GBP account in PayPal – does it make sense?
PayPal is the undisputed leader in the world of electronic payments. You can use PayPal in any online store and purchase whatever you need. The thing is that PayPal entered the market earlier that its most successful competitors and it allowed the company to occupy the most profitable niche (for example, fruitful cooperation with eBay).
Today we will tell you why PayPal is so popular, what advantages it has and find out if it makes sense to create a GBP account in PayPal.
Fast, versatile and convenient
PayPal is a payment system available in nearly every country. Moreover they keep on introducing local currencies turning into a tough competitor for local payment services. Account verification is not needed – you don't have to spend time on irritating bureaucracy and other stupid things. Just create an account, provide your credit card data and start using PayPal.
Some users call PayPal a paranoid company as they often block accounts which look or start looking suspicious. It can also happen when you move abroad and keep on using the same credit card issued in the country of your origin. But that is how PayPal cares about security. That's an incredibly reliable and protected service where no personal information can be stolen!
If you suddenly find out that your account is blocked – don't worry! Here we go to the third significant advantage of PayPal – tremendous customer support service. Contact them via phone or email and get any issue resolved in no time.
PayPal support is really helpful and competent. Each support agent can answer nearly any question about the service and share useful information, tips and recommendations for future reference.
Currency conversion and other operations like account replenishment or money withdrawal are fully automatic and thus instant. You can also use your cell phone as a payment terminal for sending and receiving money.
As for PayPal accounts in GBP we'd like to emphasize that US Dollar, Euro and British Pound are the most popular and versatile currencies. Having a GBP account you will enjoy favorable exchange rates and a great opportunity to buy directly from almost every UK online store without currency conversion and additional fees.
What else you should know
In order to attract more users PayPal removed account replenishment fee – now you can top-up your PayPal wallet without paying anything to the system. However you will have to pay your bank. We suggest you contacting the bank issued your credit card for getting more details – the commissions vary depending on the bank.
Another important thing one should keep in mind is that service fee can be very different depending on your location. A country of registration highly influences the amount of PayPal fees. You may get the most detailed information regarding your country from PayPal customer support service or in the Fees section on PayPal website.
PayPal in the UK
United Kingdom is a developed country where people widely use eCommerce tools and services. PayPal is one of the leaders of British market – more than 20% of active online buyers use it to pay for goods and services.
Actually, PayPal has the most impressive result among all online payment services and loses to a credit card (40% British customers use it to pay online) and debit card (35% customers in UK prefer this payment tool).
PayPal is considered to be a very reliable and safe payment system – British client trust it and open GBP accounts. One of the reasons is the popularity of eBay UK where all transactions are done in British Pound.
Undoubtedly, eBay UK is the main reason of PayPal's popularity. Otherwise this service would be used as well but it could hardly achieve such success.
We should also consider that British customers are very conservative. They can trust a new payment system only after careful examination and PayPal is exactly a service they trust.
Speaking about legal status of PayPal in the UK we need to mention that PayPal operates in the United Kingdom under the common treaty with European Union. That document covers all EU countries except Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
Therefore now the legal status of PayPal in the United Kingdom is absolutely clear, however considering Brexit we cannot be sure it will remain the same after the UK leaves European Union.
Anyway, there are no reasons to worry yet. According to the most recent statistics the share of eCommerce has been gradually growing in the United Kingdom and we can suppose that PayPal will remain the most popular online payment service in future.
Who may need GBP account in PayPal
The answer to this question is rather obvious – people who often purchase from British stores certainly need a GBP account. That's money wasting to buy in the UK regularly with USD or EUR account – you will lose on the conversion every time.
We have already mentioned that eBay is the main online trading platform available for PayPal transactions. But there are plenty of other stores including Samsung, Zara, Belkin, HP, Nike and so forth. All major brands offer the opportunity to pay via PayPal.
You can check the full list of all stores in PayPal website in the Where To Shop section. Don't forget to open New Shops tab – new stores are being added there on the regular basis.
Conclusion
As you may see there are many reasons to create an account in PayPal as well as to make a GBP account. Some British online stores provide international delivery – sometimes even outside of European Union – therefore if you are a regular buyer we suggest you thinking about creating a GBP account.
Your credit or debit card assigned to PayPal should have an account in British Pound then. In some countries it's a great challenge to find a bank offering an opportunity to open a GBP account, but today it's possible everywhere. Try international banks as well – typically they offer wider selection of available currencies.
