PayPal users in the States are soon to get a feature that I’ve taken for granted as we’ve had it in the UK for half a decade – near instant transfers of their funds from PayPal to their bank accounts.
What won’t be quite as palatable for our US cousins will be when they realise that they are going to be charged for an instant transfer whereas we in the UK get it for free. The fee may only be $0.25, but it’s still a fee that isn’t applied in the UK.
PayPal say that the US service was made possible by the strategic alliances they forged with Visa and Mastercard last year in conjunction with their closer working relationship with the bank and card issuing ecosystem.
“PayPal users in the U.S. will soon be able to instantly transfer money to their bank accounts via eligible debit cards linked to their PayPal account. We expect that funds will typically be available in your bank account in a matter of minutes, although some banks may take up to 30 minutes. Our beta of this is now available to select PayPal users and will be made available to all U.S. PayPal users with eligible Visa or Mastercard debit cards over the coming weeks and months.”
– Bill Ready, EVP, COO, PayPal
Mind you, the $0.25 charge is quite reasonable when you remember that PayPal withdrawals in UK used to take 2-3 days but you could pay £5.00 for same day transfers. It’s worth noting that the UK transfers were speeded up because our government introduced ‘Faster Payments’ to the banking industry as a whole. Users in the US won’t be compelled to pay, they can still withdraw their funds to their bank account in 3 to 5 days with no charge.
