PayPal is an excellent tool for making secure online payments or sending money to family and friends – but what if those businesses or acquaintances are based abroad?

There aren’t many people out there that don’t have a PayPal account and even those that don’t at least know what it is. But, just to be sure…

PayPal is a safe and convenient way to transfer and receive money online, for both sending and receiving goods and services.

Once you’ve linked your bank account, credit card, or debit card to your PayPal account, you may use PayPal to make online purchases at participating merchants. As a middleman between your bank and retailers, PayPal safeguards the security of your payment information.

If you want to transfer money to friends and family in a secure way, you may use PayPal. When it comes to sharing rent or receiving money on your birthday, this feature might be useful.

What not everybody knows, though, is whether or not PayPal can be used for international payments, and if so, what fees are associated with doing so.

Can I Make International Payments With PayPal?

As a PayPal user, you may send money to more than 200 countries in 25 currencies and refill mobile phones for people in other nations. These transfers are not free; there are costs associated with making them.

If you’re transferring money from your bank account or PayPal balance, the cost is 5 percent of the total amount sent, with a minimum charge of 99 cents and a maximum charge of $4.99.

If you’re sending money using a debit or credit card, there is no charge cap, but you will have to pay an extra 2.9 percent financing cost, as well as a set fee that varies depending on the nation to which you’re transferring money.

How To Make International Payments

If you need to make an international payment and you’re happy to accept the fees associated with doing so, it’s very easy to send money internationally using your PayPal balance or bank account.

Here’s how to make international payments using PayPal:

Log in to your PayPal account.
Select ‘More’ from the ‘Send and Request’ menu in the top toolbar.
Then choose ‘Send Money Abroad’.
Select a nation and click ‘Next’.
Choose a delivery method from the list available in that country. If you wish to send money to someone who doesn’t have a PayPal account, you’ll be sent to the website Xoom. This is also the best solution for paying foreign bills or reloading a phone overseas. Xoom lets you transfer money to a friend or family member in person, to their bank account, or to a store.
If you’re using PayPal, enter the amount and currency.
If you used PayPal to send money, you’ll see how much the receiver will get after fees and currency conversion. If it’s correct, click ‘Next’.
Next, enter the recipient’s phone number or email address.
Then check your transfer and select ‘Continue’ when ready. If the receiver isn’t in your contact book, add a remark and their country of residence.
For the transfer, click ‘Send Payment Now’.

More Things You Can Do With PayPal

When you click ‘More’ on the ‘Send and request’ menu, you’ll notice there are actually quite a few other things you can do with PayPal, including personalised gifting and creating money pools.

Here’s a quick overview of how to use each of these two additional features on PayPal:

How To Gift Money On PayPal

If you want to gift somebody money from your PayPal account, it’s easy to do so, and, of course, there are no fees associated with doing so. Here’s how:

Log in to your PayPal account.
To the left of the screen, choose ‘Money’.
On the left-hand side, choose ‘Send Money’.
To send money to friends and family, choose ‘Send money to friends and family’.
Fill out the form with the PayPal email address of the person you wish to pay
Fill in the blanks with the appropriate quantity.
If you choose, you may provide a personalised gift message.
Click Continue
Verify that all of the information is accurate before clicking ‘Send Money Now’.

How To Use The PayPal ‘Money Pool’

The “money pool” feature of PayPal allows you to gather money from contributors. This feature, unlike others on PayPal, enables contributors to see how much money is in the fund to which they are giving. You can also make it so that donors can see who else has donated and how much they’ve committed to the pool.

Here’s how to use this feature:

Select Send and Request from your primary PayPal account’s banner menu, then Request from the toolbar below the banner menu.
Right below it, there is an option column. This column’s bottom has a link to Create a Money Pool.
From here, you’ll probably see a PayPal page proposing you set up a charity account. If you wish to do that, just follow the redirect. If you wish to establish a money pool for any other purpose, click the button.
Next, you should be on an infographic describing money pools. After that, click the little Create a Pool button in the top right of the window.

Now that a pool has been created, it’s about preferences, which will depend on the reasoning behind the pool’s creation in the first place.

You can choose a name for the pool, a goal amount and an end date. You can also choose whether or not people can see the total pool amount, and whether or not there are specific amounts that can be added to the pool.

Publish your pool when you feel all the settings and preferences are as desired.

When it comes to contributing to a pool internationally, it is perfectly possible as long as each country concerned has the PayPal pools feature.

Jake McEvoy

Jake is a professional copywriter, journalist, and life-long fan of technology. He covers news and user guides for KnowYourMobile.

Can PayPal Be Used Internationally?