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Once per year, the holiday shopping season is approaching. Other than the merchants that are trying to increase the sales. Our beloved credit card issuers, and other payment processing providers like Paypal are also trying to promote their own services. If you are lucky, you are now receiving an invitation from PayPal regarding a 5% cashback for the coming shopping season.

The invitation goes to my not-frequently-used PayPal account. The title of the email is: By invitation only: David, get 5% cash back all season long.

By receiving this email, you are pre-selected by Paypal to get a 5% chance to get more rewards for your holiday shopping.

The content of this email:

You’ve been selected to receive a special offer: PayPal Cash Back Rewards. After your second PayPal purchase, you’ll earn 5% cash back on your additional PayPal purchases* through December 21st. And with one-step sign up, you’ll be earning cash back in no time.

SO you need to sign up via click the link in the email to be eligible to get the rewards.

Some important points about this prmotion:

Receive 5% cash back (”Cash Back Rewards”) on your 3rd purchase and each purchase thereafter through December 21, 2009 (excluding tax and shipping), made from any participating U.S. merchant when you use PayPal as the payment method (”Offer”). Purchases made at eBay.com do not qualify for this Offer. Offer begins on November 3, 2009 and ends December 21, 2009 or as long as the Cash Back Rewards Offer is available on the PayPal site, whichever occurs first. In order to receive this Offer you must 1) have a U.S. PayPal account in good standing, 2) receive an email directly from PayPal inviting you to participate in this Offer, 3) register for the Cash Back Rewards Offer, when prompted to do so, using the same email address where you received the Offer invitation, and 4) complete two purchases. Your third purchase, and each purchase you make after that, will qualify for the Offer, as long as they are completed by December 21, 2009. The maximum amount of cash back under this Offer is limited to $20 USD per purchase, and a maximum of $200 USD per PayPal account from November 3, 2009 through December 21, 2009. The cash back will be deposited into your PayPal account between November 19, 2009 and December 30, 2009, based upon your transaction dates.

PayPal is offering a $20 off $20 promotion for those who received the email from PayPal. Although the merchants are restricted to a selected group, it is still a great deal to catch up. You can simply grab some small stuffs with little money. The $20 cashback will be paid back to your PayPal account after this promotion ends. The merchants are: Graniph, FocalPrice, Milanoo, Dhgate, BestOfferBuy.com, MyCatwalk, Wiggle Time and Sasa. And this promotion ends on November 17, 2009.

Terms and Conditions:

Receive $20.00 USD cash back with a minimum purchase of $20.00 USD (excluding tax and shipping) (”Offer”). Offer applies to purchases at one of the following merchants: Graniph, FocalPrice, Milanoo, Dhgate, BestOfferBuy.com, MyCatwalk, Wiggle Time and Sasa (the “Merchants”). Purchases must be made on one of the Merchant’s websites and paid for using PayPal. Offer begins on Oct 21, 2009 at 12:00:01am U.S. Pacific Time and ends on November 17, 2009 at 11:59:59pm U.S. Pacific Time (the “Promotional Period”). To ensure that your purchase is eligible for the Offer, you must: 1) have a U.S. PayPal account in good standing; 2) receive an email directly from PayPal inviting you to participate in the Offer and 3) complete a qualifying purchase and meet any additional eligibility requirements at one of the Merchant’s websites within the Promotional Period. The maximum cash back amount allowed per PayPal account is $20.00 USD. The cash back will be deposited into your PayPal account no later than December 15, 2009.

Today I received an email from PayPal that there is a $100 bonus for using Bill Me Later on PayPal. I think this is a great opportunity for people who have good credit and can pay off bills on time using Bill Me Later. The link to this promotion page is here ($100 bonus).

The rule of this promotion is pretty simple:

• You’ll receive up to $100 off as a credit. If you spend less than the offer amount, your discount will be equal to the amount of your purchase (before tax and shipping). For example, if your offer is “up to $100 off” and you spend $5, you will receive a discount of $5. Please allow 1-2 billing cycles for this amount to be reflected on your Bill Me Later statement.
• It’s a limited time offer that’s only available through PayPal. Complete your purchase before midnight ET on October 31st, 2009 to receive this offer. Limit one per customer.
• Select “Yes, I’d like No Payments for 90 Days…” to be eligible to receive the promotional offer.

Interestingly, there are other similar offers but with different bonus amounts: $25, $10 and even $0. (you only need to change the amount off at the above link) So it is possible that this is a invitation-only event which means that if you do not receive the email from PayPal associated with your email address, you are not eligible to get the $100 bonus.

