Infrequent users of PayPal may want to log into their accounts soon.
PayPal will be introducing a new "annual account inactivity fee" this November.
"We are introducing an annual account inactivity fee of $20 CAD," states the company via a somewhat buried policy update notification on their website, issued Aug. 11.
Similar fees have been announced at different times for other countries.
Their current user agreement doesn't appear to mention the upcoming fee, nor does its list of "PayPal Consumer Fees."
The complete notification for Canadian consumers. Screenshot of PayPal websiteWhile the Canadian site doesn't appear to have a description of an inactivity fee, the United Kingdom's site does; the inactivity fee there was implemented in December 2020. It states that accounts inactive for 12 months will be charged the fee.
The UK version also has five options to avoid the fee:
- Log-in to your account; or
- Shop wherever PayPal is accepted; or
- Send money to friends & family, or vendors for goods & services; or
- Withdraw money from your account; or
- Donate to a charity with your account
The funds will be taken from the amount currently in the account, if there is less than the fee left in the account, they'll stop at zero.
"Accounts with zero balance won’t be impacted and this charge won’t result in any negative balance," states the company.
Whether the Canadian 'inactivity fee' will match the U.K. version is not currently known.
