PayPal for Android
As an entrepreneur/writer/musician on a very tight budget I have hit the point where much of my financial life involves PayPal. It was inevitable, really. I log in almost daily on my computer but the old Android app was essentially useless. I needed ways to withdraw, look up histories, and my dearest dream was to find a way to use it to charge people for merchandise in person reliably.
The wait is over.
PayPal has released a new and sublimely improved app, available in the Market. When you first open it up it gives you the option to log in with your email and password combo, just like on the web, or use your mobile PIN if you have one (if you don’t and want to set one up just check the handy box on the email login page). The PIN option is extremely handy, much easier to type as it seems the entire app is portrait only, even if you are using the hard keyboard on a DROID, probably the biggest flaw in this mostly excellent app.
Once in, you will see a row of tabs across the bottom for the main pages. They are pretty self-explanatory. “Send” allows you to enter an email or phone number and amount and send money to pretty much anyone. “Request” allows you to send a request for money in the same manner. Extremely simple and effective. As you type the name, email, or phone number of your intended recipient it will bring up matching options from your contact list for auto-entry.
“Account” lets you see your history, withdraw funds, change your PIN, or recommend the app via email or Bluetooth. The “About this app” section is a helpful introduction to using the app.
The “Tools” are where it gets really interesting. Everyone’s had a time where one person wants to pay for dinner on a credit card and everyone else can give that person the money, right? But what if you don’t have the cash on you? Well, now you can tap “Split Bill” and enter the bill total, tip percentage, and number of people. Tapping “Next” will bring you to a page with the perfect split amounts but also (unlike most calculators of this sort) it has sliders to change each contributor’s percentage for those times when a perfect split is unfair (such as when one guest isn’t drinking while the rest are partying it up). At this point you enter the email or phone number of each contributor and they get sent requests to pay up through PayPal. If this catches on it could certainly save my day judging by past experiences!
If you make regular payments through PayPal but don’t want to (or can’t) automate them you can now “Set Reminders” to make them. It won’t actually make the payment, just gives you a reminder with the transaction details ready to go. Enter the recipient, amount, and a message if you’d like. At the designated time you will get a notification on the bar, tap it to log in to the app, and it will give you the option to “Review” or “Dismiss” the payment. Confirm the payment settings and hit send to make the payment. Again, simple. They really made this low on the tap scale to do a lot. My only complaint is that the reminder notification doesn’t make a sound or vibrate and I can’t find a way to change that, it would be nice to have for when you aren’t checking your phone a lot.
If you really want to tap a screen or keyboard even less, though, the PayPal app now utilizes Bump technology. If someone has the same app on any Android or iPhone model you can just bump phones to exchange contact information and send on your payment or request. No typing in long emails, no shouting phone numbers over loud music or where people can overhear. To be honest, I haven’t gotten to try this feature yet, but if I have any problems with it I will update it in the future. I really want to try it, just need to find a test subject!
The one other flaw I see is money requests, whether a straight request or through Split Bill, only exist in your phone history, they do not appear on the website. This probably won’t affect most people but I would prefer the option of having it noted in my full history. It is a good thing that they tell you this upfront, at least.
For the average PayPal user this app is very handy and user-friendly. For people, like me, who have small businesses that use PayPal for online transactions already, it adds the allure of being able to process payments on the spot and wind up with a record in the same history as the online business (easier for accounting). I can sell a cd to anyone with a credit card, and I can use my PayPal balance for more of my everyday life. The possibilities seem endless! Imagine paying your babysitter this way when you forgot to stop at the ATM. Artists who sell at fairs don’t need to spend a fortune to offer convenience. This is a winning solution to common problems, even with it’s imperfections. PayPal is redeemed.
