I have a small online shop and for me paypal is a life saver but as well one of the banes of my life. It is basically an easy method of paying and receiving money on the internet, for example ebay or an online shop. You can use it to pay in any currency because it will work out the exchange rate itself.

Payment:
Payment's extremely easy, you can set up an account easily and by using your email address can pay money to someone else without having to share your bank account details. You don't even need to enter your bank account details when you set it up you can link it to a credit card instead if you prefer. The money is transferred either out of your paypal balance (if you have one) or from your nominated method of payment. It doesn't cost you any money unless you choose to gift it in order to avoid someone else paying the fees.

Receiving money:
This bit costs! At the moment it's about 20p plus a percentage fee, which can add up to quite a bit of money. If you are selling cheaper items then you have to incorporate this into your costings.

Beware! Paypal scams are rife. Always use a registered method of postage unless you're willing to risk non-delivery claims. Paypal lets you put in the tracking codes and sends them by email to your buyer so they know. In the event of a non-delivery claim, proof of postage means nothing it's proof of delivery you need.

To buy things online check you can't get cashback by using your paypal account, it could be a nice little earner in the future. The homepage has all the details.

For ease of set up you can't beat it as long as you protect yourself adequately. The cost of using it to accept money is a bit steep but you couldn't do it yourself without costly set up charges.