PayPal Competes with Square, Launches New Payment Platform - The UpStream

Mobile payments have become a popular thing as of late. The ability to easily send and receive money to friends and family has been in high demand and companies have stepped up to the plate to allow these things to happen. PayPal, one of the leaders in online payments, has introduced a new site, PayPal.me, in order to let its users accomplish this goal.

PayPal has had the ability to send and receive money as gifts through its website and mobile app for a while, but sometimes there are hang-ups. Some people may not have a bank account set up with PayPal or don't want to wait the five days for the money to clear, causing issues for users. The company has decided to fall in line with the likes of Square and has introduced a quick and easy way to send cash. Setting up a customized URL is all it takes now for friends to transfer money to your account. There is a fee to use the service, of course, but only for business users. The standard PayPal fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction will apply for those with a business account registered. However, if you set up a personal Friends & Family account, there are no fees to use PayPal.me.

PayPal conducted a survey recently and said that over $51 billion in small person-to-person debt are owed to people in the US. PayPal's senior director of global consumer product management, Meron Colbeci, said, "About 50 percent of Americans say they have small debt from friends and family that is owed to them." PayPal.me's mission is to make sure you get your money back quicker and easier, especially if all it takes is clicking on a link and typing in an amount.

There is one caveat, though. Unlike Square's Cash.me site, PayPal.me will require both users to have a PayPal account to use the service. You can then just send money through your connected debit or credit cards on your account. Adversely, Cash.me allows debit card transactions for those without a Square account.