Can You Send Money From PayPal To Skrill?

PayPal and Skrill are two of the most well-known mobile wallets out there. While both have millions of users and offer similar features such as cryptocurrency trading and international money transfers, the two platforms are quite different and not directly linked. As a result, while it is possible to send money from PayPal To Skrill, the process can be long and expensive — especially if you're planning to convert currencies along the way.

Because they're not linked directly to facilitate convenient transfers, the process to send money from PayPal to Skrill tends to be a long and expensive one. And while it's by all means possible, we recommend against it if your goal is to transfer money into a foreign currency at a reasonable cost.

In this guide, we'll be focusing on online transfers from PayPal to Skrill (i.e. transfers via bank transfer) only. We therefore won't be covering cash pickup transfers.

How To Send Money From PayPal To Skrill

To send money from PayPal to Skrill, you'll have the choice of whether to send the money to yourself or another person, as well as whether or not you will be making a currency conversion along the way. To get the job done, you'll have the following two options, broadly speaking:

Option 1 — Transfer Via a Bank Account

The first way to send money from PayPal to Skrill is to transfer directly from your PayPal balance, via your bank account, to Skrill. This option is quite laborious, as it will entail several steps. First, you'll need to link a US checking account to PayPal (if you've not done so already) and then withdraw the desired funds from PayPal to your bank account. You can then use your bank account to make a transfer over Skrill by selecting a bank transfer as your pay-in method.

✔️ Useful for: US residents sending money to another person's bank account in a foreign currency

💵 Cost: Approx. 1.5% (per $1,000 for bank-to-bank transfers)

⏱ Speed: 2-5 days (if your PayPal and bank account are linked); 5-8 days (if not)

Option 2 — Use a PayPal Card

Emil Kalibradov on Unsplash

The second option to send money from PayPal to Skrill is to use a PayPal debit MasterCard, which you can use to fund your Skrill transfer, similar to how would with any other debit card. However, we do not advise this option as there's a fair chance that PayPal will block these payments as part of its anti-money laundering compliance scheme. Even if your payment does go through, the costs can quickly add up, and if you don't already have a PayPal card, ordering one can take a very long time to arrive.

✔️ Useful for: Sending money to yourself in cash or another person in a foreign currency, if you already have a PayPal debit card

💵 Cost: Approx. $2.99 + 1.5% (per $1,000 for bank-to-bank transfers)

⏱ Speed: 2-5 days (if you already have a PayPal card); 9-15 days (if not)

Option 3 — Use a Skrill Card

Skrill Ltd

Using Skrill's Prepaid Mastercard, which is only available to residents of select European Economic Area (EEA) countries, you'll be able to send money from PayPal to yourself. However, you won't be able to send money directly to a beneficiary with this method, as your PayPal account and your Skrill card will need to be in the same name. Once you have linked your PayPal account to your Skrill card (as you would with a normal bank account or credit card), you will then be able to withdraw money from PayPal, into your Skrill wallet via the prepaid card, and then finally on to a recipient, if desired.

✔️ Best for: EEA residents already possessing a Skrill card who want to send money to themselves or another person in a foreign currency

💵 Cost: Up to 4.99% (per $1,000 for card-to-bank transfers)

⏱ Speed: 2-5 days (if you already have a Skrill card); 9-15 days (if not)

Sending Overseas With PayPal or Skrill: Beware the Hidden Fees

As we've explored, it's certainly possible to send money from PayPal to Skrill. However, when it comes to making a currency exchange along the way, we recommend against sending money from PayPal to Skrill due to the high fees, poor exchange rates, and long waiting times associated with the process.

At Monito, we frequently recommend against using PayPal for most international transfers altogether. This is because, by making one, you'll be charged a highly variable, nontransparent exchange rate margin fee of anywhere between 2.5% and 4.5% of the entire transfer amount. Similarly, while Skrill is much cheaper than PayPal for transfers abroad, they're usually not the cheapest service of all on Monito's comparison engine, although we do recommend them for some transfers abroad. (Take a look at our in-depth Skrill review to find out which.)

Instead, if you're planning on sending money overseas, we recommend you make an ordinary bank transfer or card payment to one of the many international money transfer specialist services available to you, most of which allow you to take advantage of fees and exchange rates that come in at a fraction of the cost of PayPal (or sometimes even Skrill.) Run a search on Monito's real-time comparison engine below to get the job done quickly and easily: