Overview

As well as being one of the largest internet payment companies in the world, PayPal also provides small merchant cash advances to select companies: a product it calls PayPal Working Capital. The company, which is based in San Jose, California and was launched in 1998, was a subsidiary of eBay until 2015 and accounted for 41 percent of its total profits in 2013.

How Does Paypal Working Capital Work?

Companies who do enough business through PayPal can apply for a loan with a single flat fee instead of periodic interest payments. The loan is then repaid by deducting a set percentage of your daily sales on PayPal. If there are no sales on a given day, there is no fee to pay. Eligible companies can receive the loan in a matter of minutes.

What Are PayPal's Interest Rates?

Instead of interest rates, PayPal charges fixed fees based on the loan amount and the percentage of daily sales you are willing to dedicate to repay the loan. The cost of borrowing with PayPal ranges from 3 to 11 percent of the loan amount. To illustrate, the fee for an $8,000 loan ranges from $294 to $949 depending on whether you use 10 or 30 percent of your daily sales to repay PayPal.

How Much Money Can I Borrow from PayPal?

Loan amounts are based on the volume of sales of the business through PayPal. The maximum loan is 8 percent of PayPal sales in the last 12 months, up to a maximum of $60,000.

Which States Does PayPal Operate In?

PayPal operates in all 50 states.

What Is PayPal's Application Process Like?

PayPal's application process is fast and easy. The entire process from application to receiving funds in the business' PayPal account can take just minutes. Eligibility is determined by the business sales history with PayPal, so there's no minimum credit score requirements or need to upload documents. PayPal already has all the information it needs to assess the application. To qualify, a business must have made at least $20,000 in sales through PayPal.

How Is PayPal Better than Other Lenders?

PayPal Working Capital is a fast and inexpensive source of business cash advances with an A+ BBB rating. Its fees are lower than other leading alternative business loan providers, such as Kabbage and OnDeck. Repayment is linked to sales, so on days where there are no sales there is nothing to repay. However, businesses are limited to loan amounts of 8 percent their annual PayPal sales; so it's only an option for companies that use PayPal extensively as a payment method.

On the other hand, because loan approval is based entirely on a company's PayPal payment history there's no need for credit checks and additional information. This makes for a streamlined application process and provides a low-cost source of credit for successful business owners even though they may have bad credit.