Can I pay my credit card bill with PayPal?

If you have an overdue credit card balance hanging overhead, or you earn an income in a foreign currency, you may be investigating which credit card payment options are available to you. Unfortunately, it is not possible to use PayPal directly to pay for a credit card bill. But there are other ways to repay a credit card.

All about PayPal

PayPal is a popular online payment option as it is considered a more secure method to make payments without sharing financial details. It is a payment service available to both consumers and businesses, so individuals may check out faster and more securely, and retailers may easily accept payments and manage credit risk.

Can you use PayPal to pay a credit card bill?

Unfortunately, your credit card issuer may not accept PayPal payments for your credit card bill.

If you earn an income in a foreign currency, you’ll typically want to use Australian dollars to pay your Australian credit card bill. You can either transfer the money or use BPAY from your bank account for this.

Another option is to use PayPal to pay off your credit card debt – but not directly. PayPal can be used to receive and make payments in different currencies. You can use the PayPal balance to transfer money to your Australian bank account, and then pay your credit card bill with these funds. 

The transfer may take anywhere from 1-3 business days. Keep in mind that international transfers via PayPal are also possible; however, the fees may be high.

How else can you repay a credit card bill?

If you are based in Australia, earning an Australian income, it may be simpler to use one of the card issuers’ preferred payment methods, including:

• Payment via direct debit
• Payment via EFT
• Payment via BPAY
• Payment via telephone banking
• Payment via Australian Post
• Payment in branch, in some instances

If you’re struggling with a large overdue credit card balance, keep in mind that by only repaying the minimum repayment amount (generally 2% of the balance, or $20, whichever is greater) it makes paying off your statement in full much more challenging. 

ASIC MoneySmart’s Credit Card Calculator shows that if you have a $10,000 balance on a credit card charging 16.6% interest, it will take you over 36 years and 10 months to pay off this balance in full, if you only made minimum repayments. Alternatively, if you paid $500 a month towards this credit card debt, you could pay it off in just two years.

It could be worth looking at your budget and making consistent repayments towards your credit card debt, so you can chip away at this outstanding balance as quickly as possible. It can be very easy to see credit card debt snowball out of control if you’re not careful.

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