Paypal is often the method with the lowest barrier to entry for making payments online. One clicks the paypal button and then approves the transaction, done. Ve

Paypal is often the method with the lowest barrier to entry for making payments online. One clicks the paypal button and then approves the transaction, done. Versus (often) needing to enter all card details, billing address, delivery address, and so on. It's often a good choice for making informal payments between friends because you just need the paypal address - versus, for example, sort code, account number, and bank name. You might also need the bank address and to pay a fee for an international transfer. Depending on the country you're in various other payment services may be available and/or common. For example I see services like Klarna's eating into this a bit, but they're certainly not ubiquitous. I don't really follow how Paypal have managed to avoid becoming a bank in the US given that they offer what is, to my eye, clearly a suite of banking services!