Introduction: Hacks #17-27
From accepting
occasional donations to receiving payments from thousands of
customers, PayPal provides the tools and support you need to build
your business. Rather than having to complete a complicated and
costly application for a merchant account so that you can accept
payments, all you have to do is fill out a form at http://www.paypal.com, and PayPal will handle
all the dirty work. To get started, all you have to do is to set up
your PayPal account for accepting payments.
PayPal offers three types of
accounts. All of them can be used for
making and accepting payments, but each has its own unique features:
- Personal
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Personal accounts [Hack #1]
are the
most common, because they are what most new PayPal members choose by
default. Most buyers who use PayPal to make payments have a Personal
account.
There is no fee for sending or receiving payments with a Personal
account, but there are limitations. Personal accounts cannot receive
payments funded by credit cards; since many PayPal buyers
like to fund their payments with a credit card, a Personal account
severely limits a seller's customer base. Also,
Personal accounts are limited to receiving $1,000 in payments per
month.
- Premier
-
Premier accounts can accept payments funded
with credit cards. There is no fee for sending payments with a
Premier account, but there is a fee for accepting payments, no matter
how they are funded. Premier accounts also include a host of features
to help make your business successful and efficient, such as the
Seller Protection Policy, the PayPal Shopping Cart, Subscriptions,
Recurring Payments, and a listing in PayPal Shops.
- Business
-
Business accounts are nearly identical to
Premier accounts, but they offer a few added features of interest to
businesses. For instance, your PayPal account is identified to your
customers as your business name instead of your personal name (as it
is with both Personal and Premier accounts). The fee structure for
Business accounts is the same as for Premier accounts.
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Choosing a Business account over a Premier account can be a good way
to protect your privacy and reinforce your business presence. If
you're an eBay seller, for instance, you can set
your PayPal business name to be the same as your eBay user ID.
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If you're serious about making it easy for your
customers to pay you, you will want to hold a Premier or Business
account.
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PayPal's policies allow each person to hold no more
than two accounts. If you do hold two accounts, one must be Personal
and one must be Business or Premier. See [Hack #23]
for reasons you might want to hold a separate Personal account.
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