Linking Bill Me Later to PayPal account

[Squeekster]

In one of the linking Bill Me Later threads, it says

"If you do not have another existing credit account with PayPal you can link your Bill Me Later account by going to www.billmelater.com/linkpaypal."

Since I have a PayPal Smart Connect account, it tells me that to link my Bill Me Later account to a PayPal account, I need to open another PayPal account.  Is that correct. and why would I need to open a second PayPal account?  I used the same email address for both and it didn't put up any flags.  What gives?

[PayPal_Frank]

Hi Squeekster,

Great question. 🙂  The PayPal Smart Connect and Bill Me Later are both a type of credit account offered by PayPal.  This means that only one type of credit account can be linked to a PayPal account.  Think of it like having two separate credit lines with the same credit card company.  Typically you only have one credit line with a credit card company or merchant.  If you already have an existing Bill Me Later account, the PayPal Smart Connect account would need to be closed for us to link the Bill Me Later account to PayPal.

While opening another account may work, it's possible that the Bill Me Later application will still detect that you already have an open PayPal Smart Connect account.  Having two PayPal accounts can be inconvenient but I know some sellers prefer to have two accounts to keep business and personal payments separate for accounting and tax reporting.  The downside is that each account cannot share the same email, credit/debit cards or bank accounts which can make it harder to make a payment to your Bill Me Later or Smart Connect account online if your bank is linked to the other account.

I hope this helps to clarify the issue. 🙂

- Frank