PayPal Payment Option Arrives On Switch eShop

This has already been rolled out in Europe since this morning. I'm glad I don't have to buy gift cards anymore.

It's good I guess for some people. But it's not really necessary for me at least. I'd rather just stick to paying by credit card and avoiding the Paypal fee, plus they don't always give an up to date exchange rate. It's not like you need buyers protection, Nintendo's hardly going to rob a person nor is the game going to go missing into the ether, it a digital purchase.

It's good for the paranoid people that don't want to save their credit card.

finally!! a great move for both companies!

Does this allow you to add funds to US and Japanese eshops from a UK PayPal account?

@BigBadJohn Unfortunately not. Someone on Neogaf tried it and it seems you can only link PayPal from the same region, just like on PSN.

Like it. Hoping for US shortly

@DrkBndr Sadness. Else it would make it so much easier to buy games from other regions.

@DrkBndr Thanks, this has been amended

Thank the heaven's. I really needed this.

This is awesome!
The only way I had to pay for the Eshop was to make a trip to a shop far from my home to buy gift cards!
I can't say how happy I am!

Isn't debit or credit card the easier option

Finally a system that claims to remember my card and actually does it.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE What PayPal fee? I use PayPal for lots of sites and never have to pay a fee. They collect fees when you sell something, not when you buy. Correct me if I'm missing something.

@jswhitfield8 Ya, that would be much better than that other function they use the NFC reader for.

It won't work on my Japanese account, what the hell!

@SLIGEACH_EIRE there is no paypal fee.

@kristycocopop you need a paypal account of that region for it to work

Good thing I don't have a Switch. I have about an $8000 credit line on my PayPal Credit lol

EDIT: Apparently if you download from the desktop eShop, you can use PayPal for 3DS and Wii U too..... o_0

Finally. Nice to see Ninty getting with the times.

@BigBadJohn You can just buy the game directly from eshop using paypal without adding any funds to other accounts. I've just bought Sonic Mania from Russian eshop via paypal for only £9.66
I think it's a great addition and will make purchases much easier!

This is fine and all, but I don't see the advantage of using PayPal over a debit or credit card.

@thesilverbrick I don't us paypal so someone correct me if I'm worng. The advantage I see with paypal is that if you want to buy a 20 dollar game and you have 18 dollars on your account, you can just add 2 dollars to the account. With our current option you have to either add 10(is that an option?) or 20.

Also, can you refund your money from paypal BACK to a bank account?

edit

@NapalmPsalm You have the option of adding just the funds you need for a purchase using a debit card. I do it all the time.

No thanks. PayPal won't see any money from me.

I guess more options is better. I would link my paypal account but I also have a debit card that works the same way (take out money from bank), so it's not really a game changer for me.

@thesilverbrick Credit cards and debit cards aren't too common in many countries within Europe, most people I know do not have nor need one. Having Paypal is thus especially useful for Europeans I'd reckon.

Excellent news!

@zip PayPal won't see any money from you even if you use it. The seller pays PayPal, not the buyer.

@Snebbu Gotcha. I wasn't aware of that. More options is always better, anyway.

@MariOnline It's easier for account theft to occur if every store in existence has processed your card, the odds of intercepting the card are countless. The beauty of Pay Pal, Amazon Payments, etc is it gives one single point of theft of the number, as you only store the card in their servers, and you log in to authorize payment through their servers. So if you use Pay Pal at 100 stores, it reduces 100 points of potential theft down to one. Not that they haven't been compromised before. They have. But I'd rather have one point of failure than 100 Though I don't like having any of these firms get too big and powerful (then again, can't get much more power over money than Visa-Mastercard.

@Sligeach_eire yeah as others said there's no pay pal fee, at least in the US. Maybe it's different in the UK? But I think you're thinking of the seller's fee (Nintendo pays them), but that's not too different from what happens with the credit cards (Visa doesn't process cards for free!)

@NEStalgia I understand that but with PayPal it's only letting you top up just like eshop cards where as when paying with debit/credit card it just lets you pay the exact amount.

Both the same really, just seems PayPal adds a extra step when purchasing as it takes you to the page of topping up in 10, 20 - 50 pounds.

I'm a big fan of paypal. Easy. International, no silly fees or nonsense. Good news.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE That was my question actually, if the e-shop would charge you in the 'source' currency of the respective e-shop or in the 'target' currency of the respective PayPal account. On websites, like Ebay, you can actually set Paypal to NOT convert the currency, which 99% of the time works in your favour, due to the low conversion fee my bank charges and the - in my experience - lower conversion rates it uses.
I guess if exchange rate takes a drastic turn against you, the delayed adjustment PayPal seems to employ (?) might work in your favour, but I use it quite regularly and I always check and never once did the PayPal conversion came out favorably (same goes for Amazon though btw).

Unfortunately, the US e-shop (unlike the Canadian) does not seem to accept EU credit cards, so if it charges you in dollar$ (or if let's you chose), then I would definitely have some use for it. Right now, I'm using digital gift cards from amazon.com. That works fine, but it always leaves you with some residual balance, which in turn means you cannot change region anymore unless that cash is gone ....

....I still don't see the point in this...seems pointless and a waste of time.

Never thought of them adding pay pal. But ill be using it.

Long overdue! No more buying top-up cards with paypal and then using them on the eshop (although I hate Paypal).
They still need to add all the other payment methods though.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE

PayPal doesn't charge you anything to buy a good. It also never shares your account information with the shop, so it lessens the odds of getting your card number stolen.

