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Posts Tagged ‘paypal’

PayPal is a payment processor website.  This means that they will allow you to accept credit card payments online without having to have a merchant account.  All you need to do is to sign up at paypal.com and open up an account. I recommend that you upgrade your account to a business account as personal accounts have limits on the amount of money you can take in and generally will cause you more hassle as your online business grows.

Once you have your account set up you create a buy now button which allows you to put a button on your website that people can click on to purchase your product.  The purchaser is then re-directed to PayPal where they can either use their account if they have one or they can sign up, or if they prefer they can just enter in their credit card details and make the purchase.

Every time you receive money you are charged a percentage of the transaction and a fee of about 40 cent.  This can add up. If you sell something for $/€97 you may incur fees of $/€3, therefore you should budget this into the price of your product, rather than sell for $/€97 sell for 100 to cover the fees.

PayPal allows you to do a direct deposit to your bank account which is very handy or you can leave the funds in your account to buy products online.  As your business grows PayPal will request more information about your business. For example they have thresholds where they will freeze your account and ask for more information about your business. Be aware of this, however it is standard practice as they are trying to avoid credit card fraud and money laundering.

PayPal is essential if you wish to do business online and can not afford or do not qualify for a merchant account.