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Index

PayPals Payment Overview
PayPal Payment Flow

Getting Started
Managing Account

Creating Buy Now Buttons
Creating Shopping Cart Buttons

Managing PayPals Merchant Account

Account Profile
Payment Receiving Preferences
PayPal Account Optional
Turning PayPal Account Optional On or Off
Your Customers Experience

Managing Your PayPal Merchant Account

Account Profile

The PayPal account Profile consolidates all of the different settings and preferences for your account. You can use your Profile to manage all of the information in your PayPal account. To go to your Profile, log in to your PayPal account and click the Profile subtab of the My Account tab, as shown in the following diagram.

Account Information
Use the Account Information column to perform basic account maintenance, including updating your password, adding and confirming email addresses, and managing your business information.

Financial Information
Use the Financial Information column to organize and maintain all of the financial instruments associated with your PayPal account, including adding credit cards and bank accounts, activating and managing your PayPal Debit Card, maintaining your Multiple Currency Balances, and viewing your Monthly Account Statements.

Selling Preferences
Use the Selling Preferences column to organize the way you sell with your PayPal account, including editing your Payment Receiving Preferences, tax, and shipping.

Payment Receiving Preferences

Once you have set up your PayPal account, you’re ready to start receiving payments. Your Payment Receiving Preferences let you manage the types of payments you receive, including:

Block payments from U.S. users that do not have a confirmed address.
Block payments sent to you in a currency you do not hold.
Block payments from users with non-U.S. PayPal accounts.
Block payments from users who initiate payments from the Pay Anyone subtab.
Block payments funded by credit cards when the sender has a bank account.
Block payments funded by eCheck for PayPal Website Payments and Smart

To edit your Payment Receiving Preferences:

Log in to your PayPal account.
Click the Profile subtab of the My Account tab.
Click the Payment Receiving Preferences link in the Selling Preferences column. The Payment Receiving Preferences page opens, as shown in the following diagram.

Blocking Payments From U.S. Users Without a Confirmed Address
This preference allows you to better manage your risk by screening out payments where the buyer chooses not to share his Confirmed Address with you. PayPal provides Confirmed Addresses to help you make informed decisions when shipping goods. To be eligible for PayPal's Seller Protection Policy, and to help reduce your risk of dealing with fraudulent buyers, ship to a buyer’s Confirmed Address.

There are three choices for this preference:

Yes: All payments from U.S. buyers without a Confirmed Address will be blocked. All U.S. buyers will be required to provide a Confirmed Address in order to pay you.
No: All payments will be accepted. To maximize your sales, select No.
Ask Me: You may choose whether to accept or deny payment without a Confirmed Address on a case-by-case basis. This option allows you the flexibility to decide whether you want to take on the risk of not having the buyer’s Confirmed Address for each transaction. If you accept the payment, it becomes a completed transaction. If you deny a particular payment, the sender of the payment will be notified that the payment has been denied and will be credited with the payment amount. PayPal does not charge fees for denied payments.

Important: The potential drawback of always denying payments from U.S. users without Confirmed Addresses is that you may be preventing some customers from sending you money. Some PayPal users do not have credit cards registered with PayPal, sometimes because they do not have credit cards. By requiring a Confirmed Address, you will be denying these users the ability to send you money and you may lose some sales. You can avoid losing these sales by choosing Ask Me, which allows you to accept payments without Confirmed Addresses on a case-by-case basis.

Blocking Payments in a Currency You Do Not Hold
You can use your PayPal account to accept payments in U.S. Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Euros, Pounds Sterling, and Yen.

When you receive a payment in a currency you do not hold, PayPal will prompt you to open a balance for that currency, convert it to your primary balance, or deny the payment. Payments in currencies for which you hold a balance will automatically be applied to the correct balance, and you will see a summary of each currency balance in your Account Overview page.

Note: A foreign exchange calculator is available on the PayPal website. There are three choices for this preference:

Yes: Accepts the payment regardless of the currency in which the payment is made.
No, accept them and convert them to U.S. Dollars: Accepts the payment but automatically converts to U.S. Dollars.
Ask Me: You may choose to accept or deny a payment that is received in a currency you do not currently hold on a transaction-by-transaction basis. If you accept the payment, it becomes a completed transaction. If you deny a particular payment, the sender of the payment will be notified that the payment has been denied and will be credited with the payment amount. PayPal does not charge fees for denied payments.

Blocking Payments From Users With Non-U.S. PayPal Accounts Since many international addresses cannot be confirmed, you may choose to block payments from users with non-U.S. PayPal accounts in order to qualify for the Seller Protection Policy (SPP).

Blocking Payments Initiated From the Pay Anyone Subtab
This preference allows you to choose whether or not to receive payments initiated via the Pay Anyone subtab of the Send Money tab on the PayPal website. If you choose to block these payments, you will accept only payments initiated via PayPal’s Buy Now Buttons, Donations, PayPal Shopping Cart, Subscriptions and Recurring Payments, Winning Buyer Notification, Mass Payments, Money Requests, Post-Sale Manager Invoices, Smart Logos, or eBay Checkout Payments. Selecting this option may help you manage your account, because all of the PayPal payments you receive will be attached to a specific item or transaction that you previously defined. If you choose not to block these payments, you will accept all payments, including those initiated via the Pay Anyone subtab of the Send Money tab.