Bill Me Later is not a PayPal company and offers finance services for online shopping. If you pay off the balance in full before the promotion date, you will not be charged money by Bill Me Later. Otherwise you have to pay a little fees.

Another point you need to know is when you apply for the Bill Me Later account, you are subjected to a “Hard Pull“.

Greent Dot, the largest prepaid debit card issuer, has teamed with Paypal to let Green Dot prepaid debit card users to load their money to Paypal account directly via the Greent Dot’s MoneyPak. Usually, when a user wants to use Paypal, he or she needs to have a valid US bank account or credit card to be eligible to register at Paypal. This move will let people to shop anywhere PayPal is accepted without the need for a bank account or credit card.

MoneyPak, a prepaid debit card, can be purchased with cash at a retail store like Walmart, CVS/pharmacy, Kmart, Rite Aid and Walgreens. The money in the prepaid debit card then can be loaded directly into a PayPal account and used to shop online anywhere PayPal is accepted, including eBay.

The new MoneyPak has more functions than just load the money to PayPal account. For example, MoneyPak allows people to reload prepaid cards, make cash payments, pay bills and fund other accounts. MoneyPak is powered by Green Dot’s industry-leading cash acceptance network, and costs $4.95 or less.

More details can be found at http://www.moneypak.com.

It seems PayPal offers a unique way to let parents and students manage their money. PayPal now launches new student account which can be setup by parents and offer purchasing power for students. This student account works just like other normal PayPal account but with a new feature. Other accounts can be added on to it. It not linked to outside checking accounts. Instead, all transactions flow through the parent’s account.

I search online and found a video about this new account. Below is an interview from MarketWatch’s Jonathan Burton with PayPal vice president Don Fotsch.

Detailed information about the student account can be found at https://www.paypal.com/studentaccount.

According to PayPal this new account is good for both parents and students:

• Spending is limited to what’s available in the account
• Provides visibility to all transactions
• Promotes healthy dialogue about money

• Shop online with PayPal and in stores with the Student Card
• Learn to manage money
• Enjoy freedom and independence in a safer and more secure way

These days the news about the promotion from PayPal is widely spread over the internet. I have a post which indicated that PayPal is going to run Holiday Promotion in the coming shopping season published several days ago. And the current PayPal holiday promotions can be found at www.paypal-promo.com/holiday. Not all of the promotions listed there are hot deals. But some of them are really good.

Recently I received 2 PayPal promotions targeted to my personal PayPal account. I think it’s a good idea to briefly introduce the 2 promotions because some of you might not know the promotions are existing.

Get $20 cash back from PayPal when you spend $50 at Walmart.com

This promotion is pretty easy and really a great deal. Use PayPal when you checkout at Walmart.com and PayPal  will give you $20 cash back on your order of $50 or more!

This offer applies to transactions on Walmart.com when you use PayPal as a payment method. Offer begins December 5, 2008 and ends December 15, 2008. The maximum amount of cash back per PayPal account is $20USD. The cash back will be deposited into your PayPal account by January 15, 2009.

To get the $20 cash back, you must

(1) have a confirmed U.S. PayPal account in good standing

(2) receive an email directly from PayPal inviting you to participate in the Offer

(3) purchase using your PayPal account that has the same email address where you received the email invitation

(4) make an eligible purchase no later than December 15, 2008

This offer is similar to the American Express Credit Card promotion at Walmart and Walmart.com which will give you $20 statement credit for shopping at Walmart stores or Walmart.com twice with each minimum transaction of $40.

20% cash back from PayPal for shopping at eBay

Right now, Microsoft live search is only offer 8% cash back. So if you receive this email, it’s a great chance to pick up some cheap stuffs at eBay. This offer is very simple: Pay for your eBay purchase with PayPal, and get 20% cash back in your PayPal account.

This offer applies to transactions between December 10, 2008 and December 19, 2008 using PayPal as the payment method. Purchases made within the Offer period must be charged to your account no later than December 19, 2008. The maximum amount of cash back per PayPal account is $100 USD. The cash back will be deposited into your PayPal account by January 31, 2009.

To be eligible for the Offer, you must:

(1) have a confirmed U.S. PayPal account in good standing

(2) receive an email directly from PayPal inviting you to participate in the Offer

(3) make your purchases no later than December 19, 2008 using your PayPal account, which also has the same email address where you received the Offer invitation

Some might ask how to receive the promotional offers from PayPal. From my personal experience, I think the way to get the PayPal offers is don’t link your PayPal email to your eBay account. In this way, PayPal, which is an eBay company, will send more promotional offers to you.

