• It's free to prepare a PayPal account, and it only takes a few minutes.
  • PayPal allows you to send and receive coin from friends and family, or as part of a business transaction.
  • Money in your PayPal account can exist transferred to your linked bank account.
  • Visit Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.

PayPal is an online payment system that's been around since 1998, making information technology easy to send and receive funds to people located anywhere in the world for a pocket-sized fee — or no fee at all if the money is going to or coming from a friend or family fellow member in the US.

The service has made it secure and easy to buy and sell things online and is heavily integrated into sites like eBay and other e-commerce businesses.

If you don't yet have a PayPal account, but would similar to set 1 upwards, doing so is gratis and should simply take a few minutes. Once you're ready, y'all'll be able to add banking information to make sending and receiving money easier than ever. Here's how to do it.

How to set up up a PayPal account

i. In your figurer's internet browser, navigate to https://www.paypal.com

ii. In the upper correct-hand corner of the screen, click "Sign upwardly."

3. On the following screen, choose whether you lot're setting up a business or personal account. If you're merely using this to buy and sell on eBay for instance, or to ship coin to a family member or friend, you lot'll desire to choose "personal" here. Click "Next."

How to set up a PayPal account

Click "Next" afterwards choosing your account blazon.
Jennifer Still/Business organization Insider

iv. On the next folio, you'll be asked to enter your legal starting time and last name and your email address equally well as to create and confirm a countersign. When finished, click "Side by side."

How to set up a PayPal account

Subsequently inbound your new business relationship information, click "Next."
Jennifer Still/Business Insider

Side by side, yous'll need to enter your mailing address as well as your phone number. When you've completed this information, which is mandatory, click "Concur and create account" and your PayPal account will be created.

How to add together a bank business relationship or credit card to your PayPal account

In lodge to brand use of PayPal's power to ship and receive money, you'll need to connect a banking company account and/or credit card to your account. To practise so, log into your account so follow these directions.

1. On the summary screen, click the "Wallet" option in the menu bar running along the top of the screen.

ii. On the menu running down the left side of the screen, click the "Link a credit or debit carte" if that's what you'd like to use with your account. Alternately, if you desire to connect your banking concern account itself, click on the "Link a bank account option." Note that it may be worthwhile to do both to create a source of backup funding in future.

How to set up a PayPal account

Select whether y'all'd like to connect a bank business relationship or credit bill of fare to your account.
Jennifer Still/Business concern Insider

three. Enter the card or bank information yous wish to link to your PayPal business relationship and click "Link card" for debit cards or "Link banking company account" if you're using that option.

How to set up a PayPal account

Now, you can send or receive payments from your linked carte.
Jennifer Still/Business Insider

Note that if you're adding a banking company business relationship, it volition take ii to three days for the process to consummate equally PayPal volition eolith small amounts into your business relationship that yous will have to enter via the PayPal website to confirm you lot own the account.

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

  • How to refund a payment on PayPal in 4 simple steps

  • How to change your primary accost on PayPal in three steps

  • At that place's a limit on your Venmo transactions — here'south how much money you can send and receive with each account blazon

  • How to add coin to your PayPal account, so you can transfer coin or pay bills immediately

Jennifer is a writer and editor from Brooklyn, New York, who spends her time traveling, drinking iced java, and watching way as well much TV. She has bylines in Vanity Fair, Glamour, Decider, Mic, and many more. You lot can notice her on Twitter at @jenniferlstill.