Buy Gift Cards With PayPal: Where It Works and What to Use Instead

Summary: You can buy gift cards with PayPal at PayPal's own Digital Gifts store and at retailers that accept PayPal, but not everywhere: Amazon and many gift card shops, including this one, do not offer PayPal at checkout. Gift cards are also excluded from PayPal's Purchase Protection, so the seller you choose matters more than usual. Where PayPal is not an option, a PayPal Debit Mastercard can usually stand in for it.

• PayPal Digital Gifts, PayPal's own store, sells other brands' gift cards that you pay for with PayPal.
• PayPal treats gift cards as cash equivalents, so a code that fails is between you and the seller, not PayPal.
• A PayPal Debit Mastercard spends your PayPal balance anywhere that takes Mastercard debit cards.
• Nobody legitimate asks to be paid in gift cards bought with PayPal. That request is always a scam.

PayPal is one of the most common ways to pay online, so it is natural to expect it at every gift card checkout. In practice, acceptance is patchy. Here is where it works, why many stores leave it out, and how to use your PayPal money where it does not.

Where Can You Buy Gift Cards With PayPal?

There are three kinds of places to look.

• PayPal Digital Gifts. PayPal's own store sells eGift cards from a range of retailers and restaurants, paid for with your PayPal account. It does not sell a PayPal-branded card, which is a common point of confusion that our guide to the PayPal gift card clears up.
• The brand's own website. Many retailers that take PayPal for products also take it for their own eGift cards, though some block PayPal for gift cards specifically, so check the payment options before you add one to your basket.
• Third-party gift card marketplaces. Some accept PayPal, often for a limited set of brands. Stick to sellers with a long track record and clear refund terms.

How to Buy a Gift Card With PayPal, Step by Step

Through PayPal Digital Gifts, the process takes a few minutes:

1. Open PayPal's Digital Gifts store and pick the brand you want.
2. Choose the value to load onto the card.
3. If it's a gift, enter the recipient's email address, your name and a short message.
4. Log in to PayPal and confirm the payment from your balance, bank account or linked card.

The eGift card arrives by email. Buying a brand's eGift card on its own website works like any other PayPal checkout: add the card to your basket, choose PayPal as the payment method, log in and confirm.

Which Gift Cards Can You Buy With PayPal?

It depends on the store and your country. PayPal Digital Gifts carries mostly retail, restaurant and entertainment brands, and the lineup differs between markets. Brand websites decide for themselves whether PayPal can be used for gift cards, even when they take it for everything else.

For games you often don't need a gift card at all, since Steam, the Xbox Store and the PlayStation Store let you add funds with PayPal directly in most countries. Prepaid Visa and Mastercard gift cards are the hardest to find with PayPal, because sellers treat them as a high fraud risk.

Why Many Stores Will Not Take PayPal for Gift Cards

Gift cards behave like cash. They are instant, hard to trace once redeemed, and popular with anyone paying with stolen accounts. PayPal's own rules reflect this: PayPal's Purchase Protection terms list gift cards and prepaid cards as ineligible items.

For a store, that means a gift card sold through PayPal carries more fraud risk and fewer ways to resolve a dispute, so many simply switch PayPal off for gift cards while keeping it for everything else. For you, it means a gift card bought with PayPal has less protection than a pair of shoes bought the same way.

Can You Buy an Amazon Gift Card With PayPal?

Not from Amazon, which does not accept PayPal for anything, gift cards included. You can buy one from a third-party retailer that takes PayPal and redeem it to your Amazon balance. The steps, the region rules and the alternatives are covered in can you use PayPal on Amazon.

Using Your PayPal Balance Where PayPal Is Not Accepted

PayPal is not currently a checkout option for the gift cards sold here, and the same is true of many other gift card shops. You still have options:

• A PayPal Debit Mastercard spends your PayPal balance at any card checkout that takes Mastercard debit. It is available on US personal accounts. Like any card, it can occasionally be declined for gift card purchases that look unusual to the issuer.
• Transferring your balance to your bank is free with a standard transfer in most markets, after which your bank card works anywhere.
• If the goal is simply to spend a PayPal balance rather than to buy a gift card, marketplaces such as Banggood take PayPal directly, and eligible physical orders keep PayPal's buyer protection.

The gift cards sold here take card and crypto payments instead, so they are an option if you don't mind paying another way.

Gift Card Scams That Involve PayPal

Gift cards are a favourite payment method for scammers, and PayPal's name gets used as cover. Watch for these:

• Someone asks you to buy gift cards and send them the codes, whether they claim to be a tax office, a utility, tech support or a relative in trouble. Real organisations never ask for payment this way.
• A seller on a marketplace asks you to pay with PayPal Friends and Family instead of Goods and Services. That removes what protection you had.
• A site offers a PayPal gift card that loads your PayPal balance. PayPal does not issue one, so these are third-party vouchers at best.

Scammers often find their targets through data broker listings. A removal service such as Incogni cuts down how many of those lists your phone number and email address appear on.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you buy gift cards with PayPal Credit?

Where a merchant accepts PayPal, PayPal Credit is usually offered as a funding option at the same checkout in the US. The Purchase Protection exclusion still applies, so the gift card itself is not covered.

Are gift cards bought with PayPal refundable?

Only if the seller's own policy allows it. Most digital gift cards are non-refundable once the code is delivered, and PayPal will not step in for a gift card dispute.

Do you need a gift card to use PayPal on Steam?

No. Steam accepts PayPal directly when you add funds to your Steam Wallet, so a gift card is only worth it if you are buying for someone else.

Can you send a gift card through PayPal?

PayPal Digital Gifts lets you send an eGift card to someone else's email address as part of the purchase. Sending money through PayPal itself is a payment, not a gift card.

Can you buy Visa gift cards with PayPal?

Rarely. Most sellers of prepaid Visa and Mastercard gift cards don't offer PayPal, and PayPal's Purchase Protection excludes prepaid cards anyway. If you find one that does, check the seller's refund terms before paying.

Can you use your PayPal balance to buy gift cards?

Yes, anywhere PayPal is accepted for gift cards. At checkout, PayPal lets you choose whether to pay from your balance, a linked bank account or a card.

Picking a Route for Your PayPal Money

If the brand you want is in PayPal Digital Gifts or takes PayPal on its own site, buy it there. If it is not, a PayPal Debit Mastercard or a bank transfer gets your balance to a checkout that does accept it, without relying on an unknown reseller.

Using PayPal in Nigeria or comparing alternatives? See how OPay vs PayPal stacks up.

If you are happy to pay by card or crypto instead, browse gift cards from hundreds of brands.