PayPal have launched a new Student Accounts service. It is a new type of sub account that is aimed at parents and teenagers. The student account service is only available in the US at present. The service has been in invitation-only beta mode for the past few months but is now available to the public.

The student account comes with a PayPal branded MasterCard debit card that is tied to the parents PayPal account. Parents can determine how much money is available on the sub account to be accessed by their son or daughter. The PayPal interface allows for the scheduling of recurring transfers to the student account so a parent could configure it to transfer $20 a week. A student using the account can then use their card to make purchases online, in-store or withdrawn cash from an ATM. The parent will have access to the transaction history within the account so they will be able to see how the money was spent.

There are no sign up fees, annual fees or fees to add money to the card. PayPal will take $1 from every ATM withdrawal. The debit card is not affiliated with any banks so there will be an ATM fee charged by the ATM provider. There are no fees for using the debit card for online purchases or in-store purchases. The student account also includes a text message service. The student can send a text requesting more money to PayPal. This message will be sent to to the parent and they can reply with yes or not to indicate if they want to transfer money.

The Student Account service is a good move by PayPal to bring PayPal more into the offline world. If parents and students start using the service they will become accustomed to using PayPal as a tool for managing their finances. There will soon be a generation of people who have been using PayPal for years for both online and offline payments.

Dave

--

If you liked this article then you should subscribe to our Blog RSS feed.

Related Blog Posts:

• PayPal Adaptive Payments - A flexible payments API
• PayPal want to change how we pay with PayPal X