PayPal is a bank. It may not have a lobby, tellers, or a drive-thru, but it is just a bank. Electronic fund transfers between banks are routine matters.
PayPal services customers all over the world. Payments may be sent anywhere, in any currency, via balance transfer or credit card debit, and the recipient will receive the credit in his own currency automatically and instantly. When paying a bill by credit card your card account information is not shared with the recipient, which in itself provides a valuable layer of protection.
There is no charge to the purchaser for using PayPal. Sellers pay the fees, which are very similar to the fees charged by commercial banks to factor credit card transactions.
About 60% of my customers choose to remit payments via PayPal. A customer in Germany, Israel, Tanzania, Australia, Hong Kong, or anywhere else just as easily and safely as customers anywhere in the United States. Payments accumulate in my PayPal account allowing me to send payments to suppliers or others easily, or transfer to my checking account (which costs me nothing and is usually completed in one business day).
Like everything else devised by humans PayPal is not perfect. The sheer volume involved with tens of millions of transactions is a daunting undertaking. Everything considered, in my opinion PayPal provides generally excellent service on a consistent basis.
