After endless Googling and crawling through PayPal’s website, you have probably concluded that PayPal Money Pools no longer exists. And you would be right!

You can no longer create a Money Pool with PayPal.                                                              

PayPal Money Pools was a well-loved, well-used service that unfortunately no longer exists. So we’re here to quickly explain who they were, what they did, why they no longer exist, and their alternatives!

What was PayPal Money Pools?

Created in 2017, “PayPal Money Pools” was a service designed to take the stress out of group money collections, whether for a gift, holiday or otherwise.

PayPal customers could create a collection to receive funds from friends, family or colleagues to spend on “collective purchases or communal costs”.

It was the first of its kind; it was ingenious and just what the public needed. The dissolution of PayPal Money Pools encouraged banks to expand their services and inspired the creation of various online group collection services.

How did PayPal Money Pools Work?

PayPal Money Pools was easy to set up, create, use and spend. All that was required of you was to have/create a PayPal account, no particular bank account or vigorous security screening.

With PayPal Money Pools, you would take the following steps:

1. Create a Money Pool
2. Personalise your Money Pool
3. Share your Money Pool
4. Spend your Money Pool

Sounds straightforward to set up and use, right? It was no wonder PayPal Money Pools was so popular. It was particularly popular as it was a service provided by a trusted household name, which was key to their success as there can always be a risk associated with money.

So what happened?

Why was PayPal Money Pools discontinued?

After four years of success, PayPal Money Pools ceased to exist at the end of September 2021. But why?

Well, some of the PayPal Money Pools alternatives that have since been created have reported various reasons as to why the service was discontinued. Such suggested reasons included losing focus of the service and providing poor customer service - their Trustpilot score backs this one up.

However, the payment giant did provide their customers with an official statement that explained why PayPal Money Pools service was discontinued. Their statement claimed that the closure of this service would allow them to “sharpen our focus on more specialised money-raising services”.

Essentially meaning that as a service, PayPal Money Pools was not getting the attention it needed and deserved, leading to its end. Nonetheless, this does leave a sour taste in the mouths of PayPal customers as it re-establishes that their focus lies elsewhere (elsewhere being their chargeable services). Not a great note to leave your customers with, especially if they trust you with their money.

What are the best PayPal Money Pools Alternatives?

So, where did the end of PayPal Money Pools leave its customers?

Well, for those who had experienced the service, it left a gap in their financial lives for a money-pooling service. And for those who hadn’t experienced the service but needed to collect money for a gift from a group, there was still a financial gap in their lives.

Of course, some organisations saw this gap and took advantage of it, creating online money-pooling services that specialise in gift-giving. At the same time, some more financially led bodies saw a different gap and improved their payment links, bank transfers and data-sharing services.

Resulting in some substitutes being created. And we, of course, believe that Givetastic is the best alternative to PayPal Money Pools. We will detail our reasons below, but so that you can consider all options, you can explore the following money pool alternatives:

Some of the most common online collection service alternatives include:

• Givetastic
• Collection Pot
• Thankbox

And some of the most common financially led service alternatives include:

• Braid
• Starling

Why create a collection with Givetastic?

As we mentioned, we believe that Givetastic is the best alternative to PayPal Money Pools, and now we will tell you why.

With Givetastic, you can create a group card collection where you can receive messages and signatures to help celebrate an occasion or send well wishes. Or you can create a group collection (with a card) to receive monetary contributions towards a group gift.

A few of the other features that make us a great alternative to PayPal Money Pools include:

• Invites can be sent via text, email or social media platform
• Messages, signatures and contributions can be anonymous
• Contributions and collection total can be easily monitored
• Your collection end date can be brought forward or extended
• Reminders can be sent easily
• Images, gifs and emojis can be included in messages
• Funds can be transferred into one of our 80 gift cards

You can explore our pricing page to discover more about our features and service.

And there you have it! With the rise and fall of PayPal Money Pools came the rise of online collection services. A gap was recognised; plenty of brands have built their business upon this and even expanded their services beyond collections offering cards and gifts!

The choice now lies with you, who do you want to be your PayPal Money Pools alternative?