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Send Money Via PayPal Using Your Cell Phone

Written by Nickel - 6 Comments

Did you know that you can make PayPal payments using your cell phone? And I’m not talking here about a fancy-schmancy web-enabled phone, although that would allow you to simply surf on over to PayPal.com. Rather, I’m talking about a run-of-the-mill cell phone. Here’s the deal…

First off, you need to activate your phone. You can then send money to a friend’s phone number or e-mail address simply by sending a text message like this:

send 10 to 2025551414

or simply this:

10 2025551414

or maybe this:

send 10 to name@domain.com

to 729725 (PAYPAL). PayPal will then call or text you to confirm your PIN.

Alternatively, you can call PayPal at 1-800-4PAYPAL (1-800-472-9725) to send money. Thus, you can take advantage of this even if your phone isn’t capable of texting.

Currently, the following U.S. carriers can handle PayPal Mobile for texting:

Alltel
Cinci Bell
Midwest Wireless
Sprint
T-Mobile (regular and pre-paid)
Verizon
Virgin Mobile

While I realize this has been around for a little while, I still thought it was worth mentioning. In fact, this sort of technology (if widely adopted) could revolutionize person-to-person transactions, as you’d be able to effectively pay individuals electronically while out and about.

Disclaimer: Discover is a paid advertiser of this site.
Reasonable efforts are made to maintain accurate information. See the Discover online credit card application for full terms and conditions on offers and rewards.

Published on June 18th, 2007 - 6 Comments
Filed under: Banking, Online

About the author: is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!

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6 Responses to “Send Money Via PayPal Using Your Cell Phone”

  1. 1
    Blaine Moore Says:

    Neat trick, but I most likely will never use it. It won’t be at any point in the forseeable future, at any rate. Nice to know that it is available, though.

  2. 2
    plonkee Says:

    Just to add that you can do this in the UK too.

  3. 3
    Curtis Says:

    Obopay allows you to make payments via cell phone text messaging as well (although, I just canceled my account with them because they threatened to increase the fees).

  4. 4
    Danny at Money Socket Says:

    I think this would be great for in-person transactions such as craigslist ads. You don’t have to carry around large amounts of cash. We’re slowly becoming a paperless society with cash.

  5. 5
    nickel Says:

    Danny, I think it would be great for craigslist transactions.

    I was also thinking garage sales and the like, but that’s not necessarily a tech-savvy crowd.

  6. 6
    Joao Pereira Says:

    Does anyone know if it can be done from Portugal?

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