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PayPal Cashback Mastercard: terms, score and downsides Not credit advice. Facts and math from issuer pages and the CFPB, each with its date. Offers change; approval depends on your credit. Verify on the issuer's site.
Rubric score 43.7% across 78 cards. Issuer page ↗
Downsides first 3% foreign transaction fee APR up to 33.24% if you carry a balance Late fee up to $40 3% only when checking out with PayPal. Terms & fees Issuer Synchrony Type cash back Annual fee $0 paypal.com, 2026-10-12 Regular purchase APR 18.49%–33.24% variable files.consumerfinance.gov, 2025-12-31 Rewards 1.5% base; 3% online paypal.com, 2026-10-12 Sign-up bonus (≈$) $0 No bonus shown paypal.com, 2026-10-12 Intro APR none No intro APR shown paypal.com, 2026-10-12 Foreign transaction fee 3% files.consumerfinance.gov, 2025-12-31 Penalty APR not found consumerfinance.gov, 2026-10-12 Late fee up to $40 up to (first and repeat late fee) files.consumerfinance.gov, 2025-12-31 Balance transfer fee not found files.consumerfinance.gov, 2025-12-31 Cash advance fee 5% files.consumerfinance.gov, 2025-12-31 Credit needed 620–719, 720+ (CFPB TCCP targeted tiers) files.consumerfinance.gov, 2025-12-31 Grace period 23 days files.consumerfinance.gov, 2025-12-31 Cash advance APR 33.24% files.consumerfinance.gov, 2025-12-31 Complaint record (CFPB) Complaints, last 12 months 16,291 Trend ▲ 31.3% (last 12 mo 16,291 vs prior 12 mo 12,406)Timely response (last 36 mo) 98.3% Per $1B deposits (12 mo) 189.5 Top issue Incorrect information on your report Insurance status FDIC-insured: Synchrony Bank (cert 27314, active; deposits $86.0B as of 06/30/2026) Company-level (SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL), all products, as of 2026-10-12. Synchrony complaints: full record → Shown for context; does not change the score.
Score breakdown Annual fee 10.0 /10 Annual fee $0 (as of 2026-10-12). Rubric: $0=10, ≤$95=8, ≤$395=5, ≤$695=3, more=1 (perks/credits are not counted). Rewards rate 6.8 /10 Base 1.5% on everything, top category 3% (as of 2026-10-12; points/miles valued at 1¢). Score = base/2%×7 + min(top,6)/6%×3. 1.5% base; 3% online Sign-up bonus 0.0 /10 Bonus ≈ $0: No bonus shown (as of 2026-10-12). Score = value/$75, max 10. Intro 0% APR 0.0 /10 No intro APR shown (as of 2026-10-12). Score = months/21×10. Regular APR 5.8 /10 18.49%–33.24% variable; CFPB TCCP range (as of 2025-12-31); midpoint 25.87%. Score = (34 − midpoint)/1.4, 0–10. Foreign transaction fee 3.0 /10 3% foreign transaction fee (as of 2025-12-31). Regulatory record (CFPB) n/a /10 not found — unknown, scored 5.0/10 (lower of neutral 5 and comparison median) 0.143×10.0 + 0.143×6.8 + 0.143×0.0 + 0.143×0.0 + 0.143×5.8 + 0.143×3.0 + 0.143×5.0* = 4.37 → 43.7% (* unknown, imputed)
Is PayPal Cashback Mastercard worth it? (break-even math) → Value for my spending →
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FAQ What is the PayPal Cashback Mastercard annual fee? $0
What is the PayPal Cashback Mastercard APR? 18.49%–33.24% variable
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