I have plenty of credit cards, but I pay through PayPal with them for added security and convenience.

This is a great addition to the eshop.

@sketchturner

You're correct. In his haste to criticize Nintendo, he didn't bother to check how inaccurate his comment is...once again.

This guy loves to complain, even when there's nothing to complain about.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Maybe but if you have funds in your Paypal, you could use them for a Switch download rather then go through the process of depositing into your bank account and then making a purchase.

Only small time saving but time saving none the less.

@Agent721 Educate yourself before you try slagging me off backhandedly. The Switch eShop is region free. PayPal make a fortune every year. Do you think they make their money by being a charity? No they don't. They're in this to make money. As I said, the Switch is region free and Paypal charge a fee for currency conversions.

Hm. Seems to be another progressive step for Nintendo. Now to see where they will be going with various other "apps", from Netflix to Spotify, or if any of that is even on the books. Good ol' patience game...

@SLIGEACH_EIRE As many people said, when you buy stuff and pay with PayPal, there is no fee. Why do you need to convert currencies? Even if you do, if you use your credit card, you have to pay the fee to the bank as well. You should apologize to @Agent721. That was inappropriate.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE You can't convert on Switch eShop with PayPal as it only allows purchases from one region.

@Joeynator3000 The point is that you don't have to give Nintendo your credit card number.

@NinNin No it wasn't. And no I most certainly won't apologise to a whiner.

Tell me please what's in this for Paypal so?

@NinNin So I give it to Paypal instead?....Still a waste of time.

@Joeynator3000 Giving your credit card number to one company is safer than giving it to one thousand companies.

....Mk, whatever you say dude. lol

Don't have a switch so doesn't concern me, but I'd like to see this option for the 3DS.

@MariOnline Shame it's only for topping up, but it still keeps the extra layer of safety in place versus giving Nintendo your CC. Even if you opt for them to not store it you're still passing it through whatever payment processing company they use is. Many of us already buy the top-op cards either in Gamestop or digitally on Amazon/Gamestop for exactly this reason so at least it's easier to do it on the console rather than having to go grab the laptop to do it on Amazon/Gamestop and then enter the code. I may keep doing it that old way for now, but it's definitely a convenient option.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Nintendo pays PayPal a percentage of the transaction, the same way as they pay Visa/Mastercard a percentage of the transaction.

That's why retail stores will say "minimum $20 purchase required for credit/debit." Because they have to pay a percentage or a fixed fee depending on contract, to Visa/MC, meaning they make nothing on small purchases.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE As @NEStalgia said, PayPal charge sellers.

@Joeynator3000 From my understanding, you can transfer money between "family" in Paypal with different currencies (up to a certain ceiling before you get charged fees).

For people importing games, that can be useful if their MasterCard or Visa isn't accepted in the region they are purchasing in.

For example, if I wanted to buy MH XX from the JPN eShop I could simply transfer funds from one PayPal account to another region's PayPal account as part of a "family transfer". Those funds would be eligible for purchasing the game on the JPN eShop. I wouldn't need to be concerned about my credit card not working in that region and I wouldn't need to deal with the high shipping costs/shipping time from Play Asia.

@NinNin @SLIGEACH_EIRE

No worries NinNin, but I appreciate the support! This guy is clearly off his rocker, always argues nonsense and he calls me a whiner? The comment section stands as proof as to who whines and well, it ain't me. Its one particular person, always and constantly.

Cheers to both of you!

@Joeynator3000

Credit card numbers are easily stolen. Mine get stolen at least once every few months. With PayPal, they digitally encrypt the number, making it impossible for the merchant to get a hold of it. All the merchant gets is the authorization number. That makes using PayPal much safer than using the card on its own. On top of it, the checkout speed with PayPal is way faster than with regular credit cards, so ease of use is clearly in Paypals corner.

If that concept is somehow hard to grasp, I don't know what to tell you, but you clearly miss the concept of keeping your transactions safe.

Its amazing how many of you are totally clueless as to what makes PayPal a superior form of checking out and why they are so popular, despite a myriad of other payment forms available to the public.

I never had any issues with my credit card, so...yeah.

not for 3DS though? too bad.

Paypal is a joke. Their "exchange rate" is always wrong, and set in their favor. They have costed me so much in the past before I caught on to their "scam" (give an improper exchange rate to charge you more for less on the exchange). I will never use Paypal if I can ever help it.

@Joeynator3000 youre a very lucky kitteh.

When it happens... it sucks.

Unless they have the one-click feature, this doesn't matter to me. It's just as simple to purchase stuff with my debit card, which is the same account my Paypal account draws from anyway. It's a nice additional feature for those it does help, though.

It is good for me because now I can use American Express

@thesilverbrick Are you being sarcastic? Of course it's my money. I pay Nintendo and Nintendo pays Paypal with my money. Simple.

@zip If you want to be technical, then sure. But the way you phrased your comment gave me the impression you thought you'd be paying a fee to PayPal. Nintendo pays a fee to Visa or MasterCard when you make a debit or credit card purchase. They also give retail stores a cut of the profit when you buy a physical eShop card. There's no way to buy a digital game without giving some money to a middle man. It appears you just have an unexplained vendetta against PayPal, specifically. To each his own.

Good! Not everyone has a credit card. Paypal is a great option and i'm using it a lot and it's easy use. Love it. Should be mainstream

Did I miss something here? You can't use an existing paypal balance on file with them. This renders it useless as you can just use a card to get the same effect without giving a potential crook access to your paypal balance too.