The ‘inactivity fee’ will be levied when a user hasn’t sent, received or withdrawn money, or logged into their account for 12 months.

The fee will be the lesser of £9 or your account balance. But if you don’t have any money in your account, you won’t be charged at all.

When the inactivity fee was announced in October it was £12, but page 93 of PayPal’s user agreement now states the fee will be £9.

PayPal confirmed that the inactivity fee will now be £9 but didn’t explain why it was reduced from the initial £12.

How to avoid PayPal’s inactivity fee

PayPal users can avoid the fee by logging into their account before 15 December, or making a transaction.

You’ll then need to login to your account at least once every 12 months to avoid the fee in future years.

Withdrawing any cash in your account will also stop the fee being taken in the future.

At the time of the announcement in October, PayPal said it will warn inactive customers that they could be charged a fee by sending a notification 60 days, 30 days and then seven days before the fee is set to be charged.

If you don’t remember your login details, you can call PayPal UK on 020 3901 7000.

Inactive users who want to close their account can do so by logging in, going to ‘Settings’ and selecting ‘Close your account’ at the bottom of the ‘Account’ tab.