PayPal and Uber Broaden Partnership With Instant Driver Payouts, Perks for Riders

Uber and PayPal have extended their partnership to enhance the payment experience for Uber’s customers and drivers.

As part of the agreement, Uber will continue to leverage PayPal’s services, including PayPal Braintree, for global card processing, the companies said in a Tuesday (Sept. 12) press release. This will allow Uber to expand its use of domestic debit network routing in multiple markets, providing a seamless payment experience for its users.

“Payments are central to Uber’s magical experience,” Karl Hebert, vice president of payments, risk and identity at Uber, said. “When a spender opens their app, they expect it to work seamlessly from anywhere worldwide, and drivers and couriers increasingly want to be paid instantly.”

The extended partnership between Uber and PayPal, which have worked together since 2012, also includes several other initiatives to further improve the payment process, according to the press release.

Uber will extend its use of payouts with the PayPal Hyperwallet solution, enabling drivers and couriers to access their funds instantly through PayPal and Venmo, the release said. Additionally, Uber will launch combined incentives, such as UberOne, in a broad Consumer Rewards program, offering savings to customers who pay with the PayPal wallet or Venmo at checkout.

To enhance security and efficiency, Uber will leverage PayPal’s Chargehound solution to automate chargeback resolution and produce immediate cost savings, per the release. The partnership will also focus on advanced authorization optimizations, utilizing Network Tokens, Smart Retries and Account Updater services to optimize authorization rates and provide a seamless consumer experience.

“With PayPal as a checkout option, the extension of processing services and the addition of our payout and dispute resolution tools, Uber is pulling on all the levers they need to deliver a superior experience for their drivers and riders and to propel them into the future of mobility,” said Kurt Campisano, PayPal’s senior vice president of global and strategic accounts.

Uber reported during an Aug. 1 earnings call that its cross-platform activity continued to gain ground as members engaged more often with the company’s continuum of services. Total gross booking, company-wide, was up 16% to $33.6 billion, while the number of monthly active platform consumers reached 137 million.