PayPal Student Accounts

A PayPal Student account gives parents a way to easily fund an allowance for children 13 or over, and a way to quickly and easily send money to college students in the United States or internationally. The PayPal Student account provides the parent with tools for ultimate control of various permissions for the account, and provides the student with a debit card funded by the parents. The debit card works at Maestro/Cirrus ATMs or can be used as a credit card (up to the balance of the account) where ever Master Card is accepted.

The PayPal Student account could be a convenient financial tool that would fit in with my own family finances, so I did a little research.

PayPal Student accounts have transaction fees, but it looks like they are quite low. Clark Howard reported that the fees were at 2%, but the PayPal Student Account User Agreement quotes fees from 1%-2.5% for non-U.S. transactions and $1 for ATM transactions in the U.S. (plus possible fees charged by ATM owner). I did not see any fees for using the debit card as a Master Card credit card.

Unfortunately, I couldn't sign up for a PayPal Student account to try it out because PayPal Student accounts are in invitation-only beta mode right now.

Do you use a PayPal Student account? Let us know about your experience in the discussion forum (no log in required to join the discussion).