PayPal Friends and Family option: how to use it in Singapore

Need to send money to friends or relatives in Singapore? If you need a fast, convenient way to do it, one option is to use PayPal Friends and Family.

But how exactly does it work in Singapore, and are there any charges or costs you need to know about?

Read on for everything you need to know about the PayPal Friends and Family option in Singapore. This includes how to send money, fees, limits and how it works for sending both domestic and international payments.

After reading this guide, you’ll be able to make an informed choice as to whether it’s the right option for you. After all, an alternative such as Wise could end up suiting you better, especially if you’re planning to send money overseas.

What is PayPal Friends and Family?

PayPal Friends and Family (PPFF) is a service offered by PayPal to make it easier and cheaper to transfer money between friends and family members online.

It’s designed for personal payments only, so you can only send money to personal PayPal accounts - not business ones.

So, this means you can’t use it for things like online shopping, business transactions or any kind of commercial payment.

PayPal Friends and Family vs Goods and Services

As we’ve mentioned, PayPal Friends and Family is for sending money between friends. For example, if you’d like to pay your share of a restaurant bill or send a friend some money as a birthday gift.

If you want to pay for a service or buy an item online, you’ll need to use PayPal Goods and Services instead. This involves charging the seller a fee to receive your money, and may also include payment protection from PayPal.

How to send with PayPal Friends and Family

If you’re familiar with using PayPal already, you’ll find that you don’t need to do much differently to use Friends and Family (you can also use the PayPal app to send money to friends and family). Here’s a quick step-by-step guide¹:

1. Login to your PayPal account
2. Click ‘Send & Request’ and look for the ‘Friends and Family’ tab²
3. Fill in the details of the recipient in the ‘send money’ section - you’ll need either their name, email address or phone number.
4. Choose the amount you’d like to send and the currency
5. If prompted, select ‘Sending to a friend’
6. Choose your preferred way to pay (i.e. bank, PayPal balance)
7. Check the details and send.

If you're new to PayPal, check out our guide to creating a PayPal account and overview of PayPal fees in Singapore

Are there any limits with PayPal Friends and Family?

In September 2021, PayPal brought in a new annual payment limit for personal account holders in Singapore.

Under the new rules, you won’t be able to send more than $30,000 SGD³ a year from your personal PayPal account. Once you reach this limit, you won’t be able to send any more payments until the next year.

If you need to send more than this limit and it suits your circumstances, you can upgrade to a PayPal business account. But remember that you’ll only be able to use PayPal Friends and Family in Singapore with a personal account.

PayPal Friends and Family fees

The main advantage of using PayPal Friends & Family is that there are no fees when sending domestic payments in SGD within Singapore². If you fund your payment using your bank account or PayPal balance, it’s free for both you and the recipient of your payment.

However, fees may apply if you use your card to fund the payment, or if you’re sending an international payment in a different currency. Let’s take a look:

PayPal exchange rates

Along with the fee, there’s also the exchange rate to consider when sending payments to friends or family in other countries. PayPal adds a mark-up of at least 4%² to the mid-market exchange rate when converting currency. This can make international payments more expensive, even if the initial upfront fee doesn’t seem very much.

You can compare PayPal's exchange rate against other providers and banks in Singapore from our exchange rate comparison tool.

Need to send money abroad? Use Wise and avoid the expensive exchange rates

For fairer exchange rates and only one small upfront fee to think about, check out Wise.

Open a free Wise multi-currency account online and you can send money all over the world in a choice of 40+ currencies. There’s only one low transfer fee to pay, and you’ll see this in advance before you decide to go ahead with your payment. There are absolutely zero hidden costs or extra charges to worry about either.

Best of all, Wise always uses the mid-market exchange rate for international transfers. This is the fairest you can get, with no expensive mark-up added on top.

It’s super quick and easy to send money with Wise. All you need are the recipient’s bank details (they don’t need to have a Wise account) and you can send a secure transfer in just a few clicks.

You can even receive money from overseas for free with your Wise account, in 9 major currencies (AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP, HUF, NZD, SGD, TRY and USD).

Get a free Wise account today 🚀

Sources checked on 26.07.2022.