The List of PayPal Pay After Delivery Merchants (& Where It’s Barred)

Wouldn’t it be nice to receive the items you buy before you pay for them? With PayPal’s Pay After Delivery service, you can. PayPal pay after delivery stores are out there. This free service delays payment for many items purchased from your favorite retailers that accept PayPal. So who accepts PayPal Pay After Delivery? Keep reading to see the list of PayPal Pay After Delivery merchants and even major stores that don’t accept PayPal Pay After Delivery.

What Is PayPal Pay After Delivery?

PayPal’s Pay After Delivery (PAD) is a free service that allows you to delay payment on items ordered using PayPal. Through this service, you know you’ll have product in hand before being charged. In order to use the service, you must have your PayPal account linked to your bank account and choose your bank account as your payment method (i.e., if you choose to pay with your PayPal balance, the option won’t appear).

When you use PayPal’s Pay After Delivery option, your item will be shipped immediately, but your account will not be charged for 10 days, or 14 days for international purchases. If the item you ordered is not as expected, notify PayPal immediately by reporting the problem in the PayPal Resolution Center. Your payment will be put on hold until the problem is fixed. Note: According to the PayPal user agreement, you have up to 180 days from the date of purchase to dispute a charge through the Resolution Center.

When you select the Pay After Delivery option at checkout, PayPal will immediately provide you with the date when your money will be withdrawn from your account. As a reminder, PayPal will also send you a notification email four days before the money will be withdrawn from your account.

How to Activate Pay After Delivery on Your PayPal Account

To activate PayPal’s Pay After Delivery feature, you must first ensure that your bank account is linked to your PayPal account. To add your bank account to your PayPal account, log in to your PayPal account, go to your PayPal wallet by selecting the wallet tab on the top of the page, and click the ‘add a bank account’ button.

To confirm your account, you have the option of logging in to your online bank account directly through PayPal or providing PayPal with your bank routing and account number and confirming the amount of two micro-deposits that PayPal will make into your account. If you choose to enter the amount of two micro-deposits, you’ll have to wait one to two business days for the deposits to be made and withdrawn from your account.

Once your bank account is linked and confirmed, you must then activate the Pay After Delivery feature. To activate, go to the payments tab on the settings page of your PayPal account and select the ‘Activate Pay After Delivery’ button. You can also go to PayPal’s Pay After Delivery activation site to active the Pay After Delivery feature.

Which Purchases Are Eligible for Pay After Delivery?

There are a few limits on which items you can purchase with PayPal Pay After Delivery. Usually, if you can pay with Pay After Delivery with a merchant, you use Pay After Delivery for anything you purchase from that merchant. Pay After Delivery is not available for items selling for $10,000 or more. There is also a minimum purchase value of $10.

The more common limits to Pay After Delivery are determined by PayPal, not the merchant, and are motivated by security. PayPal security models block the Pay After Delivery option when the purchase appears too risky. Because PayPal is making a payment on your behalf, there is an extra amount of risk associated with Pay After Delivery. PayPal doesn’t actually know if it’ll be able to collect the money from you until after the delayed payment period, 10 or 14 days, has passed.

If you’ve recently used Pay After Delivery and still have some pending transactions or if you’ve had any recent issues with your bank (such as insufficient funds returns), PayPal’s system may remove Pay After Delivery as an option until some of those pending payments or other bank transfers clear. Cleared payments will reestablish your “trust” rating within PayPal’s system, and the Pay After Delivery option will be reinstated.

There many are other security-related reasons for shutting off the Pay After Delivery option that PayPal doesn’t disclose. But, if you’re not seeing the Pay After Delivery option after activating it and choosing to pay with your bank account, it’s a safe guess that PayPal, and not the merchant, is denying you the option.

How to Select Pay After Delivery When Checking Out

To select the Pay After Delivery option for your purchase, select PayPal as your payment method at checkout, and then choose your bank account as the payment option. You’ll only know whether the purchase is eligible for Pay After Delivery at checkout. Look for the option for Pay After Delivery on the review and confirm page at the end of the checkout process. If you have the option, select it. After checkout, PayPal will send you a confirmation telling you when funds will be withdrawn from your account.

The List of PayPal Pay After Delivery Merchants

Pay After Delivery may be used on eligible purchases through merchants that accept PayPal. Notably, it’s not the merchant, but rather PayPal itself, that determines whether the Pay After Delivery option is available. In most cases, merchants don’t even know what payment method you’re using, and with rare exceptions, they can’t deny your use of a particular payment option.

PayPal is accepted by over a thousand online merchants. Here are some of the largest:

1. Advanced Auto Parts
2. Apple
3. AutoZone
4. Best Buy
5. eBay
6. Groupon
7. The Home Depot
8. HSN
9. Macy’s
10. Nordstrom
11. Petco
12. PetSmart
13. Target
14. Victoria’s Secret
15. Walgreens
16. Walmart (click link to see our article dedicated to Walmart’s stance on PayPal)
17. Wayfair
18. Zappos

For the complete list of online merchants that accept PayPal, consult PayPal’s store directory.

There are, however, several large online retailers that don’t accept PayPal, to name a few:

1. Amazon
2. Costco
3. Kohl’s
4. Lowe’s
5. Sears
6. Staples
7. Williams Sonoma

In Summary

Those were the PayPal Pay After Delivery stores. When the option is available, Pay After Delivery provides you with a free, 10-day line of credit, thereby allowing you to receive the item(s) before paying for them. To qualify for PayPal’s Pay After Delivery service, you must have a PayPal Account, link and confirm a bank account, and activate the Pay After Delivery option on your PayPal account. If Pay After Delivery is available, you’ll be able to select it at checkout.