I DON'T GET PAY PAL

To pay with a bank account, you have to put in your bank account number (I think, I can't quite remember) and then Paypal pay 2 small amounts into your account. Then you put the amount payed in in those payments into a page that comes up on your Paypal account, and then that verifies that your Paypal account is linked to the correct bank account.
It takes forever to pay for things by bank account though. You can either pay by e-cheque or put money from your bank account into your paypal account. Both of those take about 10 days to complete which is a right pain in the bum.

If paypal is involved I never use it. I don't like it either.

I don't particularly like it, but I'm in a buying/selling community on Livejournal and it's a lot easier to use Paypal on there, and that's the only thing I've ever used it for.

Izzy is right about the account number. Paypal makes two small deposits of a few cents, which you have to get that amount from the bank, once you enter that info at the paypal site to verify it (the account), you're good to go.
I love paypal, I use it to make and receive payments from my online shops. I also have a debit card from paypal (with a mastercard logo, which BTW you can choose that, visa etc. of your choice) that I use to make purchases in stores or whatever, because it is linked to my bank account.
You can also set it up to accept payments in different currencies from yours and then transfer it.