Note: You have the option when you choose this selection to enter an Alternate Payment URL. If you choose to block these payments, PayPal users who attempt to send you payment from the Pay Anyone subtab of the Send Money tab on the PayPal website will receive an error message, and they will unable to complete a payment to you from the PayPal website; however, if you provide an Alternate Payment URL, your customers will instead see a message directing them to make payment from your website.

Blocking Payments Funded By Credit Cards When Sender Has a Bank Account
This preference allows you to force customers to pay you with a bank account or PayPal funds if they are able to do so. However, if they cannot pay you using a bank account or PayPal funds, they will still have the option to pay with a credit card. This preference can also help to reduce your risk of chargebacks. Verified users are users who have confirmed their bank accounts with PayPal, or have been otherwise verified by PayPal. Because most Verified members have the option of paying with their bank accounts (via eCheck or Instant Transfer), choosing this preference will not prevent any users from being able to send you money. When they pay you with PayPal’s Instant Transfer, you receive the payment instantly, just as when they pay with a credit card. Users who have not confirmed their bank accounts with PayPal can still send you money funded from credit cards.

Blocking Payments Funded By eChecks
This preference allows you to block eCheck payments. Because eCheck payments take 3-4 business days to clear, you may not want to accept them for your Instant Purchase and Buy Now buttons.

If you choose to block these payments, you will not receive eCheck payments through PayPal Website Payments and Auction Logos. Users who attempt to pay via eCheck will be prompted to add a credit card to their account before completing the transaction. If you choose not to block these payments, you will receive eCheck payments through PayPal Website Payments or Auction Logos. eCheck payments will be listed as ‘Pending’ and will not be credited to your PayPal Account for 3-4 business days.

Note: PayPal always recommends waiting until payments have cleared before shipping goods. To be automatically notified when eChecks have cleared, enable Instant Payment Notification (IPN). For more information about IPN, please refer to the Instant Payment Notification section of this manual.

Adding the Credit Card Statement Name
This preference allows you to specify the name that will appear on your customers’ credit card statements. When a buyer pays you by credit card, your Credit Card Statement Name will appear with the word PAYPAL* next to the charge on the statement (e.g. PAYPAL*MYCCNAME). The Credit Card Statement Name can be up to 11 English and/or German characters in length, including spaces, and cannot contain special characters (e.g. &, #, _, etc). This name will be converted to ALL CAPS, and may be truncated by some credit card processors.

The Credit Card Statement Name should accurately reflect your business or legal name.

Note: By making sure that your Credit Card Statement Name is meaningful to your buyers, you can lower the risk of your buyers filing chargebacks against you.

PayPal Account Optional

With PayPal Account Optional turned on, your customers who are new to PayPal will be able to make credit card payments without signing up for a PayPal account. This setting is available from your Profile for Premier and Business accounts.

Note: PayPal Account Optional is currently available only to U.S. merchants for transactions generated by PayPal Website Payments Buttons. In future releases, this functionality may be added for additional countries.

PayPal Account Optional is turned on by default for all U.S. Premier and Business accounts. Your customers who already have PayPal accounts will go through the same Website Payments experience to which they’re accustomed, which is shown in the “How It Works” section of the Creating Buy Now and Donations Buttons section of this manual.

Your new customers (or existing customers who are new to PayPal) will go through a checkout that doesn’t require PayPal signup, but they will have that option available after completing the payment. Whether customers sign up for a PayPal account or not, you can set your Buy Now, Donations, and Shopping Cart Buttons to return them to your website, and you will still receive the same notification emails as in the current checkout flow.

Note: PayPal Account Optional does not work with Subscriptions. For more information about Subscriptions, please refer to the Subscriptions manual, which is available on the PayPal website.

Turning PayPal Account Optional On or Off

Log in to your PayPal account at www.paypal.com.
Click the Profile subtab.
Click the Website Payment Preferences link in the Selling Preferences column.
Scroll down to the “PayPal Account Optional” section of the page. Select On to turn PayPal Account optional on, or Off to turn it off and continue using the existing Website Payments flow for all of your customers.
Click Save to save your preference.

The setting you choose for PayPal Account Optional affects all of your existing and new Buy Now, Donations, and Shopping Cart buttons for customers who are new to PayPal. Your customers who already have PayPal accounts will see no change in their checkout experience—they will log in as usual at the time of payment and complete the transaction from within the PayPal account.

Note: PayPal Account Optional is compatible with Custom Payment Pages, so any new page styles you create will be applied to this new checkout flow as well.

Your Customer's Experience

If you have turned PayPal Account Optional off, the checkout experience for a customer who doesn’t currently have a PayPal account will be the same as in the past: the customer will be required to sign up for a PayPal account to complete the payment, and can then be returned to your website.

If you have PayPal Account Optional turned on, the checkout experience for a customer who doesn't currently have a PayPal account will not require the PayPal account signup to complete the transaction, thus shortening the time and effort necessary on the customer’s part.

References:
Paypal's Developer Reference Guide (pdf)

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