Martin Lewis has issued an urgent warning to anyone with a PayPal account.

The money saving expert has urged customers to be aware of a new fee.

What is the new fee?

Customers could see money taken from their accounts if they don't log in.

All anyone with a PayPal account has to do is log into their account or make a transaction before December 15.

From December 16, PayPal users will be charged the fee if their accounts have been inactive for at least 12 consecutive months.

PayPal defines "inactive" as an account where the user hasn't sent, received or withdrawn money, or logged into their account.

What did Martin say?

The financial guru updated his followers on his popular Twitter account.

He wrote: "Paypal users warning. It is going to introduce a £12 inactivity fee."

However, Martin said if the user doesn't have any money in their PayPal account, or the balance is negative, you won't be charged a fee, even if you have a credit or debit card linked to the account.

How can I avoid the fee?

If you have a PayPal account but don't regularly use it, you can avoid the fee by simply logging into your account on or before 15 December 2020.

This means you will have been "active" in the previous 12 months, so won't be charged.

At this point, if you don't use your PayPal account and don't want to risk being charged in future, you can simply close the account (once you're logged in, go to 'Settings' and select 'Close your account' at the bottom of the 'Account' tab - though note you'll need to do this online as you can't close accounts through the app).

You can also keep the account open but transfer any money you have there into another account, as you won't be charged in future if your PayPal account doesn't have a balance. PayPal says it has no plans to close inactive accounts which don't have balances. 

If you're an irregular PayPal user but still want to keep your account open and hold a PayPal balance, it could be worth adding a note to your diary on a certain date every year reminding you to log in to your account. This will ensure you're not charged the fee in future.

PayPal also says it will warn inactive customers that they could need to pay a fee, by sending them notifications 60 days, 30 days and then seven days before the fee is set to be charged.