Over 100 million people use PayPal to pay for goods and services online. Until today, the most convenient way to load your PayPal account with funds is from a linked payment account. For example, most people link their PayPal account to their bank account, and transfer funds from their bank account to their PayPal account. But what about the millions of people who don’t have a bank account or credit card? How do they load funds onto PayPal? Today, PayPal announced the launch of the “PayPal My Cash Card”, allowing anyone with cash to load funds onto a PayPal account.


According to PayPal, starting today, consumers can load cash onto a PayPal My Cash Card and use the card to load funds onto a PayPal account by purchasing a PayPal My Cash Card at over 30,000 retail locations. Here’s how it works.

First, visit any of the 30,000 retail locations that carry the card. Look for the PayPal MyCash Card on one of the “j-hooks” at many retail checkout lanes. The cards come in fixed amounts (such as $20 or $50 denominations). Pay the clerk with cash (you’ll be charged a fee for the card which is currently a fee of $3.95 to activate the card). So, if you want to load $20 onto your PayPal account, purchase a $20 card for $23.95.

Once the card is activated, go to a computer (or use your mobile phone browser) and visit http://www.paypal.com/cash. There, you will be prompted to login to your PayPal account and enter a code associated with the PayPal MyCash Card that you just purchased. Once you enter the code, the funds will be transferred from the MyCash Card to your PayPal account for instant use.

This announcement by PayPal could make online shopping more convenient for millions of consumers who are “unbanked” (people who don’t have a traditional bank account).