PayPal just released the great deals and cash back offers for the coming 2008 holiday shopping season. Customers can get up to 20% cash back for shopping through PayPal and pay with PayPal. The 20% discount will be applied to top online retailers such as OverStock, eToys and BlockBuster. Meanwhile, PayPal will also offer free shipping from some PayPal merchants. Of course, the most attractive part is PayPal will team up with Live Search and eBay to offer huge discount for shopping “Buy it Now” items on eBay.com.

According to Cliff Hopkins, senior director for PayPal, “Under current economic situation, many consumers will shop early and using every tool at their disposal to find the best deals on holiday gifts.” On order to boot sales, online merchants are also working to provide free shipping, cash rebate, and other great deals to their customers.

In details, retailers will offer a number of holiday promotions to help PayPal users find great gift ideas.

NO Shipping Cost

This is a very standard promotion for some online merchants to offer PayPal members. Some merchants also participated in the PayPal holiday promotion last year.

Cash Cash Offers

From December 1, 2008, PayPal will offer a great discount offers for members using PayPal to shop online. The cash back is up to 30%! Participating retailers are Blue Niles, eToys, OverStock etc. The cash back is offered instantly.

Deals from eBay through Live Search

Maybe you are still excited with the 35% cash back from Live Search with eBay and PayPal. I believe eBay and Microsoft will continue to offer huge promotion deals during shopping season. The latest message is: Shoppers who arrive at eBay through Microsoft Live Search (www.live.com) can receive up to 30% cash back on the purchase of any eligible “But it Now” item when using PayPal through the Microsoft Live Search cash back program.

PayPal was offering 10% off coupon together with 25% cash back from Live Search several days ago. Anyone who received the 10% coupon can use it together with live search cash back offer to get up to 35% discount! The coupon code as shown above is CFALLSAVINGS10P.

PayPal just announced that PayPal will cover the original shopping and shipping cost for users using PayPal to pay full price at eBay if the items are not received or significantly not as described. Shopping with PayPal is now even safer.

For more information, you can go to the official PayPal promotion website: www.paypal.com/holiday.

Normally, the back-to-school season is the second largest retail season of the year. Microsoft launched the “Back to School Deal Days” promotion and doubled the cash back rate for most of its merchants. If you want to find something for this fall semester, it’s time to do a little research at www.live.com/cashback to save money for the coming school year. However, Microsoft is not the only one to promote back-to-school deals. PayPal just launched the back-to-school promotion from which you can save up to 50% when you shop and pay via PayPal.

Although PayPal is an eBay company, there are many “off-eBay” merchants participating in the back-to-school promotion. You can find whatever you need in the school: electronics, clothing, supplies, textbooks and other general needs. For example, FootLocker offers 15% off $75 with coupon code AF218G2H, 20% cash back at OfficeMax, and $100 off Lifebook notebook at Fujitsu.

A complete list of deals are listed below (you can find out the deals at www.paypal-promo.com/backtoschool):

• AllPosters.com: up to 50% cash back (BTSPAL)
• American Eagle: 20% cash back
• eBags.com: 20% off
• eCOST.com: save over $100 on 1TB WesternDigital Hard Drive
• FootLocker.com: 15% off $75 or more (go to Microsoft live cash back)
• Fujitsu: $100 off Lifebook notebook (BTS100OFF)
• GUESS.com: 10% off entire order (PPBTS10)
• Proactive.com: 15% cash back
• HotTopic.com: $25 off $100 or more (PPBTS25)
• NewEgg.com $10 HP webcam with coupon code PYPLBTS20 and many other great electronic deals
• OfficeMax: 20% cash back
• OverStock.com: 10% off entire order
• ShoeBuy.com: $10 off $40
• TigerDirect.com: free 512MB USB flash drive with your order

This is an annually promotion from PayPal with many merchants as a  result of a survey conducted by ACNielsen Customized Research last year. According to the survey, most parents and students continue to disagree over what constitutes a “must-buy” purchase for the school. The back-to-school survey as revealed by PayPal also includes:

• More than two-thirds of high school teens get their parents to buy items that their parents don’t approve.
• High school students expect that their parents will spend $350 on average for their back-to-school shopping.
• Parents with kids ages 5-17 estimate spending $252 dollars per child on back-to-school shopping.
• More than four in ten high school students will contribute at least a small portion of their own money for back-to-school purchases.
• 43 percent of high school students will buy some of their back-to-school items online and they will mostly shop for clothes, electronics and shoes.

Start save money for the coming school year and enjoy the promotion offered by PayPal and Microsoft live cash back.