Personal Finance Money transfer

PayPal Friends and Family feature in the UK

Gert Svaiko

28.06.23 (updated more than 1 year ago)

Read time 3 minutes

PayPal is hugely popular for online shopping, but did you know that you can also use it for personal money transfers? If you’re relatively new to the online payment platform, read on.

We’ve put together a handy guide to the PayPal Friends and Family feature in the UK, which is designed to make it easy (and free) to pay people you know.

We’ll look at everything from how it works to whether you can get a refund with PayPal Friends and Family, along with some crucial info about buyer protection.

But remember, PayPal isn’t the only way to shop online and send digital payments.

Check out the Wise account and Wise card, a winning combination of low fees, great exchange rates and convenience. It’s tailor-made for international payments, and could save you a bundle.

Learn more about the Wise account

Please see the Terms of Use for your region or visit Wise fees & pricing for the most up-to-date information on pricing and fees.

What is PayPal Friends and family in the UK?

PayPal Friends and Family is simply a term describing a personal payment made through the platform. This is opposed to one to a business, paying for goods or services.

The feature is designed to make it easy to pay your friends and family using PayPal. There are lots of ways it comes in useful, such as paying back a friend for your share of a restaurant bill or contributing to a family member’s honeymoon fund.

And crucially, it’s fee-free (unless a currency conversion is involved)¹ - we’ll look at this in more detail in just a moment.

How does sending money with PayPal Friends and Family (Sending to a friend) work?

Friends and Family works in just the same way how PayPal works for personal users in the UK. To use it, simply follow these steps:

Login to your PayPal account (or create one if you’re not already signed up).
Click on ‘Send and Request’ at the top of the page.
Select ‘Send’ and enter the recipient’s name, PayPal ID, email address or mobile phone number.
Enter the amount you’d like to send.
If prompted, choose ‘sending to a friend’ rather than ‘paying for an item or service’.²
Check the details and confirm.

And that’s it - your money will be sent to your friend or family member instantly. It’ll land in their PayPal balance, and they can choose to either withdraw it to a bank account (or to their Wise account) or use the balance for spending.

Fees for sending money using PayPal Friends and Family in the UK

There are no PayPal fees to send or receive personal payments using PayPal Friends and Family within the UK in GBP.

However, there’s an important exception to this. If you’re sending to someone in another country, there’s a fee of 5% (a minimum of £0.99 and maximum of £2.99). There’s also a markup on the exchange rate of 3% to convert the currency.¹

How do refunds work with PayPal Friends and family?

Sent a payment in error? You can ask the recipient to issue a refund in their PayPal account. All transactions are available in ‘Activity’, and there should be an option to ‘Issue a refund’.

Refunds issued this way can only be made in full. If you want to send a partial refund, you’ll need to use the ‘Send Money’ feature again.³

Is sending money with PayPal Friends and Family safe?

PayPal Friends and Family is just as safe as using other features from PayPal, which is known for its high level of security.

But importantly - you should only use Friends and Family when paying someone you know. It shouldn’t be used to buy goods or pay for services, and the reason for this we’ll look at next.

PayPal’s Buyer Protection and Friends and Family

PayPal has a robust Buyer Protection policy for shopping online, so you can raise disputes and get your money back if something goes wrong with your purchase.

But this policy doesn’t cover PayPal Friends and Family payments.² So, if you use it to pay a business or someone you don’t know, and something goes wrong, you may not be able to get your money back.

Wise – money for here, there and everywhere

Looking for a PayPal alternative? Check out the Wise account.

Sign up online and you’ll be able to send, hold, and convert multiple currencies at once. With Wise, you can send money worldwide for low fees and great exchange rates, and receive money for free in many major currencies. There’s even a Wise card for spending worldwide like a local.

If you send or receive money internationally, or shop online, this could be the ideal solution for you.

Please see the Terms of Use for your region or visit Wise fees & pricing for the most up-to-date information on pricing and fees.

Sources used:

Sources last checked on date: 26-May-2023

*Please see terms of use and product availability for your region or visit Wise fees and pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information.

This publication is provided for general information purposes and does not constitute legal, tax or other professional advice from Wise Payments Limited or its subsidiaries and its affiliates, and it is not intended as a substitute for obtaining advice from a financial advisor or any other professional.

We make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content in the publication is accurate, complete or up to date.