There is no doubt that when it comes to doing online transactions, Paypal is definitely one of the most convenient methods available. It is quick, hassle-free for most of the times, and guarantees safety for buyers. Starting in 2015, Paypal finally announced that Bitcoin can be used by merchants using their platform. In June, 2020, PayPal announced that they may introduce a crypto exchange service soon.
While buying products or services using Bitcoin through Paypal is just as convenient as when you’re using conventional currencies, buying Bitcoin through Paypal is a whole different story. Paypal is known to be a platform that favors buyers so much that it’s really easy for them to file a dispute for any transaction and get their money back, and that is why a lot of Bitcoin exchanges actually don’t accept Paypal as one of their payment methods to purchase Bitcoin.
Paypal will always side with buyers in a dispute regardless the fact that most of the time they will never know whether a dispute is legit or not. A buyer could just file a dispute even though he or she had actually received the Bitcoin in the right amount and the dispute will still be processed because Paypal do not know what is really going on. What makes things worse for sellers is the fact that Bitcoin transactions are actually irreversible. So if a buyer is scamming them, there’s not much the seller can do.
So that’s the reason why it’s not that easy to buy Bitcoin with Paypal, however it’s not impossible though. In this article we will give you a step-by-step guide on how to buy Bitcoin with Paypal.
Buying Bitcoins With Paypal On LocalBitcoins.com
Using LocalBitcoins’ platform you can connect with many Bitcoin sellers on its peer-to-peer marketplace. LocalBitcoins.com offers various ways of buying and selling Bitcoins, and using Paypal is one of them.
The great thing about LocalBitcoins is that it has so many members on its platform selling Bitcoins, so you can expect to see a competition among them trying to offer better prices. However, there are still some downsides that you should look out for.
Even though many sellers are competing to get buyers by offering better prices, but the prices they offer would still be relatively high. The reason is as explained earlier, these sellers are anticipating the high risk of chargeback when a buyer makes a purchase through Paypal. Another thing you should look out for in such platform is you should know that not all sellers are honest. So you should be extra careful before initiating any purchase, do some background check to make sure if the seller has good reputation.
Here is the step-by-step process of buying Bitcoins in LocalBitcoins.com using Paypal:
Step 1: Login to your account or register if you haven’t had one, and choose the desired amount of Bitcoin you wish to purchase in your local currency, select your country, and then choose Paypal as your payment method.
Step 2: Click ‘Search’, and you will get a list of sellers that offer Bitcoins at the amount you desire. Take your time and review each seller carefully by checking out their profile information. Some important stuff you should be paying attention to include account creation date (make sure it’s not a newly created account like most scam accounts), ID verification (make sure the account is completely verified by email, phone, and private ID), trust (make sure there are many members trusting the seller), and blocks (make sure there is no one blocking this seller).
Step 3: Once you are sure that you can trust the seller, hit ‘Buy’ to start the purchasing process and enter the amount of BTC you wish to buy. You can see buyer’s trade limit, payment window (the amount of time provided for you to complete the whole buying process), as well as the terms of trade. Take all of those into consideration when you initiate the purchase. One thing you should know is that if you are new to the site, some sellers might not want to deal with you especially if you want to buy a significant amount of Bitcoin. So you might want to build a reputation first by doing small deals on the site.
Step 4: When everything is set, just click ‘Send trade request’. The seller will be notified and after accepting your request the seller will send your Bitcoins and hit the ‘I have paid’ button. Quickly you will receive the Bitcoins you purchased in your LocalBitcoins wallet.
Step 5: Please not that LocalBitcoins.com has been hacked before, so it’s highly recommended that you move your Bitcoins to your own wallet.
Buying Bitcoins With Paypal On Paxful
Sellers in most platforms usually ask for ID verification if you want to buy Bitcoins with Paypal, it’s their way to mitigate the risk of scams. But the thing is not everyone feels comfortable giving away private identification to strangers. If that’s how you feel, then Paxful might just be the right platform for you, because it allows you to purchase Bitcoins using Paypal without identity verification.
This platform works quite similar to LocalBitcoins, it provides a marketplace where you can connect with Bitcoin sellers from all over the world. Even though this platform is not as big as LocalBitcoins, it still has many members, so you will have a lot of options where to buy your Bitcoins from. Just like on localBitcoins, here you should also expect a higher rate when you purchase with Paypal and you need to select the seller carefully.
Here is how you can buy bitcoins on Paxful:
Step 1: Register and login to your account then select Paypal for the payment method. Next, enter the desired amount of Bitcoins you wish to buy and click ‘Search for offers’.
Step 2: You will see the available offers, if you don’t want to go through ID verification then simply choose the one that says “no verification needed”.
Step 3: Just like on LocalBitcoins, you need to review the profile of the seller to make sure everything looks right before you initiate the purchase. When you are sure, you can start the trade by simply having a chat with the seller to discuss the payment details.
Step 4: Your Bitcoins will be placed in an escrow until you send the payment. When payment is confirmed, the Bitcoins you purchased will be sent to your account and you can withdraw it to your Bitcoin wallet.
There are some more exchanges that offer payment through Paypal, but the two above are definitely great options that you should look into. There are more options for buying bitcoin with PayPal if this is something you want to do. To achieve this, we recommend having a look at this in-depth guide by Smart Bitcoin Investments.
So in conclusion, mostly you will get higher price and you should do some extra work checking sellers’ reputation, but if Paypal is your most preferred payment method at least you know that it’s possible to buy Bitcoin with your Paypal account.
