How To Use PayPal In Stores

PayPal is synonymous with P2P payments and digital wallets for consumers. Over the years, though, PayPal has also dabbled in creating options for users to pay with their PayPal balances in brick-and-mortar stores. Despite a few failed attempts, PayPal seems to have finally worked out the kinks in the process. PayPal users can now utilize near-field communication (NFC) technology to spend their balances at shops in the offline world.

This article will cover how merchants can enable customers to use PayPal in their stores and what those transactions look like from the consumer’s perspective.

How To Pay With PayPal In-Store

There are a few ways to spend a PayPal balance at a brick-and-mortar store. These include: adding PayPal to compatible mobile wallet like Google Pay, using a PayPal-issued card, and using PayPal’s QR code functionality.

If you have a PayPal balance and want to spend it in a brick-and-mortar store, you have two options: NFC-based payment using a PayPal-issued card (of which there are several options) and using the PayPal app’s scan-to-pay feature.

Of course, the merchant will need to have the infrastructure to accommodate an in-store PayPal payment.

How Can Merchants Accept PayPal Payments In-Store?

The good news is you don’t have to be a PayPal merchant to accept payments from PayPal customers in stores. If you want to accept PayPal payments online, that’s another story. I suggest you check out our PayPal review to see whether the company’s merchant services fit your needs.

Keep in mind that customers have three ways to pay in stores with PayPal: using one of PayPal’s Mastercard-backed debit or credit cards, NFC payments, and QR codes.

Can You Add PayPal To Apple Pay?

Unfortunately, PayPal does not currently support NFC payments with Apple devices, and you cannot link your PayPal balance to Apple Pay or Apple Pay Cash. That may change in the future, but for now, it’s not an option. You won’t see an option to link PayPal in the Apple Pay wallet setup or the PayPal app on an iOS device.

However, Apple does allow you to link your PayPal balance to your iOS account so that you can use PayPal to pay for iTunes purchases as well as iCloud and Apple Music subscriptions.

Using Your PayPal Balance & Cards To Make Payments

PayPal offers Mastercard-backed debit cards for business and personal users, depending on what type of account you have. For consumers, there’s even a prepaid card that allows you to load your PayPal balance in set increments, among other perks. These cards are linked to your PayPal balance and even allow you to withdraw cash from ATMs at no charge from PayPal (non-MoneyPass ATMs will still charge a fee, though).

If you have one of these cards, you can also use your PayPal smartphone app at the register to add cash to your balance at supported stores (the following link lets you search for a supported store near you). However, a service fee of up to $3.95 applies when you do this.

Let’s take a closer look at PayPal’s debit cards.

What Does It Cost To Use PayPal In Stores?

Accepting PayPal business transactions in person comes with fees just like it does online. As for how much it will cost, that depends on the payment method used to conduct the transaction and your payment processor’s.

If you’re using PayPal as your payment processor for the transaction, this fee can also vary depending on the type of account you have. As these have grown quite complicated, we recommend checking out our complete guide to PayPal processing fees.

Can You Use PayPal Credit In Stores?

Currently, PayPal doesn’t support using PayPal Credit in stores. Note that PayPal Credit exists separately from PayPal’s credit cards. PayPal Credit specifically applies to online purchases and offers six months of no-interest financing on purchases.

Likewise, PayPal’s similar service, Pay in 4, is currently only available for online purchases.

Where Can You Pay With PayPal In Stores?

Any store that takes one of the previously described methods — PayPal cards, PayPal NFC payments, or PayPal QR codes — can accept PayPal. In the case of PayPal cards, this means any store that takes Mastercard.

Likewise, to accept NFC payments, merchants need to have the appropriate hardware — specifically, an NFC-capable credit card reader or terminal. Very few large retailers take PayPal QR codes, but some small business merchants may.

Learn To Make The Most Of PayPal As A Business Or Customer

PayPal offers an almost dizzying array of payment tools for both consumers and merchants, and it’s likely we’ll see the features list grow even longer in the future. PayPal’s recent agreement with Fiserv has expanded the functionality of the PayPal app and made it far more convenient to utilize PayPal in person.

Looking for more information on PayPal? Check out our deep dive into how PayPal differs from a traditional merchant account.