Do I Need to Link a Bank Account to Receive Money From PayPal?

How to Receive Money
If you have a PayPal account, people can send you money from their own PayPal accounts, which you receive instantaneously. You do not need a bank account connected to your PayPal account to receive this money. Once the person sends you the money, it is in your PayPal account and ready for you to use immediately. You can use it to buy things online, send it to someone else or simply save it in your account for later use. You can also convert it into cash by transferring the money into a bank account and withdrawing it, or request a check from PayPal, which takes about a week to receive and costs you a fee of $1.50 (as of January 2011).
PayPal and Bank Accounts
It is not mandatory to connect your PayPal account to a bank account, but it does give you more options for using your PayPal account. Once you connect your bank account to your PayPal account, you can withdraw funds online from your PayPal account and transfer them into your bank account. The transfer typically takes a few business days, depending on your bank. You must have the funds available in your PayPal account to transfer. Once the transfer is complete, you can withdraw the money from your bank account as you normally would with any funds kept there. You can also use debit cards connected to the bank account to spend the money from PayPal once it transfers over to your bank account.
PayPal Debit Card
PayPal also offers a debit card to users who qualify. This is a faster way to be able to spend your PayPal money without waiting for cash to transfer to your bank account. The PayPal debit card lets you spend your PayPal balance to make purchases in stores or online at sites that do not accept payments from PayPal accounts. You can connect this debit card to a bank account as an overdraft protection option; if you make a purchase for $250 but only have $220 in your PayPal account, the card will take the remaining $30 from the bank account you connected to the card. You do not have to connect the debit card to a bank account, but it is recommended in case you need to use the card but do not have enough funds in your PayPal account.
No Money in PayPal Account
Even if you have no funds available in your PayPal account, you can still use it to shop online, as long as it is connected to a bank account. PayPal will automatically withdraw funds from the bank account you have connected to your PayPal account to cover purchases made using PayPal when you did not have funds available in your PayPal account. In other words, you can use PayPal as a payment option, even if you have no money in your PayPal account, as long as it is connected to a bank account.