PayPal Here is now available for Windows Phone 8.1

By Harish Jonnalagadda
last updated

After making its debut on Windows 8.1 in March, PayPal Here is now available on Windows Phone 8.1. The app works in conjunction with a credit and debit card reader that plugs into a device's 3.5mm audio jack, allowing businesses to conduct point-of-sale transactions through a phone.

PayPal Here's functionality is similar to that of Square, but with the latter company not announcing plans to support Windows or Windows Phone, PayPal's solution is the best alternative for businesses looking to conduct and process transactions through tablets and phones. There isn't a monthly fee involved in using the service, but it does come with a per-transaction fee, which is 2.7 percent in the U.S. The service is available in the U.S., Australia and Hong Kong, with a pilot program initiated in Canada.

If you're a merchant looking to get set up with PayPal Here, head to this link (opens in new tab). Once you register, you'll have to request for the accompanying card reader.

Download PayPal Here for Windows Phone 8.1

Thanks for the tip Brent!

126 Comments
  • Is this in Canada?
  • Guess not. Big deal it not like there are many merchants here that use it irl anyway
  • Give me your credit card and I'll test it for you.
  • Re-read the article and you'll see your answer.
  • I'm amazed this is even in the US now. I got the impression it wasn't gonna be here til way later in the year. One more void on WP that has been filled. I can see the trolls saying "WP doesn't even have credit card processing" losing sleep knowing they have less and less ammo everyday.
  • Yeah, not having Square or Paypal Here was tough for me even though I rarely used it. Having it is great. Though I bank with Chase and they just dropped WP8 so that sucks, I hate going to the bank to deposit a check.
  • Unfortunately NOT. I try to sign up, got this "Thanks for your interest Paypal Here We're sorry, PayPal Here isn't available in your country yet."  
  • Just got mine at Staples today for $14.99, now I can take credit card at my computer business repairing and building computers. Nice sweet and it works with my 1020 and my Surface 2 nice.
  • Yes.
    Forget U, Square.
  • Square has forgotten about us a long time ago. :)
  • I'd still rather have square. Square transfers to my bank usually that same night.. no waiting... Paypal takes an extra 3 days to transfer to your bank (unless they changed this policy)
  • Instant availability.
  • Paypal Here is a solid product and more than competative to Square. I was a strong Square supporter and still am but as a defiant windows phone owner I will support Paypal all I can. Their invoicing and inventory componants are great.
  • Can I use this for my normal PayPal account?
  • I think you need to set up a PayPal business account. When I tried to sign up for PayPal here it was asking for stuff like the name of your business and what its intention is and all that stuff, so I opts out of it seeing as Im not a business owner
  • No, it works for normal too. During the registration they ask if you're an individual or a business. You might have accidentally selected business without realizing it.
  • Yea I chose individual but that doesn't work
  • Worked for me. You have to go and sign up for Paypal Here seperately from just your Paypal account. On theri site it will ask you if you want to sign in with Paypal and then if you are a business or individual.
  • Check out "PayPal" for Windows Phone http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=75738196-1db2-49d9-afb1-d66a34d19fb6
  • Not available in turkey for lumia 920
  • Read the whole article and you would know that already...
  • Is it country specific? I ain't getting any option to download. I'm from India.
  • Yes. It says right in the article only U.S., Australia and Hong Kong
  • Although after logging in it says the service is not available in my country which is Australia.
  • Not available in India for Lumia 1320
  • You guys have any use of such apps or jst saying it for the sake of it?? :P Cause paypal has next to zero presence in India bro...
  • Who have told u u that PayPal have zero presence in India .. Most of the international business are done through PayPal special imported phones and other electronic items ...
  • You must be kiddin me? I've been using paypal in India, since 2008.
  • The same .. I am using PayPal since 2010 ,
  • PayPal is the only reputed company which supports overseas payment in India.
  • You're telling me visa doesn't exist where you are?
  • Read the article...the whole article
  • Specifically, the last sentence of the second paragraph. That should answer the question of why you can't download in India and practically every other country on this planet!! :/
  • 2.7...
  • USAonly looks like, not available in Canada
  • I thought the same thing...i swear they updated the article after my first read. It now says pilot in Canada..
  • yeah baby... now we're talkin
  • Cant download it on my htc trophy
  • Will you upgrade already??
  • HTC will give you Chinese cancer. HTC...it's like buying a blackberry...
  • Can't download on my Sega master system 2 in India
  • You win.
  • lol
