Is PayPal the Amazon of payments? Certainly seems like it, doesn't it? PayPal has teamed up with Skype to allow Skype users to send money to other Skype users via their mobile app. BUT, it only works for sending money to friends and family members, NOT for payments or business transactions. Just another big step forward for PayPal.
(Bill Taylor/CEO)
"The PayPal partnerships keep coming. The still growing payments giant today announced a new deal with Skype that will allow users in 22 countries worldwide to send money to other Skype users through an updated version of the Skype mobile app. This extends PayPal’s potential reach by a sizable amount – the Skype app has been downloaded over a billion times to date, and has approximately 300 million monthly active users, according to Skype parent company Microsoft, as of last year.
To use the feature, you’ll need to be on the latest version of the Skype mobile app. Then, you’ll select “Find” on the top bar while in conversation with a friend or family member, and choose the “Send Money” add-in. You just type in the amount to send, confirm the payment, and hit send to complete the transaction.
To be clear, the feature is designed for sending money between friends and family – not payments for goods or services from a business. And like PayPal’s peer-to-peer payments on other platforms, the rates are the same. That is, sending is free when you use your PayPal balance or debit card in the U.S. If you choose to use a credit card instead, the fee is 3.4 percent of the transaction amount plus $0.30.
This is not the first time Skype has offered peer-to-peer payments powered by PayPal in its app, though you’ll be dating yourself a bit if you remember when such an integration was announced before!
It was way back in 2007, in fact – back when eBay still operated Skype (before its 2011 acquisition by Microsoft) and PayPal (before its 2015 spinoff). That spring, Skype introduced a feature on desktop that allowed its users to send each other money via PayPal, as part of eBay’s larger plan to integrate its various services..."
Full story at TechCrunch