PayPal

PayPal is the most widely held online payment account in the world and one of the least common in broker cashiers. Where it is offered, deposits are instant and withdrawals return to the same account within a day or two.

Why the list of brokers is short

PayPal's acceptable-use policy treats leveraged and margin trading as a restricted category, and approval is granted market by market rather than globally. A broker therefore needs a specific arrangement to accept it, and many decide the volume does not justify the merchant costs. The practical consequence is that a broker's PayPal option may exist for clients in one country and be absent for the same broker's clients in another.

What PayPal does and does not cover

Buyer protection is the reason many people trust PayPal, and it does not apply here. It covers goods and services that were not delivered or not as described; it does not cover money lost in the market, a margin call, or a dispute about how a broker executed an order. Opening a PayPal dispute over trading losses will not recover them, and it will get the trading account frozen. If the broker itself is the problem, the escalation path is its regulator, not the payment provider.

Costs and mechanics

• Funding from a linked bank account is usually free; funding from a card adds a fee.
• Any currency conversion carries PayPal's own margin over the market rate, which is where most of the cost hides. Fund the account in the currency you will trade in.
• Withdrawals go back to the PayPal account you deposited from, under the standard same-method rule, and the account must be in the trader's name.
• The PayPal balance is not covered by the compensation schemes that protect the brokerage account itself — do not leave large sums parked there.

When it makes sense

PayPal suits small, frequent deposits by traders who already hold a verified account and want to avoid handing card details to another site. For serious volume, the conversion margin makes a bank transfer cheaper.