  • Dreamcast(windows ce powered)
  • Yes.
  • :D
  • You won the internet today!
  • Now if I can just get my card reader. I registered as soon as the Windows 8.1 app came out and everytime I go to the site to check it says "Processing. We'll call or email within 48 hours". They never called or emailed.
  • Go to the Microsoft store, cost $15, but you get the $15 back on PayPal. It will cost you the tax though.
  • Awesome awesomeness awesomedetude!
  • The battery on that phone in the pic is a little low, better go and get the charger you know ;)
  • NiCe
  • I can't install it on my TI-89 calculator in Antarctica. What gives PayPal? Why no love for Antarctica. ;)
  • I crie evriteim
  • Change region to US right now...
  • This is great news. I assume Microsoft is paying PayPal to do this, so I hope they keep the app around for a while. As of now it's pretty much the ONLY way to take credit card payments through WP so I hope there's a market for it.
  • Why assume that Microsoft is paying them. PayPal got locked out of ApplePay. We've had EBay and PayPal apps for a long time. This could just make sense, since they both need to grow. EDIT: Found this article from January: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/16/microsoft_and_paypal_gang_up_on_...
  • I hate when everyone starts to assume Microsoft is paying companies to makes apps. I think PayPal decided to join Microsoft in a partnership to help each other out. Windows 8.1 being on a somewhat steady increase it makes sense since it's also being used on PCs/tablets. This will in some way help PayPal increase its user base. And it probably was not very hard to make it a universal app so we WP users can enjoy it :)
  • Hopefully, they update their site. https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/credit-card-reader
    Page showing iOS, Android and Windows tablets...no Windows Phone. :/
  • Maybe their waiting for w11
  • Ususal stuff. Website updates somehow always take time. Like they update it once a week/month.  
  • I always wondered how they transfer data through the headphone jack.
  • Pretty sure the reader uses Bluetooth. The headphone jack is just to hold it in place to slide cards through the reader easier.
  • It uses audio via the headphone jack.   If it was Bluetooth you'd have to pair it, which you don't.
  • By sending voltage through it like the headphones would. Then the "audio"-signal will be transfered to digital (Audio-Transformer). Thats it. No magic. Just technology from 1990.
  • I guess I had always assumed the headphone jack was only an output.
  • Think about it, you plug a headset/ microphone in there.
  • Ah -- I didn't know there was microphone input as well.
  • The headphone output is just a digital to analog converter... and the microphone input is just an analog to digital converter.  Software can easily output any analog signal between 20 Hz and 20 kHz that it wants to, and sample similar signals on the input.  If nothing else, simple voltage on/voltage off would simulate a digital signal. I don't know exactly what they've got going on the inside of the device, but the mag stripe on cards is read via an analog magnetic pickup coil.  It's entirely possible that the reader is basically just a read head connected to the microphone input.  Software would be able to read that signal and decode it fairly easily.   I actually suspect it is more complicated than that, but it is essentially how a normal mag stripe reader works.  The mag stripe on credit cards works very similarly to cassette tapes.
  • If only I could upvote on this site Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
  • People just don't read before coming up with comments. The article clearly states it's a US region specific service... It wont be operational in India even if you change your region! Seriously!!!
  • U.S., Australia and Hong Kong only
  • Except not in Australia
  • 2.7% per transaction?! And they do expect to do business; who are they kidding?! Seriously.
  • That is what everyone is charging. Look around. They are cheaper because they are not charging a fixed $.30 fee in addition to the 2.7% .
    If that 2.7% is too high, have your customers pay it! Just add it into the price.
  • Well, I'm in Europe and over here, it's not that hard to get less than a 2% commission on transactions and closer to 1% depending on sales volumes. I find that percentage extremely expensive for such a service.
  • All credit card transactions incur a surcharge, granted it usually isn't that high (though AMEX is).
  • Yeah, I'm in consulting not in retail but preserving margins there does look important considering how competitive it can be these days when faced with contenders like Amazon and the web... So, if these solutions aren't bringing back value to retailers, I don't think they're going to use these services till market conditions actually force them to use that stuff.
  • That's about what small businesses pay in the US.  It's a little higher, but not by much.  Certainly not enough higher to fuss about.
  • The app doesn't support two layer authentication so the app is completely useless to me since it wont let me login.
