Hack 1 Create a PayPal Account 
Sign up for your own PayPal account, which is
necessary if you'll be receiving payments or using
just about any other hack in this book.
Although you
can send money without creating a PayPal account [Hack #15],
there are advantages to having an account, including PayPal
Buyer Protection, receiving payments, and
viewing account history. And since there is no cost to create or
maintain an account, the benefits easily outweigh the costs.
Here's what you'll need to get
started:
You'll also be asked to provide two of the following
four pieces of personal information, which will be used to verify
your identity if you ever forget your account password:
Your mother's maiden name The last four digits of your driver's license The last four digits of your Social Security number Your city of birth
To sign up for a Personal PayPal account (see the introduction to
Chapter 3 for information on Business
accounts), follow these steps:
Go to http://www.paypal.com and
click Sign Up. Select the Personal Account option, select your country, and then
click Continue. On the Account Signup page, enter your postal mailing address. PayPal
will double-check the city, state, and Zip Code, so they must be
valid. The address you provide should be the same as the billing
address of the credit card you plan on adding to your account,
although you will be given the opportunity to change it later. Enter your telephone number, email address, and password. The email
address must correspond to a valid email account to which you have
immediate access, because you won't be able to use
your PayPal account until you respond to the verification email that
PayPal sends you.  |
For security reasons, do not use the same password for your PayPal
account and your email account. Otherwise, anyone who has access to
your email account will also have access to your PayPal account and
the money within.
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You should also enter a real phone number, since
it's one of the ways PayPal allows you to regain
access to your account if you forget your password [Hack #4]. Enter your Security Question answers. If you're
concerned about divulging real information here, then
don't enter it! You can put any secret words or
phrases into these fields, provided that you'll be
able to remember them later on. When asked if you'd like this to be a Premier
Account, select No.  |
If anyone sends you a payment funded with a
credit card, PayPal will require
that you upgrade to a Premier (or Business) account at that time to
accept the payment. Although there are advantages to these account
types, you'll be charged a small fee for each
subsequent payment you receive, regardless of the funding source. See
the introduction to Chapter 3 for further
details.
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Select Yes to indicate that you agree with the User Agreement and
Privacy Policy, and check Yes again to indicate that
you've read the Legal Disputes section. Enter the
Security Measure characters as shown in the box [Hack #15] . Click Signup when you're done. The next page instructs you how to confirm your email address, which
involves nothing more than opening the email message PayPal has just
sent you and clicking the link inside.
After you confirm your email address, you will be able to use your
account. However, you will have limited abilities until you verify your
PayPal account [Hack #2].
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