paypal meNow you have no excuses to split that dinner bill or pay your friend back for movie tickets.

Today, PayPal is introducing a new peer-to-peer payment service that makes it even easier and faster to pay your debts. Called PayPal.Me, it allows you to request money from friends by texting them, emailing them or IMng them a personalized URL. For instance, mine is PayPal.Me/Tricia.

Of course, this isn’t the first service of its kind. PayPal offers two other similar services, including its Venmo app, which it acquired two years ago as part of its purchase of Braintree. PayPal users can also use the PayPal service to request money or send cash to friends and family. Another popular service called Square Cash is operated by the San Francisco-based payments company, and makes sending cash easy using a URL.

But apparently, the world needs more technology solutions. The San Jose, Calif.-based payments company estimates that globally adults owe friends and family more than $51 billion.

The company, which recently completed its spin off from eBay, explains PayPal.Me won’t directly compete with Venmo, which only works with U.S. banks, credit and debit cards. Rather, PayPal.Me is targeting a much broader geography and immediately is available in 18 countries.

For existing PayPal users, it’s easy to set up. All you have to do is visit PayPal.Me to sign up for a vanity URL, and then after that, the link can be easily memorized and sent to friends and family. Recipients, who are PayPal users, visit the URL, login to their account and then enter an amount and send. To request a specific amount, you just add a number to the end of your link, like PayPal.Me/Tricia/25 to ask for $25.

It’s free within the U.S. to send money to family and friends when you use your PayPal balance or bank account. There’s fees for sending money using a debit or credit card. For now, there is no standalone app, but the service works easily on your mobile phone browser or PC.

 

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