  • FINALLY. They beat Amazon Local Register and Square. Guess who is getting all my business's business? That's right! PayPal. Can't beat it since they are on both WP and Windows. Come on
    Amazon and Square. What do you have to say about that!!?
  • Does it use the wallet app? I can ser that happening. Don't mean how it is now but PayPal being the ApplePay for Windows.
  • You really need to make available chip and pin readers if you want to enter the EU market.
  • They have a chip and pin device for sale in the UK, but I don't think it ever took off.
  • The latest model readers (black ones) are EMV/Chip & Pin.
  • Will people ever read the whole article before commenting.
  • Sadly, the answer is no
  • Available for Australia off the bat, that's just amazing.
  • Except that it's not
  • In Portugal?!?
  • Clearly WC needs to come up with a more obvious way of getting the facts about something to it's readers...I suggest that key points of information be highlighted in red and alternately flash yellow, so that those who cannot read an article before posting cannot possibly miss the fact that the app is only available in some areas, or that the app is not for the phone, etc. Or maybe list that information before going into the details. Do something, anything, just make the morons stop!
  • Maybe make it a marquee which appears in a pop up box when you open the article.
  • They added the banner for "Supports 512MB RAM devices". Maybe it's time to expand that to include region support, and perhaps pricing.
  • Once Stripe rolls out to more countries it will be game over for PayPal...
  • Not working on my Lumia 1520.  It won't detect the reader.  But I know the reader is fine; it works on my iPhone without any issues. Bummer.  
  • Same here, The app detects the reader and tries to connect but fails on my 1520 here in the US.
  • Is your reader blue or black?  You need the new black reader to use it on the Windows 8.1 version so probably will need the black reader on Windows Phone 8.1 also.
  • Ah.  Mine is blue.
  • Black reader is chip and pin emv
  • Are you sure about that?  It sure doesn't look like it in the pictures.  The black reader doesn't look big enough to be able to read the EMV chip.  And all of the pictures of it on PayPal's site show the card's magnetic stripe being used, not the EMV chip.   It also has a logo on the side showing which direction the mag stripe goes. Also, in their promotional images for EMV, they show a different, much larger reader altogether: http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/13/paypal-here-adds-windows-support-will-l...  
  • I picked up a black reader today at Staples.  It works just fine.  I'm back in business.
  • So this means MSFT has a private API for data transfer via the 3.5 mm jack? Interesting ;)
  • It has to have been available for sometime now...If I recall correctly, Delta airlines started using WPs to transact in-flight purchases with a card reader a while ago.
  • The heart rate receiver that connects to the phone via the headphone jack used with Runtastic Pro has been working for at least a year and half now. So devices have been able to transfer data via the headphone jack for a while now. Don't know if MSFT only made it available to select developers and apps though. I had started to use the heart rate monitor with Runtastic Pro via the headphone jack in the fall of 2013.
  • That's cool, didn't know that. MSFT has to make the APIs public if there is one IMO. We might see some cool hardware accessories like those for iPhone :)
  • Paypal navigatiom?
  • Pity, not available in the UK yet!
  • I do hope it comes to the UK with the option to use the chip and pin reader.
  • They have the card readers at the Microsoft store fyi if you don't want to wait
  • Why write two codes if you can write one code? Don't get it.
  • why they don't just roll out the chip and pin Bluetooth readers is beyond me, they work great, but I had to buy a nexus 5 just to use mine, and i annoys me to have to carry an extra phone just to receive payments. they need to hurry up and sort out a global app strategies. by the way it's not in the Australian store.
  • It's finally Here.
  • I have it on my tablet, so seeing it thenphone is now a big plus. I wonder if the phone version works with the reader I have now. The tablet version requires the newer black reader. If you have the blue colored one, it won't work. Even then, it has already replaced Square for me, and why my last Android phone was sold a few days ago. Thanks PayPal! Love it and will use it often!
  • Thank you for that info. I just called them and they are sending me the black version of the PayPal Here reader. The Blue one doesn't work.
  • Does it work on the Surface 2 RT OS? I'm hope this lasts and stays unlike Cube which I used but they only lasted a short time before shutting down. Also hoping they get the money to my account as fact a Square does. Already had a PP account now set up for Here and card reader on the way for my phone. Yipeeee, now I can ditch that iPad. :o)
  • I havent accepted a transaction on it yet, but I have it installed, it sees the card reader and I can log in on my Surface2.
  • Once again, I cant find this app by searching for it in the store. I have to use the link posted in the article. No wonder people think the app gap