Personal Finance Money transfer

How to transfer money to PayPal in 4 steps

Yumiko Kijima

08.06.20 (updated more than 1 year ago)

Read time 3 minutes

PayPal can be a convenient way to shop online or send money to friends and family without needing to enter your bank account or card details over and over again. Log in to make payments, use the app, or even schedule automatic billing for simplicity.

If you use PayPal regularly, you may be wondering how to keep a balance in your account to cover any outgoing payments. This could be possible, if you opened your PayPal account in Malaysia, and have a linked Malaysian bank account - although PayPal accounts opened in other countries might not have this facility.

This guide will walk through how to check out your options, and transfer money to PayPal if this feature is enabled on your account. We’ll also touch on Wise - a smart way to avoid PayPal’s international payment fees, if you’re sending money to people overseas, or shopping online with retailers based abroad.

Using PayPal for international transfers? Watch out for exchange rates

Let’s start with a quick example to look at the costs of international payment with PayPal: Sending 10,000 MYR to a $ account in the USA

Provider	“Transfer fees”	Exchange rates	Recipient gets...
PayPal	0 MYR¹	Exchange rate PayPal decides (1 MYR = 0.2210 USD)	2210.11 USD² - receiving fee
Wise³	57.25 MYR	Real exchange rate (1 MYR = 0.229589 USD)	2,285.43 USD Send money

(May 27 2020, at 19:59(GMT+2))

Here’s what the PayPal website says about sending money to someone, from Malaysia:¹

It’s free to send payments. You don’t need to pay a transaction fee when you send payments with PayPal.The recipient covers that. If you send a payment overseas in a different currency,a small conversion fee applies.

It’s worth looking carefully at this. As the table above shows, even though PayPal doesn’t charge an upfront transfer fee, your recipient may end up with less because of the impact of the PayPal exchange rate and other fees incurred.

PayPal’s currency conversion fees vary from one currency to another. For a payment to the USD account you’ll probably pay a markup of 3.5%. The charge can be up to 4.5% for other currencies.⁴

Can you add money to PayPal in Malaysia?

The features available on PayPal depend on the country your account is registered in. Some countries allow you to add money to your account - others do not.

If your account was opened and registered in Malaysia, you should be able to add funds to PayPal from your linked bank account.

To check, log into your account and look for the Add Funds button. Depending on the device you’re using, and whether you view your account online or using the app, this may be visible just under your account balance, or accessed by clicking the three dots next to your balance for more options.

How to transfer money to PayPal

Here’s how to transfer money to your PayPal account.⁵

Login your PayPal account and click the Add Funds button
Select the linked bank account you want to use
Confirm the amount you want to add, and hit the Add button
You’ll get a chance to review your transaction before it’s processed

It’s worth noting that it’ll take 3 to 5 days to get the funds to your PayPal account - so give yourself plenty of time.

💡A cheap and transparent alternative: Wise

Wise
Take a look at the low cost international transfers available from Wise, to see if you can save.

Wise uses low, transparent fees without any mark-up on exchange rates. You can send money overseas from Malaysia to 80+ countries with the real exchange rate.

To send money with Wise,

Register for free
Choose an amount to send
Add recipient’s bank details
Verify your identity
Pay for your transfer by bank transfer or debit/credit card

And that is it! You can track your transfer in your account and your recipient will also be notified when a transfer reaches them.

Spend in foreign currencies? Receive money from abroad? Wise can help that too!

An independent research found that it is on average cheaper to send, spend, and withdraw money overseas with Wise compared to 6 other provider and Malaysia bank accounts.

Send money to 80+ countries
Receive money for free in 10 currencies (inlcuding USD & SGD)
Hold and convert 40+ currencies in 1 single account
Spend in foreign currencies with super-low conversion fees

No monthly charges or minimum balances required😉

Join 11 million people who use Wise and save 1 billion GBP (=5.6 billion MYR) a year compared to using a bank.

Get started for free🚀

Wise for sending money

*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.