PayPal will charge people this week if they haven’t used their account recently

‘Inactivity fee’ can be avoided without spending or receiving money

PayPal accounts that have been inactive for 12 months will be charged £9 on 16 December, 2020 (Getty Images)

PayPal will introduce a new fee this week targeting users that have not used their accounts in the last year.

On 16 December, any PayPal account that has been inactive for at least 12 months will be charged £9, with the fee reoccurring annually.

The “inactivity fee" will apply to account holders who have not sent, received, or withdrawn money over the last year, or failed to log in during this time.

In order to avoid paying it, PayPal users simply need to log into their account before Wednesday.

Users who do not use their accounts on a regular basis will need to continue logging in to their accounts every 12 months to avoid facing the fee in the future.

The fee will only be taken from an account’s active balance and will not charge associated credit or debit cards if the balance is zero.

“We have introduced an inactivity fee to maintain accounts that are inactive,” PayPal stated.

"The applicability of the service fee is limited and intended to only impact accounts that have not been active within the past 12 months.

“Accounts with zero balance won’t be impacted and this charge won’t result in any negative balance.”

PayPal will warn all customers in advance via email if their account is affected by the new fee, giving a 60 day, 30 day and then seven day notice period.

According to PayPal’s updated Terms and Conditions, the fee does not apply to PayPal users in Ireland, or to personal accounts registered in Hungary.