PayPal Launches Send Money App for Facebook

PayPal has launched its Send Money app on Facebook that allows users to send money to friends and family for free without leaving Facebook’s friendly confines. While the application is designed for sending money gifts complete with e-cards, photos, videos and messages, users can opt to just send money without the frills.

 

PayPal offers its "send money to a friend" option on the its own website, but hopes to gain wider use by duplicating the service as a Facebook app. "PayPal’s vision is to be at the center of our customers’ financial lives and now nearly 80 percent of active PayPal users also actively use Facebook," J.B. Coutinho, senior product marketing manager, PayPal, said in a company statement.

 

The process is simple. Select friends, add their email addresses, fill in the amounts and choose cards to accompany the gifts. (PayPal asks for their emails so it can alert recipients, and then prompts them to log on to PayPal to collect their funds.) A notification is posted to recipients' walls without revealing the amount of money sent.

 

Unlike Western Union, PayPal does not charge a fee for sending money as long as senders use their bank account or PayPal balance. Regardless of which account funds are drawn from, users must create a PayPal account to use the SendMoney app and recipients must do the same.