All offers / Money apps / PayPal
Examined Jul 27, 2026 Paid in points, not cash No monthly fee PayPal pays 1,000 points a side, about $10. Sending a friend $5 will not earn it.
The reward is points, not dollars. PayPal Rewards Points redeem at one cent each, so 1,000 points is $10, taken as cash back to your balance or spent at a PayPal checkout. Points are not money until you redeem them, and PayPal says plainly that they can expire, so cash them out rather than collecting them. There is no monthly fee anywhere in this: a personal PayPal account is free to open and free to pay with.
- What the $10 is worth if the $5 bought something you wanted anyway$10
- What the $10 is worth if the $5 went on something you did not need$5
1,000 points redeem at one cent each. If the qualifying $5 went on something you did not want, it comes out of the same $10.
What pays what
| You, brand new US personal account, $5 spent at a PayPal checkout in 30 days | 1,000 points (about $10) |
|---|---|
| The friend whose link you used, on the same conditions | 1,000 points (about $10) |
| You, referring friends afterwards, up to 10 per calendar year | Up to $100 a year |
| Sending or receiving $5, including a Goods and Services payment | Does not count |
| A payment still marked pending, or later cancelled, refunded or reversed | Does not count |
| Anyone who has ever had a PayPal account before | $0 |
Also excluded, and worth knowing before you go looking for a clever $5: buying or reloading a prepaid card, using a PayPal-branded card directly at a merchant instead of going through PayPal checkout, in-store cash withdrawals, other cash-like transactions, digital gaming, and lottery, betting or gambling.
Do this, in this order
- Get the link from a person, privately. PayPal's terms say a referral link must not be published or distributed in public places where the audience is likely to include people who are not your family or personal friends. Break that and PayPal can disqualify the referrer and every one of their referees, voiding rewards at its own discretion. Using a link you found on a coupon site or a forum puts your own $10 at risk as well as theirs.
- Sign up as a genuinely new US personal account. Both sides need a US personal PayPal account in good standing, and the person joining must never have had PayPal before. One reward exists per referee for the life of the program, and if two people both invite you, PayPal credits whoever referred you first.
- Link a bank account or card, and verify your phone number. The terms list both as conditions: link a bank account, credit card or bank debit card, and verify the cell number attached to the account. Skip either and the reward never attaches.
- Spend $5 or more at a PayPal checkout, on an actual purchase. An online or in-app checkout payment of $5.00 or more, marked complete. Do not let it be a purchase you plan to return: cancelled, refunded and reversed transactions are struck out.
- Do it inside 30 days of signing up. The whole sequence, sign up through the link, connect a funding source, verify the phone, and complete the purchase, has to land within the first 30 days.
- Redeem the points instead of admiring them. Rewards should show up in your Account Overview within 14 days of qualifying. Points are not money before redemption and PayPal states that they can expire, so convert the 1,000 into $10 of cash back or spend them at a checkout.
The fine print that can still cost you the reward
Telling people you get paid is a legal requirement, not a courtesy. PayPal's terms say that every time you share your link you must tell the person that you earn an incentive, and call it a legal requirement. If you plan to refer friends, say so in the message.
Getting the $10 out can cost a slice of it. The account itself is free, and a standard transfer to your bank or debit card costs nothing when no currency conversion is involved. Choosing an instant transfer costs 1.75% of the amount, with a minimum of $0.25 and a maximum of $25, so an instant $10 leaves you $9.75. A mailed paper check costs $1.50 for personal accounts without a linked PayPal Balance account. Waiting a day or two is free.
PayPal can end it whenever it likes. There is no expiry date on the program, but PayPal reserves the right to cancel, suspend or modify the offer in part or in full at any time and without notice. The invite terms carry no revision date at all, so treat today's figures as today's.
Is it worth your time?
Yes, with a caveat that is about arithmetic rather than trust. Ten dollars for each side, no subscription quietly draining it, and money that lands within a fortnight is a genuinely good ratio for the effort. It is not a reason to open PayPal if you had no use for it, and it is a poor reason to buy something you did not want, since a $5 purchase you did not need turns a $10 reward into $5 of value. If you were going to shop online this week anyway and someone you know already has PayPal, take the ten minutes. The only thing this one asks of you is that you understand what PayPal means by a purchase.
