The primary purpose of PayPal is to facilitate the transfer of funds between entities using electronic means and to make the transfers both fast and easy. PayPal currently has over 230 million accounts by users operating in 190 different markets around the world. This number is still dwarfed significantly by the over 600 million active credit card accounts used in the United States alone. Fortunately PayPal doesn't just offer the service for moving funds between PayPal accounts. Depending on which type of account you have, you are able to use a credit card with PayPal for a nominal fee.
PayPal offers three types of accounts for users depending on their needs. Some of the services offered for each account are free while others incur a small percentage charge and flat fee. The three types of accounts are Personal, Premier and Business. Each of the account types allow individuals to send and receive funds between PayPal accounts, such as between friends and family, for free. This is a common means for organizations such as charities or websites who work on donations to receive funds with no incurred costs. As long as you have a valid PayPal account you can use and associated e-mail address to send and receive money. There are a number of different ways to fund a PayPal account or to receive and send payment to existing PayPal account. Whether it is using a checking account, credit card, debit card and submitting it online or over the phone, PayPal is highly flexible in how funds are moved electronically.
Credit card use with a PayPal account is most commonly associated with Premier and Business types which operate merchant services and require payment options to be flexible. For individuals looking to make purchases via PayPal using a credit card, there may be an associated transaction fee from the seller to the consumer but this is on a per merchant basis. All credit card transactions incur a processing fee from Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover and whether or not a merchant absorbs that cost is at their discretion. Merchants or individuals who are selling, in order to accept credit card payments, pay 2.9% per transaction plus a flat fee of $.30. Depending on whether additional services may be required, merchants can also pay a flat monthly fee of 5$ or $30 for upgraded account options.
Additional flexibility to use a credit card with PayPal includes the ability to accept credit card payments over the phone or to tie PayPal credit processing to existing merchant accounts. Each of these additional features may have associated costs so read the documentation carefully and call prior to implementing these for your business or website. So yes, you can use a credit card with PayPal but this increased flexibility may incur additional costs for merchants and consumers.