PayPal Now Charges Canadians An 'Inactivity Fee'
You may have lost $20 in your PayPal account recently.
If you have a PayPal account that you haven't used in a while, it may be time to change that because the company implemented an "inactivity fee" as of December 15 and you may have lost $20.
"The User Agreement permits PayPal to assess a fee to eligible inactive accounts. Only eligible accounts with no activity in the previous 12 months will be charged an inactivity service fee," PayPal wrote on its website.
So, if you hadn't used your account in 2021 and had less than $20 in your account, the fee reduced your balance to $0.
But, if you had more than $20 in your account on December 15, you were charged a maximum of $20.
Note that PayPal indicated that those who had no money in their account when the "inactivity fee" was imposed would not be affected.
For those of you hoping to avoid this fee next year, we've got the answers for you.
There are several easy ways to avoid being charged this fee. Here are your options according to PayPal's website:
- 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
All you have to do is take one of these steps to save yourself some money in 2022.
Unfortunately for this year, you may already see $20 missing in your PayPal account, but at least now you can be prepared for next year.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.