Back in May of 2012, PayPal and Coinstar partnered for a small test of some new types of kiosks. The initial test took place in the Dallas metropolitan area. Today, PayPal is announcing that the PayPal-powered Coinstar kiosks are coming to a few more areas.
PayPal and Coinstar are expanding the program to Northern California, Ohio, and other parts of Texas.
The new Coinstar kiosks allow users to add coins and paper money directly to their PayPal accounts, as well as withdraw funds from their accounts. The kiosks also allow for fund transfers between separate PayPal accounts.
PayPal says that this is just the beginning of a rollout process, one that will continue throughout the year.
The expansion of the program can be attributed to the kiosks’ success in Dallas. PayPal says that 40% of users who used the PayPal feature on the kiosks went back to use it again twice a month, on average.
“This is just another example of how we’re bringing the convenience and security of PayPal to consumers not just online but everywhere in today’s multi-channel shopping environment,” says PayPal head of financial innovations Dan Schatt.
For PayPal, it’s all about moving the payment option outside of the realm of the internet and making it a ubiquitous presence in more real-life scenarios. A couple of weeks before Christmas, PayPal unveiled new prepaid cards. PayPal also recently partnered with Discover to make PayPal a payment option in millions of stores in the U.S.