At the end of August, PayPal dropped the following message in the inbox of PayPal Student Account customers:
Effective September 29, 2016, the PayPal Student Debit MasterCard, and all related services, will be closed. This means that following this date, you or your student will be unable to use your PayPal Student Debit MasterCard. Additionally, as of this date, PayPal Student Accounts will no longer be able to be used to make purchases online or in stores. You or your student will still be able to transfer funds to your designated bank account, or to send money to either the associated parent’s PayPal account, or to another recipient, following this date. Effective November 15, 2016, all student Accounts will be closed, and any remaining funds in them will be transferred to the associated parent’s PayPal account.
That means parents with kids under 18 are out of luck completely. And those with kids 18 and over will no longer enjoy a centralized place to manage accounts, transfer funds, and view transactions across the family.
One disappointed mom summed up the PayPal Student Account value proposition nicely in a Reddit post when she lamented: