partnered with Moneygram to make it easier to add and withdraw money from your PayPal account.
In the future PayPal customers will be able to put cash in and take funds out of a PayPal account taking advantage of MoneyGram’s network which currently includes more than 284,000 locations in 196 countries. This includes consumers who would like to use their cash to spend online or offline wherever PayPal is accepted, or for merchants that want quick access to the money received in their PayPal account.
For those without bank and credit card access this is a real plus, it gives a fast easy way to transfer cash online which can then be spent on eBay or a host of other sites which hitherto has been impossible bar pre-paid credit cards. Whilst in the UK almost everyone has access to at least a basic bank account, that’s not so in many countries and this opens up online and offline payments around the globe.
It’s expected that the service will be piloted in early 2013 in the US, followed by a phased roll-out in the United States and beyond.
