The digital wallet’s partnerships are continuing to pile up with the messenger/voice application joining the mix.
PayPal has announced that it has entered into yet another partnership as Skype mobile app users will be able to send money to recipients in 22 countries worldwide. The latest version of the Skype application makes it possible for users to send money to other users via PayPal.
This represents a significant boost in PayPal’s reach as Skype’s app currently boasts over one million downloads.
Beyond basic downloads, the Skype mobile app also has 300 monthly active users, says Microsoft, its parent company. This data is accurate as of the end of last year. In order to use the feature, both the sender and the recipient must have the most recent version of the Skype application. From there, users select the “Find” option located within the top bar which appears when the user is talking to a friend or family member. From there, the add-in option to “Send Money” is available. The sender simply enters the amount of money they wish to transfer to the friend or family member and then they confirm the payment. Once they hit “send,” the transaction is completed.
This new Skype mobile app feature is meant for peer to peer (P2P) transfers and is not meant for paying for goods and services.
The rates for using PayPal over Skype are the same as they are on all other platforms. Therefore, the service is free to senders as long as the sender is using a debit card from within the United States or is using funds from his or her PayPal balance. Should a credit card be used instead, the sender pays a fee of 3.4 percent of the transaction plus $0.30.
This is not the first time Skype has made PayPal peer-to-peer available to its users. That said, it’s been a long time since it was first there and the majority of users weren’t yet using the application when it was last available. In fact, it has been a decade. Back when Skype was still operated by eBay (as Microsoft purchased it in 2011), and when it still owned PayPal (as it broke away in 2015), the online marketplace combined the two in 2007. Of course, it was a desktop feature at the time as the Skype mobile app didn’t yet exist.
